By Sweet 16 Movie Buff!
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Friday the thirtieth came sooner than Jillian had anticipated and she was growing impatient for six o' clock. She practically inhaled her breakfast, which had consisted of a peach and a nibble of sausage. Her classes, in particularly History of Magic, seemed so much longer than they ever had before, and lunch was equally as rapid and as small as breakfast.
Once dinner had came and passed, Jillian ran up the stairs to the Ravenclaw tower and hurried up to the dormitory. She slipped into her most comfortable pair of sweats and a black muscle tank. She wanted to be comfortable when she was dueling with Malfoy, and free to move around. Her strategy was to have him in circles until he was dizzy then switch direction and disarm him. She'd practiced her most basic spells since their agreement, making them part of her reflex, and adding a couple of the more complex ones as well. She had never felt more prepared.
As the great tower clock rang six times, Jillian slowed to a halt in the Entrance Hall where she had agreed to meet Lucius two days prior. He lounged casually in the shadows by a suit of armor. When Jillian came into his line of sight, he unfolded himself from the wall and sauntered over to her.
He didn't speak to her, didn't acknowledge her. He merely walked past and down the hall towards the Great Hall. Jillian trotted to catch up with him.
"Where are we going?" she asked at last.
"You'll see."
"No Dark Arts," she snapped curtly. "No Unforgivables."
He feigned hurt, "What makes you think I would use such contrivances?"
"I don't trust you."
"Think what you like," Lucius shrugged, leaning his shoulder against the door to an antechamber just outside the Great Hall. Jillian remembered standing outside this door her first year, waiting nervously for the Sorting and what House she was to be put in.
The door unlatched and Lucius swung it wide and bowed grandly to Jillian, indicating she was to go first. Jillian stepped across the threshold into the dark antechamber. It was rather dingier than she remembered it, but the room had not been used for a whole year so perhaps that explained some of the dust on its moldings and the broken stool in the center of the room. It was also rather small.
"This is the place of your choice?" she asked in disdain as he closed the door behind him.
"No," he grabbed her wrist and forced her to stoop, pressing her hand to the stool. "This is."
Suddenly there was a tug behind Jillian's navel and she was pulled into a whirl of color, feeling quite sick to her stomach. When she felt that she could take no more and would scream, the Portkey had reached its destination. She fell to a wooden floor and tumbled.
She wasn't alone.
In the growing dark she could see the shadows of a ring of towering figures. One stepped out from among them, his wand leveled at her. As her eyes adjusted to the dim, she saw the glitter of a white slitted mask, and gray robes. Death Eaters. She'd walked right into a trap.
"Avada Kedavra."
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Sirius sat in the Gryffindor common room with his homework spread before him. Most of it was a review he could do before the exams to keep his mind fresh and that was exactly what he intended to do. The truth was he was bored and homework at the moment was his only means of distraction. He laughed softly at the thought; to think that Sirius Black had finally had to resort to homework as a means of amusement. Maybe James wanted to go out and wander the corridors . . .
Or maybe he could just talk to Jillian. He raked his fingers through his hair, scolding himself for his own stupidity. Wasn't that the reason she had given her that magicked parchment in the first place? Faking a yawn and a stretch, he pushed his History of Magic review aside to uncover the two-way parchment.
He picked up the scarlet quill and ink that Jillian had given along with it and scrawled, 'Jilly?'
He waited a moment for her calligraphic letters to form, but there was no answer. Again he tried.
'Jillian?'
'Jillian McKee are you there?'
Nothing.
Something was wrong. She was usually doing her homework at this time, waiting for him to distract her. Frowning he pulled out a bit of blank parchment and put his wand to it, muttering, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
The Marauder's Map came alive with activity. A map of Hogwarts revealed itself, showing all the movements of the residents of the school, the students, the ghosts, the teachers, and Filch, a particularly useful dot to keep track of when one was up to no good. But he really wasn't concerned with Filch at the moment; his eyes flicked to the Ravenclaw Tower. Suddenly his brow furrowed.
She wasn't in her dormitory.
Sirius picked up the Map and scanned it. The mark labeled Jillian McKee was trotting down to the Entrance Hall, straight towards Lucius Malfoy. Then, to his amazement, the two marks turned back along the corridor, together, and traveled towards the Great Hall. They ducked into an antechamber, the one Sirius remembered first years entered before the Sorting, and paused. A knot of dread was climbing up his throat.
She wouldn't do this to him. She'd promised.
The simple word 'Portus' appeared on the map above Jillian and Lucius just before they vanished.
"JAMES!"
James looked up from the book in his lap and only needed to take one glance at Sirius's face to know something was wrong. He was on his feet in an instant, wand out. Sirius jerked his head towards the portrait hole and the two took off crashing out of the common room and down the stairs.
"Padfoot - "
"She's gone," he snapped absently his eyes on the map, and then hastily explained what the Map had shown him and the conversation that he and Jillian had heard over the Christmas holiday. Things were clicking into place, things that had seemed so strange before. Severus's restraint, Regulus scattering bits of junk in places only students went . . . it was falling into place, the puzzle coming together.
"We need to find another one of those Portkeys," Sirius finished, handing the map to James. "Before it's too late."
"Down this way," James said suddenly, looking up from the map, "Second floor corridor."
Swiftly they banked into the second floor corridor, heading straight towards Severus Snape.
"Oy, Snivelly!" James called jovially.
Snape turned abruptly on his heel, his greasy hair falling across his nose. Swiftly he pivoted back and began to run down the corridor.
"Oh no you don't," James pointed his wand at Snape's retreating back and jerked it sharply towards the wall. Snape flew back along the corridor a short distance and crashed against the wall. In an instant, Sirius and James had cornered him, James resting his wand point on Severus's collar bone.
"Where do you think your heading, Snivellus?" James asked smoothly, "We just want to have a little chat."
Sirius put a restraining hand on Snape's shoulder as he moved to escape, holding him firm against the wall. For good measure, he brought up his own wand. Snape glared daggers at James, his nostrils twitching.
"What do you want, Potter?"
"Where are the other Portkeys?" Sirius demanded, his grip on Snape's shoulder tightening.
Snape's eyes suddenly lit, glowing with a sort of triumph, "Your little Mudblood friend gone missing, Black?"
"DON'T CALL HER THAT!" he roared.
Fury and frustration boiled him, and his hand released Snape's shoulder to clamp around his neck tightly enough to make him gasp for air. James took a step back, deciding to let Sirius take over the interrogation. He'd never seen the murder in his eyes light up like that before.
He tightened his grasp, glaring into Snape's dark eyes, "What's Voldemort planning?"
The corner of Snape's eye twitched at the mention of the name. He lifted his head slightly to glare down his hooked nose at Sirius; "You are too lowly to speak his name."
"What's he planning?" he hissed, shoving Snape harder against the wall.
Snape gagged as Sirius's grip on his neck closing another centimeter around his windpipe. "The Dark Lord has a score to settle with the Headmaster. Dumbledore has gotten too comfortable in his own domain."
"What? Death count not high enough in London so he has to murder students now?" James retorted darkly.
"Where did Malfoy take her?" Sirius growled.
Snape sneered, "She'll be dead before you can reach her, Black. The next time you see Jillian McKee, it will be in a casket."
"Where is she?" he snarled, bringing his wand into view for good measure.
The appearance of the wand made Snape visibly pale, but he spat quietly in a deadly soft voice, "Why should I tell you?"
"Because I'll rip you limb from limb starting with your fingers and ending with your sniveling nose." And to make good on his promise, Sirius rested his wand on the base of Snape's fingers and began to count, "I'll give you 'til the count of five. One . . ."
"Brighton Pier," Snape gasped as Sirius began to dig his wand into his finger, prepared to use a Severing Charm. "The . . . the house of mirrors."
"Now we're getting somewhere, Prongs," Sirius laughed mirthlessly over his shoulder. "Now, where are the Portkeys?"
Snape hesitated.
"Two . . ."
"Everywhere."
"Three . . ."
"By that statue!" he croaked when Sirius tightened his hold on his windpipe once more. He nodded to the statue of a female scholar, then glared defiantly at Sirius, "I put it there myself."
Angrily, Sirius gave Snape a final shove against the wall, and strode over to the statue. Hidden in the crevice where the base met the cascade of the scholar's robes was a Gobstone, only large enough to fit in the palm of Sirius's hand. He picked it up and felt that familiar sensation of a hook dragging behind his navel.
"NO!" James's eyes widened with realization as he realized that Sirius wasn't waiting for him. Before he could even latch on, he had gone. Tears of fury burned his eyes as he gently hit his forehead against the statue, "Sirius, you idiot."
Snape's wheezing behind him made James turn. He leaned heavily against the wall for support, rubbing his throat. A red mark was glowing where Sirius had nearly strangled him.
"Where are the others?" he snapped, eyes flaring. He wasn't going to let Sirius die, not without him.
"It's too late, Potter," he said quietly, "The other Portkeys are useless now." Severus chuckled darkly, though it looked as if it pained him, "And I'd always hoped it be you to find one."
James raised his wand and hit Severus with an Insect Jinx.
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THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF MY REVIEWERS!
Nicky Black – Of course Jillian is going to duel Lucius, it makes for a more interesting plot. :) Thank you, though, so much for telling me that you were going on vacation. I hope you enjoy it (wherever it might be) and are able to write a couple more chapters for Black Rose!
Moon Burst – How about I give you a cookie, a Subway sandwich, a box of Bernie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans, AND a life-size replica of Sirius? There may be a couple of drool marks on the cut-out so I apologize ;). But don't worry, you're still special! I'm so glad you liked Chapter 8, it's my second favorite in this story (the first is Chapter 6).
Whimsical Firefly – I was wondering where you had disappeared to! I thought you'd lost interest in the story after Chapter 4, but to answer your question, I posted Chapters 6, 7, and 8 a while back, around August 7 I think. But welcome back, and thank you once again for helping me avoid a horrendous cliche in making Mitra a total bitch. It's all for you!
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TO KIRIE HIMURO . . .
I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry for my last review of your story. My dad walked in right at that moment and I panicked and wrote that really, short abrupt and completely random review. I loved that chapter (like all the others :)) and I have only one question . . . Who was Snape writing too, or Sirius, or Jessamyn? I'm so wrought with curiosity and once again apologize for such a short review.
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HUMMM . . . SHOULD I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS HORRENDOUS CLIFFIE OR CONTINUE?
No, I'm not that mean, go ahead and read the next chapter! :)