A/N: Hello again! Sorry this took a lil while to update, I was busy with
finals, but now that they are over, u can expect updates a lot more
frequently, and because of that I'm shortening the chapters a bit. To a
Very Interested Reader: you gave two VERY good guesses, but no, that's not
what's going to happen. I'm happy I'm not getting too predictable. To all
you Sirius fans, this chapter is for you. Also, special thanks to my beta
readers (those who read this story before anybody else besides me), my
little sisters, lucy and amy. Scnoogles (hugs and kisses) to all my
wonderful reviewers!
Chapter Fifteen: The Race Continues
Eve whipped her head back, but the shadow had vanished. She was almost sure it had been a man, but he had disappeared. Perhaps she could make him come back.
She unrolled the elastic that had been keeping her hair in a ponytail, her black strands streaming onto her shoulders. She proceeded to remove her green and silver tie and unbutton her white cotton shirt slightly. She rolled up her sleeves and because she was wearing a skirt, dipped her legs deeper into the lake, until it came up to her milky white thighs. She washed her arms and face with the liquid , pretending not to have seen the stranger, but constantly looking out from the corners of her eyes. Her plan worked. She saw the shadow again, and she was quite surprised when it came out onto the shining moonlight.
It was a great, black dog. Presently, it was growling dangerously at her. Eve eyed it curiously, as if she was seeing a kitten, not an enormous, wild-looking dog that looked like it wanted to rip her throat out.
"Could've sworn I'd seen a man," she muttered under her breath. She stepped out of the lake and crept closer to the dog, whose growl became louder; it did not bark or attack her, though. It seemed as if it just wanted to threaten her or scare her away. She was close enough to pet it, and it still hadn't lunged at her. It was just growling. Not very normal behavior for a dog, she thought. She bent over to it, but it moved its head away.
"There, there. I'm not going to hurt you," she said, and finally got hold of its head, stroking its ears. The dog calmed down a bit. She was looking deep into its eyes, a smile creeping onto her lips. In a blink of an eye a blue-white light flashed, and a man was lying on the ground where the dog had been a second before.
"I knew it! I did see a man before!" she cried. Sirius got up and pointed his wand at her. But the girl didn't seem frightened: her expression hadn't changed.
"Get out of here. This forest isn't safe enough for children," he growled, not unlike a dog. Eve stared at him. He was tall, thin, and had dark hair, not unlike Harry. But instead of sparkling green eyes, he had dark eyes which had a slightly haunted look: life had not been kind to him. He hadn't shaved in days, and he looked as if hadn't slept in that period of time, either.
"This forest is very safe to me," Eve replied mysteriously. "And if I am such a child, why were you staring at me that way?"
Sirius ignored this last remark. "You don't know what's in this forest. There might be giant spiders, werewolves--"
"Dangerous criminals?" she finished his sentence for him. Her eyes never left his. "I know who you are. You're Sirius Black," she said.
Shit, he thought. "Then why aren't you afraid? Don't you think I won't kill you?" he said, trying to fulfill the image that had been posted of him for more than the past decade and a half.
"No," she plainly replied, walking closer and closer to him, "because if you were going to kill me, you would have done so already." His wand was still outstretched, and it was touching the tip of her chin. Sirius hardened his eyes, but she raised her hand, and gently, lowered his wand. Her eyes were piercing, and he looked away.
He still tried to get her out of the forest. He himself didn't like being there, and he was a full grown wizard who could turn into a dog. A teenage girl would be defenseless. Plus, he didn't like the cold chill creeping into his bones.
"Do you know what they say about me? I killed a street full of muggles with one shot. They say I'm one of You-Know-Who's most loyal followers," he said hoarsely.
Eve merely smiled. "Yes, I know that. But I also know that you're completely innocent. And that you're working with Dumbledore. And that you're Harry Potter's godfather. In fact, you're probably coming to Hogwarts to keep an eye out for him."
"How in the hell.Are you one of his friends?"
"Er, yes, I am," she said. Sirius eyed her doubtfully. But how else would she have known unless she was one of Harry's most trusted friends? But on the other hand-
"Harry's never mentioned you before in his letters. Isn't that funny, when you're close enough for him to tell you that?" He looked at the floor, at her robes and tie, decked in silver and green. He raised an eyebrow. "You're a Slytherin. They're usually not on good terms with Gryffindors," he said, growing even more suspicious. Eve never stopped gazing into his eyes.
"I never said I was his closest friend. I also never said that HE told me," she said quietly. Interpreting his shocked silence, she continued, " Let's just say I can read minds." Which was quite true.
"Really?" Sirius said, still gripping his wand. "Then what am I thinking right now?"
Eve smiled again, but it was a quite different smile. It was a conniving, cunning smile. She took a step toward him, and he reflexively stepped back. Unfortunately, there was a stray root right behind him, and Sirius tripped and fell backward onto the ground. So much for scaring her away, he thought.
Eve bent down on her hands and knees and crawled over to him. If the root hadn't been there, he might have fallen to the ground anyway. The way she looked at a person was enough for them to fall to the floor. "You were just thinking how my eyes look exactly like.hers," she whispered.
"Like who's?" he whispered back croakily.
"Lily's," she replied. Sirius took a deep breath. It was true. She WAS reading his thoughts - his very personal thoughts at that. He felt exposed and extremely uncomfortable. He had never even been this physically close to a girl in a long time. He tried not to stare at her shirt, which was unbuttoned ever so teasingly. To his relief, her features softened and she drew slightly away. When she did so, he saw clearly, for the first time, what was behind them.
"What's in that lake? Unicorn blood?" he asked, surprised.
"No, but good guess. Unicorn blood is much more viscous, more concentrated with magic. But this does constitute a major part of it. Every thousand years or so, it appears for about a week in certain areas. The unicorns bathe in it to rejuvenate themselves. The ancients had no name for it except the Water of Life. It has strong healing powers." Then she looked at him again. "Sirius, you look terrible. If Harry saw you like this, he'd feel even worse, not better," she said. She walked back over to the lake and grabbed a handful of the liquid. She came toward Sirius and wiped his face and neck with it. He immediately felt a pleasant sensation of relief and relaxation. Then again, thirteen years in a prison for committing a crime he never did had hardened him; he wasn't accustomed to trusting people, when one of the people he had trusted the most had betrayed him and killed his best friend and the woman he secretly loved.
"Why do you care so much?" he asked. She looked slightly offended and got up. She came back, bringing her backpack to him.
"Here. You look like you haven't eaten in a while," she said, giving him some pastries that she had obviously stolen from the kitchens.
"Why do you have food with you? Were you planning on running away or something?"
"Not really. Just stole a midnight snack." He looked at the éclair. "I haven't poisoned it, you know," she said.
"How can I be sure?" he said suspiciously. She rolled her eyes and took a big chunk of the eclai, and stuffed it into her mouth. She was wiping cream from her mouth and licking her fingers. Sirius, who truly hadn't eaten anything but stray rats for a few days, ate the rest of it. She grabbed a thermos and took a swig from it. She held it out to him.
"Pumpkin juice?" she asked. Sirius narrowed his eyes. He grabbed the thermos and sniffed it. However, his dog senses (which never truly had left him, since he spent so much time as a dog) warned him of something. He gave it back to her.
"No thanks, I'm not thirsty," he said. Her face didn't change, but her eyes betrayed a look of --was that disappointment?-- for a second. He still didn't trust her.
She came closer to him, looking deeply with her unwavering gaze. " Sirius, how long has it been since you've -kissed- anybody?" His eyes widened in shock. God, it had been ages. "Seventeen years," he croaked. "You know, I'm old enough to be your father," he said.
Eve inched in even more closely and said silkily, "Trust me, you're nothing like my father." Her lips were so soft; her hair was scented like lilies. Lily - why did her eyes have to be that cursed emerald color? It filled him with pain and longing every time he looked in Harry's eyes, and now that he was looking into hers, an even more intense feeling of desire swept over him. Was there some sort of potion in that éclair? What terrified him even more was that he didn't seem to care. She trailed her fingers across his grizzly face, and her lips touched his faintly: they tasted like pumpkin juice. For an instant he thought she WAS Lily, and for one wild second he wanted to kiss her back. But she suddenly drew away, a smile of triumph on her face. Sirius felt his vision grow foggy and a feeling of weakness spread over his body. She was a Slytherin, and she had mentioned her FATHER.
Cursing his idiocy, he fell to the floor and everything disappeared into blackness.
________________________________
Harry was running through the wilderness, when he suddenly stopped. Right in front him, towering ten feet high, were a bunch of dementors. He felt their coldness overflow his body, heard the screaming inside his head, but when he raised his wand and cried the spell to make his Patronus, nothing came out. The dementors were inching closer and closer, surrounding him. One of them grabbed him with its ghastly, scabbed hand, it was pulling its cloak off its head-Harry could smell its putrid breath-
He woke up, shaking, sweating, but freezing. Surprisingly, the chill in his dream was quite real. His room was much colder than usual, and it was a foreboding coldness. He felt that perhaps a dementor was really very close. He wondered if he should wake Ron.
_______________________________________
"What is it that was so urgent, headmaster?" asked Snape, still in his pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers(??? Lucy that one's for you, wink-wink) and dressing gown. Mrs. McGonagall, along with the rest of the teachers, were looking at Dumbledore, whose voice was full of urgency.
"I want all the teachers to go outside, onto the grounds. The school is presently going to be surrounded by dementors. They are a few miles into the Forbidden Forest already."
"Dementors, Albus? Why would they leave Azkaban?" McGonagall looked terrified.
"Only Fudge has the power to dismiss them from Azkaban," said Snape. "What about the prisoners?"
"I have heard absolutely no news, Severus. But right now, our immediate job is to keep them away from the children," he said. The teachers didn't need telling twice, and they all swiftly left Dumbledore's office.
________________________________________
Sirius woke up with a start, wondering where he was. He was in a white room, and it took him a second to realize that he was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts. He heard footsteps, and the very person who he was thinking about entered.
"Hello, Sirius. You're finally up, I see. Must've been quite a strong Sleeping Potion I gave you," Eve said, her green eyes twinkling as bright as ever.
"You! What did you think you were doing? What's going on?" he cried.
"There, there, Sirius. That's not a way to greet someone who saved your life," came an amused voice. Dumbledore entered the room after Eve.
"What?" Sirius gaped.
Eve walked over to him and thrust a Daily Prophet at him. Sirius grabbed it, reading the headline: "Dementors Leave Azkaban, Surround Hogwarts: Children and Teachers Trapped."
"Dumbledore, is this true?" he gasped in horror. The old man nodded solemnly.
"Yes. They arrived the same night you did. But some have stayed in the prison. However, their hold on it has weakened, obviously. Eve informed me that her father had told her they would come, although she did so on shorter notice than I would have liked," he glanced at her, and she reddened guiltily.
"The dementors wouldn't let anybody pass, except me, because my father had told them to do so. I carried your body with me, telling them that you were dead."
"And they believed you?"
"Yes. I gave you the Potion called the Drought of the Living Death. It slowed down your pulse so much that they couldn't tell at first glance. I passed by as quickly as possible. And then Snape gave you the strongest Reviving Potions he could find. I even gave you some more of that stuff in the lake. But this potion is so strong that it took you all night to wake up." Eve explained.
"She is with us, Sirius," Dumbledore said, seeming to read Sirius's thoughts, because he was still doubtful. Why hadn't she told Dumbledore sooner, soon enough so that he could have warned him?
"Where was the sleeping potion? In the éclair?"
" I gave it to her in the form of some pumpkin juice, in case she saw you," Dumbledore said.
"But how come nothing happened-"
But Eve cut him off, wanting to change the subject. "Er, Professor, we need to get going. They expect you in the Great Hall to tell the students what's going on."
Dumbledore nodded and they both left the room. The dementors did not let anybody enter or leave. Surely some sort of attack was being planned, and Sirius was not liking the idea that there might be no outside help for the children. Sirius got out of bed and looked out the window. A row of ten foot tall dementors seemed to be surrounding the entire school. He wondered how many people would be needed to conjure the Patronus charm to drive them all away, and whether or not they would come back. He only looked at them for an instant, hoping they wouldn't notice his presence. Just the mere sight of them again made him weaker. He crawled back into bed, trying to get back to sleep to get rid of the pounding inside his head.
_______________________________________
Harry, Hermione, and Ron left the Great Hall with many more questions than answers after Dumbledore's speech. He had said irritatingly little, only that the dementors have surrounded the school, which mean that an attack or something similar was very probable, and that everyone should be very careful. He also said that he had sent for about 50 Aurors to come and put Patronus charms on the dementors, but he wasn't sure how effective that would be. It wasn't anything more than they had already read in the Daily Prophet. They could tell he was very exasperated ad he looked older than ever. Expecting an uplifting or enlightening speech, everyone continued their breakfast not feeling at all better than before. Harry felt even worse, because he realized that if even Dumbledore did not have much to say, then the situation was very grave.
" This is NOT good," Ron said. Even he didn't feel much like eating.
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious," Harry snapped. Of course, the dementors, who would make anyone near them relive their worst experiences until they would drown into despair and misery, had the worst effect on Harry, because he had the worst memories. Every time he went so much as near a window he would hear his mother's deathly screaming in his ears.
As soon as waking up and seeing the dementors, all the students had been acting as if in a daze. There was much less noise, and much less activity, just as the cold makes people more sluggish. But the chill that had permeated all throughout the castle would creep into a person's bones, into his or her very soul. Several first years passed by, looking as if they were on the verge of crying.
"I can't believe this. They've turned Hogwarts into a makeshift Azkaban. Those dementors are only fit to punish the most hardened criminals. Why would You-Know-Who want them to be near children?" Hermione asked.
"Probably because Harry is here," Ron muttered. The one thing Harry hated most of all about his life was that his mere presence seemed to always put those he cared about the most in danger.
"Or maybe because of his daughter," Hermione said, seeing his choked silence. She instinctively glanced at the Slytherin table, but it was not Eve that caught her eye.
"Look at Draco. There must be something terribly wrong. He looks awful," she said.
Ron gaped at her in shock. "What do you mean, that you usually think he looks good?" "No you silly prat. He looks so deathly pale, I mean more than usual. He probably knows more about what's going on than anyone else, and he doesn't like it," she said.
"Well if Malfoy doesn't like it, then it's a good thing, right?" Ron offered hopefully.
Hermione shook her head. "Or it could be so terrible that even he's dreading it."
_____________________________________________________
That evening, Draco was lying down on his bed, his hands covering his face. He couldn't even looking out the window, at the stars, because he would see the dementors outside. Knowing what was expected of him, he felt more disgusted with himself than if he were a criminal. Eve suddenly entered his room.
"Don't you ever knock?" he growled through his hands.
"I thought you only wanted Harry to knock," she said slyly.
"Why are you here? I thought you weren't speaking to me," he said, sitting up. Virtually all the color had been drained from his face, making him look like he was made of porcelain. His sleek hair was hanging limply across his face, and the dark circles under his eyes betrayed the fact that he hadn't slept for days.
"You look horrid. If you're not going to tell me what's wrong, then at least get some rest. You need you're strength, especially with those -things-surrounding the school."
He was talking more to himself than to her, with a faraway look on his face. " I need my strength. for what? Only to serve them."
"What?"
Her sharp question seemed to have reminded him of her presence. "Didn't I ask you what you're doing here?"
She curled her mouth angrily, seeing that he was not going to be cooperative. "I only need to use your trap door to get out of the castle. I can't stand walking past those creatures. Every time I go near them, I hear my mother." she broke off.
"Fine, go ahead," he said curtly, not even asking where she was going or who she was seeing. He already knew.
__________________________________________________
Chapter Fifteen: The Race Continues
Eve whipped her head back, but the shadow had vanished. She was almost sure it had been a man, but he had disappeared. Perhaps she could make him come back.
She unrolled the elastic that had been keeping her hair in a ponytail, her black strands streaming onto her shoulders. She proceeded to remove her green and silver tie and unbutton her white cotton shirt slightly. She rolled up her sleeves and because she was wearing a skirt, dipped her legs deeper into the lake, until it came up to her milky white thighs. She washed her arms and face with the liquid , pretending not to have seen the stranger, but constantly looking out from the corners of her eyes. Her plan worked. She saw the shadow again, and she was quite surprised when it came out onto the shining moonlight.
It was a great, black dog. Presently, it was growling dangerously at her. Eve eyed it curiously, as if she was seeing a kitten, not an enormous, wild-looking dog that looked like it wanted to rip her throat out.
"Could've sworn I'd seen a man," she muttered under her breath. She stepped out of the lake and crept closer to the dog, whose growl became louder; it did not bark or attack her, though. It seemed as if it just wanted to threaten her or scare her away. She was close enough to pet it, and it still hadn't lunged at her. It was just growling. Not very normal behavior for a dog, she thought. She bent over to it, but it moved its head away.
"There, there. I'm not going to hurt you," she said, and finally got hold of its head, stroking its ears. The dog calmed down a bit. She was looking deep into its eyes, a smile creeping onto her lips. In a blink of an eye a blue-white light flashed, and a man was lying on the ground where the dog had been a second before.
"I knew it! I did see a man before!" she cried. Sirius got up and pointed his wand at her. But the girl didn't seem frightened: her expression hadn't changed.
"Get out of here. This forest isn't safe enough for children," he growled, not unlike a dog. Eve stared at him. He was tall, thin, and had dark hair, not unlike Harry. But instead of sparkling green eyes, he had dark eyes which had a slightly haunted look: life had not been kind to him. He hadn't shaved in days, and he looked as if hadn't slept in that period of time, either.
"This forest is very safe to me," Eve replied mysteriously. "And if I am such a child, why were you staring at me that way?"
Sirius ignored this last remark. "You don't know what's in this forest. There might be giant spiders, werewolves--"
"Dangerous criminals?" she finished his sentence for him. Her eyes never left his. "I know who you are. You're Sirius Black," she said.
Shit, he thought. "Then why aren't you afraid? Don't you think I won't kill you?" he said, trying to fulfill the image that had been posted of him for more than the past decade and a half.
"No," she plainly replied, walking closer and closer to him, "because if you were going to kill me, you would have done so already." His wand was still outstretched, and it was touching the tip of her chin. Sirius hardened his eyes, but she raised her hand, and gently, lowered his wand. Her eyes were piercing, and he looked away.
He still tried to get her out of the forest. He himself didn't like being there, and he was a full grown wizard who could turn into a dog. A teenage girl would be defenseless. Plus, he didn't like the cold chill creeping into his bones.
"Do you know what they say about me? I killed a street full of muggles with one shot. They say I'm one of You-Know-Who's most loyal followers," he said hoarsely.
Eve merely smiled. "Yes, I know that. But I also know that you're completely innocent. And that you're working with Dumbledore. And that you're Harry Potter's godfather. In fact, you're probably coming to Hogwarts to keep an eye out for him."
"How in the hell.Are you one of his friends?"
"Er, yes, I am," she said. Sirius eyed her doubtfully. But how else would she have known unless she was one of Harry's most trusted friends? But on the other hand-
"Harry's never mentioned you before in his letters. Isn't that funny, when you're close enough for him to tell you that?" He looked at the floor, at her robes and tie, decked in silver and green. He raised an eyebrow. "You're a Slytherin. They're usually not on good terms with Gryffindors," he said, growing even more suspicious. Eve never stopped gazing into his eyes.
"I never said I was his closest friend. I also never said that HE told me," she said quietly. Interpreting his shocked silence, she continued, " Let's just say I can read minds." Which was quite true.
"Really?" Sirius said, still gripping his wand. "Then what am I thinking right now?"
Eve smiled again, but it was a quite different smile. It was a conniving, cunning smile. She took a step toward him, and he reflexively stepped back. Unfortunately, there was a stray root right behind him, and Sirius tripped and fell backward onto the ground. So much for scaring her away, he thought.
Eve bent down on her hands and knees and crawled over to him. If the root hadn't been there, he might have fallen to the ground anyway. The way she looked at a person was enough for them to fall to the floor. "You were just thinking how my eyes look exactly like.hers," she whispered.
"Like who's?" he whispered back croakily.
"Lily's," she replied. Sirius took a deep breath. It was true. She WAS reading his thoughts - his very personal thoughts at that. He felt exposed and extremely uncomfortable. He had never even been this physically close to a girl in a long time. He tried not to stare at her shirt, which was unbuttoned ever so teasingly. To his relief, her features softened and she drew slightly away. When she did so, he saw clearly, for the first time, what was behind them.
"What's in that lake? Unicorn blood?" he asked, surprised.
"No, but good guess. Unicorn blood is much more viscous, more concentrated with magic. But this does constitute a major part of it. Every thousand years or so, it appears for about a week in certain areas. The unicorns bathe in it to rejuvenate themselves. The ancients had no name for it except the Water of Life. It has strong healing powers." Then she looked at him again. "Sirius, you look terrible. If Harry saw you like this, he'd feel even worse, not better," she said. She walked back over to the lake and grabbed a handful of the liquid. She came toward Sirius and wiped his face and neck with it. He immediately felt a pleasant sensation of relief and relaxation. Then again, thirteen years in a prison for committing a crime he never did had hardened him; he wasn't accustomed to trusting people, when one of the people he had trusted the most had betrayed him and killed his best friend and the woman he secretly loved.
"Why do you care so much?" he asked. She looked slightly offended and got up. She came back, bringing her backpack to him.
"Here. You look like you haven't eaten in a while," she said, giving him some pastries that she had obviously stolen from the kitchens.
"Why do you have food with you? Were you planning on running away or something?"
"Not really. Just stole a midnight snack." He looked at the éclair. "I haven't poisoned it, you know," she said.
"How can I be sure?" he said suspiciously. She rolled her eyes and took a big chunk of the eclai, and stuffed it into her mouth. She was wiping cream from her mouth and licking her fingers. Sirius, who truly hadn't eaten anything but stray rats for a few days, ate the rest of it. She grabbed a thermos and took a swig from it. She held it out to him.
"Pumpkin juice?" she asked. Sirius narrowed his eyes. He grabbed the thermos and sniffed it. However, his dog senses (which never truly had left him, since he spent so much time as a dog) warned him of something. He gave it back to her.
"No thanks, I'm not thirsty," he said. Her face didn't change, but her eyes betrayed a look of --was that disappointment?-- for a second. He still didn't trust her.
She came closer to him, looking deeply with her unwavering gaze. " Sirius, how long has it been since you've -kissed- anybody?" His eyes widened in shock. God, it had been ages. "Seventeen years," he croaked. "You know, I'm old enough to be your father," he said.
Eve inched in even more closely and said silkily, "Trust me, you're nothing like my father." Her lips were so soft; her hair was scented like lilies. Lily - why did her eyes have to be that cursed emerald color? It filled him with pain and longing every time he looked in Harry's eyes, and now that he was looking into hers, an even more intense feeling of desire swept over him. Was there some sort of potion in that éclair? What terrified him even more was that he didn't seem to care. She trailed her fingers across his grizzly face, and her lips touched his faintly: they tasted like pumpkin juice. For an instant he thought she WAS Lily, and for one wild second he wanted to kiss her back. But she suddenly drew away, a smile of triumph on her face. Sirius felt his vision grow foggy and a feeling of weakness spread over his body. She was a Slytherin, and she had mentioned her FATHER.
Cursing his idiocy, he fell to the floor and everything disappeared into blackness.
________________________________
Harry was running through the wilderness, when he suddenly stopped. Right in front him, towering ten feet high, were a bunch of dementors. He felt their coldness overflow his body, heard the screaming inside his head, but when he raised his wand and cried the spell to make his Patronus, nothing came out. The dementors were inching closer and closer, surrounding him. One of them grabbed him with its ghastly, scabbed hand, it was pulling its cloak off its head-Harry could smell its putrid breath-
He woke up, shaking, sweating, but freezing. Surprisingly, the chill in his dream was quite real. His room was much colder than usual, and it was a foreboding coldness. He felt that perhaps a dementor was really very close. He wondered if he should wake Ron.
_______________________________________
"What is it that was so urgent, headmaster?" asked Snape, still in his pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers(??? Lucy that one's for you, wink-wink) and dressing gown. Mrs. McGonagall, along with the rest of the teachers, were looking at Dumbledore, whose voice was full of urgency.
"I want all the teachers to go outside, onto the grounds. The school is presently going to be surrounded by dementors. They are a few miles into the Forbidden Forest already."
"Dementors, Albus? Why would they leave Azkaban?" McGonagall looked terrified.
"Only Fudge has the power to dismiss them from Azkaban," said Snape. "What about the prisoners?"
"I have heard absolutely no news, Severus. But right now, our immediate job is to keep them away from the children," he said. The teachers didn't need telling twice, and they all swiftly left Dumbledore's office.
________________________________________
Sirius woke up with a start, wondering where he was. He was in a white room, and it took him a second to realize that he was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts. He heard footsteps, and the very person who he was thinking about entered.
"Hello, Sirius. You're finally up, I see. Must've been quite a strong Sleeping Potion I gave you," Eve said, her green eyes twinkling as bright as ever.
"You! What did you think you were doing? What's going on?" he cried.
"There, there, Sirius. That's not a way to greet someone who saved your life," came an amused voice. Dumbledore entered the room after Eve.
"What?" Sirius gaped.
Eve walked over to him and thrust a Daily Prophet at him. Sirius grabbed it, reading the headline: "Dementors Leave Azkaban, Surround Hogwarts: Children and Teachers Trapped."
"Dumbledore, is this true?" he gasped in horror. The old man nodded solemnly.
"Yes. They arrived the same night you did. But some have stayed in the prison. However, their hold on it has weakened, obviously. Eve informed me that her father had told her they would come, although she did so on shorter notice than I would have liked," he glanced at her, and she reddened guiltily.
"The dementors wouldn't let anybody pass, except me, because my father had told them to do so. I carried your body with me, telling them that you were dead."
"And they believed you?"
"Yes. I gave you the Potion called the Drought of the Living Death. It slowed down your pulse so much that they couldn't tell at first glance. I passed by as quickly as possible. And then Snape gave you the strongest Reviving Potions he could find. I even gave you some more of that stuff in the lake. But this potion is so strong that it took you all night to wake up." Eve explained.
"She is with us, Sirius," Dumbledore said, seeming to read Sirius's thoughts, because he was still doubtful. Why hadn't she told Dumbledore sooner, soon enough so that he could have warned him?
"Where was the sleeping potion? In the éclair?"
" I gave it to her in the form of some pumpkin juice, in case she saw you," Dumbledore said.
"But how come nothing happened-"
But Eve cut him off, wanting to change the subject. "Er, Professor, we need to get going. They expect you in the Great Hall to tell the students what's going on."
Dumbledore nodded and they both left the room. The dementors did not let anybody enter or leave. Surely some sort of attack was being planned, and Sirius was not liking the idea that there might be no outside help for the children. Sirius got out of bed and looked out the window. A row of ten foot tall dementors seemed to be surrounding the entire school. He wondered how many people would be needed to conjure the Patronus charm to drive them all away, and whether or not they would come back. He only looked at them for an instant, hoping they wouldn't notice his presence. Just the mere sight of them again made him weaker. He crawled back into bed, trying to get back to sleep to get rid of the pounding inside his head.
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Harry, Hermione, and Ron left the Great Hall with many more questions than answers after Dumbledore's speech. He had said irritatingly little, only that the dementors have surrounded the school, which mean that an attack or something similar was very probable, and that everyone should be very careful. He also said that he had sent for about 50 Aurors to come and put Patronus charms on the dementors, but he wasn't sure how effective that would be. It wasn't anything more than they had already read in the Daily Prophet. They could tell he was very exasperated ad he looked older than ever. Expecting an uplifting or enlightening speech, everyone continued their breakfast not feeling at all better than before. Harry felt even worse, because he realized that if even Dumbledore did not have much to say, then the situation was very grave.
" This is NOT good," Ron said. Even he didn't feel much like eating.
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious," Harry snapped. Of course, the dementors, who would make anyone near them relive their worst experiences until they would drown into despair and misery, had the worst effect on Harry, because he had the worst memories. Every time he went so much as near a window he would hear his mother's deathly screaming in his ears.
As soon as waking up and seeing the dementors, all the students had been acting as if in a daze. There was much less noise, and much less activity, just as the cold makes people more sluggish. But the chill that had permeated all throughout the castle would creep into a person's bones, into his or her very soul. Several first years passed by, looking as if they were on the verge of crying.
"I can't believe this. They've turned Hogwarts into a makeshift Azkaban. Those dementors are only fit to punish the most hardened criminals. Why would You-Know-Who want them to be near children?" Hermione asked.
"Probably because Harry is here," Ron muttered. The one thing Harry hated most of all about his life was that his mere presence seemed to always put those he cared about the most in danger.
"Or maybe because of his daughter," Hermione said, seeing his choked silence. She instinctively glanced at the Slytherin table, but it was not Eve that caught her eye.
"Look at Draco. There must be something terribly wrong. He looks awful," she said.
Ron gaped at her in shock. "What do you mean, that you usually think he looks good?" "No you silly prat. He looks so deathly pale, I mean more than usual. He probably knows more about what's going on than anyone else, and he doesn't like it," she said.
"Well if Malfoy doesn't like it, then it's a good thing, right?" Ron offered hopefully.
Hermione shook her head. "Or it could be so terrible that even he's dreading it."
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That evening, Draco was lying down on his bed, his hands covering his face. He couldn't even looking out the window, at the stars, because he would see the dementors outside. Knowing what was expected of him, he felt more disgusted with himself than if he were a criminal. Eve suddenly entered his room.
"Don't you ever knock?" he growled through his hands.
"I thought you only wanted Harry to knock," she said slyly.
"Why are you here? I thought you weren't speaking to me," he said, sitting up. Virtually all the color had been drained from his face, making him look like he was made of porcelain. His sleek hair was hanging limply across his face, and the dark circles under his eyes betrayed the fact that he hadn't slept for days.
"You look horrid. If you're not going to tell me what's wrong, then at least get some rest. You need you're strength, especially with those -things-surrounding the school."
He was talking more to himself than to her, with a faraway look on his face. " I need my strength. for what? Only to serve them."
"What?"
Her sharp question seemed to have reminded him of her presence. "Didn't I ask you what you're doing here?"
She curled her mouth angrily, seeing that he was not going to be cooperative. "I only need to use your trap door to get out of the castle. I can't stand walking past those creatures. Every time I go near them, I hear my mother." she broke off.
"Fine, go ahead," he said curtly, not even asking where she was going or who she was seeing. He already knew.
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