Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is the genius that came up with Harry Potter… I am not. Both she and I request that you do not take liberties with our respective characters.

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long, ladies and gents, but hopefully this will make up for it. Oh, and by the way… New idea on who might be the Half-Blood Prince: Hagrid. Half wizard, half giant. He's the key to keeping the giants from going to help Voldemort. I like this idea better than if the prince were Snape or Dumbledore… mostly coz I want to see Hagrid go nine kinds of crazy and kick some ass. But anyway, here's the story! Enjoy! Read and review!

---

So this was it.

Night spread like a tumor across the sky, thick and malignant. The heat of the day had seeped into the concrete and stayed trapped by the fog, turning the city muggy and dank. Despite this, Lily shivered.

James mistook her trembling for a chill and put an arm around her instantly. She stiffened for a moment, but relaxed again at a pacifying glance from Remus. James' gesture was one of concern—not of solicitation. He's only trying to help, she reminded herself. And, though she'd never admit this aloud to anyone, his arm around her was warm and welcome. Lily resisted the urge to lean into him and instead cocked her ear, hoping to soon hear the footsteps that would signify the beginning of their mission.

The sooner this is over with, the better, she thought.

She shifted uneasily. She, James and Remus (and their broomsticks) were crowded in an abandoned doorway. The glass-front of St. Mungo's stretched out across the street before them, the mannequins innocuously guarding the entrance. Several hundred yards away London bustled along as busy as ever, but this stretch of road—comprised mostly of run-down businesses—had become almost abandoned, save for the three teens in their sentry positions. It rankled Lily's sense of cover to be standing there, exposed to the world. From time to time she had to glance down at her body to remind herself that the Disillusionment charm Aeryn Solmere had placed on each of them was still in place.

"Any time now," Remus whispered.

Apprehension chased through Lily again. She pushed it away with a terse nod. This part of the mission, though by far one of the least dangerous, was the one she dreaded the most. So much can go wrong, she worried absently.

She reached into her pocket and fingered the long, smooth object she found resting next to her wand. It felt cool and tingly to her fingertips: the only indication of the magical properties within. She wrapped her fingers tightly around it and said a small prayer that it would do what it was promised.

Hours before, when the evening was still pale and bright, Sirius, Lily, Remus and James had taken the Floo to Caradoc Dearborn's flat as instructed. Aeryn Solmere waited for them alone, her flowing robes draped demurely around her as she sat in a rocking chair with the air of a queen. She would be the one to tell them how it was they were to follow Ani, Sirius and the Death Eaters into their hidden fortress.

"You aren't old enough to Apparate, and the wardings will conceal Ani and Sirius from you," the beautiful woman informed them. "These, I trust, will lead you to her instead, whether you can see her or not."

She held out one long, elegant hand to reveal two long, ghostly green stone-like objects. She handed one to Lily and one to Sirius. As soon as they separated, Lily's stomach clenched. The stone, though motionless in her palm, seemed to be under some intense inner struggle to return to its partner's side. It sent its vibrations up and down her arm—she clenched her fist down on it, hoping to ease the sensation. It didn't work. She swung her eyes to look at Sirius. From the look on his face, he could feel it too.

"Do you know what these are?" Aeryn Solmere asked, sounding for all the world like their professors.

Lily had nodded. "Sysabins," she said softly and the others' eyes had grown wide.

"Just so," Aeryn Solmere said. "They come in pairs: one is found in the breast of the jabberknoll, the other in its nest in the spring, disguised as an egg… it is how the mothers tell their nests apart from the others." She pointed to the sysabin in Lily's hand. "As soon as they take Sirius and Ani, this will try to get to its brother. Follow it and it will lead you to her."

"But we still won't be able to see past the wardings," Remus commented, sounding discouraged. "So what's the point of us being there?"

"Would you rather stay behind?" Aeryn Solmere retorted sharply. The chastened Remus shook his head. "Then be happy you will be there at all."

She'd risen, signaling that the meeting was over. "As for the wardings," she continued softly, "magics far greater than I can possibly describe were used to construct them. It would take an equally great magic to destroy them." She then kissed them each in benediction. "Luck to you all."

"Here they are!"

James' hissed whisper snapped Lily out of her memory. She shot her eyes down the street and felt her stomach drop.

Sirius appeared in a puddle of streetlight, flanked by four figures wrapped in black. Rodolphus Lestrange led the way, his black cape flapping like the wings of some menacing bird of prey. Gliding by his side, her face half obscured by a black scarf binding her hair, was Bellatrix, her liquid black eyes penetrating every corner of the street. Lily felt her face drain of color. Playing rear guard, their faces blank and impassive, were Severus Snape and Sirius' brother, Regulus.

At her sides she could feel the others stiffen. James' hatred for Snape—until this point unprecedented—now seemed to be overflowing like flames licking through a forest. Instinctively she reached out and took his and Remus' hands. Each stilled as Lily strained her ear to hear the conversation that had begun in the street.

"Ready for a bit of fun, Black?" Lestrange's voice was deceptively cool, but Lily could sense the danger lurking beneath, like jagged rocks beneath a glassy sea.

"As always," Sirius replied, and in spite of herself, Lily's flesh pricked at the darkness in his tone. He nodded briefly to Lestrange and, for half the span of a heartbeat, flicked his eyes to the doorway where the three of them waited. Though she knew he couldn't see them, Lily nodded. An instant later, Sirius had disappeared into St. Mungo's.

Hours seemed to pass as Lestrange, Bellatrix, Regulus and Snape hovered like a thunderhead, speaking in low, sinister voices. Sirius was gone so long that when he finally appeared, Lily let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding in relief. The sensation instantly dissipated when she saw Ani's face. All the life seemed to have gone out of it. The white, set expression showed a cruel parody of her grief. Her golden eyes, now red-rimmed, were blank, their spark gone. Lily felt her heart ache and heard Remus' breath catch. She'd never seen Ani look so miserable.

Still hidden, they watched as Lestrange approached Ani and Sirius slowly. He held out one hand to the girl and, when she refused to take it, shot his arm out like a striking serpent to wrap around her waist. Sirius was pushed back another few feet by Lestrange's free hand and Lily watched, her head growing dizzy, as the handsome, striking, dangerous Lestrange gave Ani and vicious and unremitting kiss on the mouth. Ani struggled weakly; Lily whimpered.

Finally drawing away, Lestrange raised one arm and slashed his wand through the air, bellowing a spell. In an instant, he was gone… and so was Ani.

---

A second, then two passed, and Sirius felt as though his heart were going to leap out of his chest. Ani and Lestrange were gone and he remained in the middle of the street, outnumbered three to one by the people he hated the most.

This was not how it was supposed to happen!

He had to do something. Fighting to maintain his composure, he asked coldly, "Well? Shouldn't we be off?"

Bellatrix stepped forward and flashed him a triumphant grin. An ice block settled into Sirius' stomach. "We?" she asked disdainfully, tossing her black hair back. "We are not going anywhere, little cousin." She stepped forward and stroked his cheek. She leaned forward to whisper in his ear, the sensation giving him gooseflesh. "After all, this is a game for Death Eaters… not blood traitors."

He didn't have a moment to react as she had raised her wand and shouted viciously, "CRUCIO!" Without warning his whole body erupted into flames, pain consuming every fraction of his flesh. Horrible, wrenching screams that he realized were his own mixed with laughter so black it might have belonged to death. Agony, agony, there was no hope, he would die, was dying, alone and in pain and with Ani in danger.

Ani! Ani! he screamed within, but there was no answer. Only blackness, terror, silence, and pain.

As suddenly as it had started, the pain was gone. Sick and trembling, he rolled over on his side and vomited into the street. His stomach empty, he weakly pushed up to his hands and looked around the street. Footsteps pounded towards him, but the street was empty. Bellatrix, Regulus and Snape had disappeared and only when he strained his burning eyes could Sirius make out the vague outline of his Disillusioned friends rushing over to his side.

"Are you okay?" James asked, and Sirius strained to see him. The light bent strangely in the outline of a body, and Sirius suddenly felt his friend's arms pulling him unceremoniously to his feet.

"They took her!" Lily's voice shrieked, the tone shrill and terrified. "She's gone, and they didn't take Sirius with her! How will we find her now?"

But as soon as the words had left her mouth she let out a gasp. Sirius squinted at her as he swayed dizzily on his feet. The sysabin hovered eerily in midair and even he, feet away, could feel it yearning for its partner.

"I put the sysabin in Ani's pocket while we were still inside," Sirius whispered desperately, his voice jagged with the remnants of pain. "We can still follow it, but we have to go now. Quickly, go get your broomsticks. I'll have to ride double with one of you." No reaction. Terror stricken, the others stood silent. "Hurry!" he finally shouted, and he felt James leave his side and rush away.

Three broomsticks were distributed a second later, and Sirius awkwardly positioned himself behind James, who grabbed his arm to guide him. "Which way, Lily?" he demanded, his strength slowly returning and a new, desperate terror creeping in with it.

"North," she replied instantly. "Towards the coast. I can feel it." And without another word she shot into the air, Remus and James following closely.

Sirius clutched at his invisible friend as they rocketed into the sky. Urgency pulsed through his veins with each passing second.

Please let us find her, he begged the stars as they danced above them. Please don't let it be too late.

Cruelly, the stars were silent.

---

Simply paralyzed with fear, Ani didn't know what she'd been expecting when Rodolphus Lestrange had shouted his incantation. Her body had felt as though the flesh were melting from the bone and it was a mark of her hatred for her captor that despite the terrifying sensation, she still fought against Lestrange's vice-like grip. There was absolutely nothing save for blackness so heavy that it pressed on her eyelids and forced its way down her throat, choking the air from her lungs. Surely this was what it was to die.

Palpable relief coasted through her when the melting sensation faded and Ani, sobbing for air, pulled away from Lestrange and pitched forward onto stone. For a moment she laid there, her face against the freezing floor as she fought to catch her breath, her body bruised from the fall, her mouth from Lestrange's hateful, punishing kiss. Finally, she looked up to survey her surroundings.

Whatever she'd been expecting, it certainly hadn't been this. Dozens of stone monoliths, blade straight and taken from the bones of the earth itself, stood in a perfect circle around a raised stone base. Ani felt a chill go down her spine. The enormous foundation was so smooth to the touch that Ani felt as though she might slip right off. It bore no markings of tools, and as she pressed her palms against it, she could feel a deep vibration resonating through her skin. She thought back fleetingly to Dumbledore's words about blood magic. It's an altar, she realized, her limbs jellying at the thought. And it's very, very old.

Someone laughed.

On trembling arms she pushed up and stared around her. Lestrange, his eyes flashing cold lightning, stood in front of a crowd of dark figures, all of them jeering down at her. Ani could recognize Snape and Bellatrix among the faces, all of which were heartbreakingly young. Voldemort's campaign had ensnared the young and the promising—Ani ached to think that this was the cause the new generation had come to fulfill.

Where is Sirius?

The question pounded her brain instantly, and the first flickers of horror danced through her heart. She squinted through pain-dimmed eyes, looking for Sirius' face amongst her captors. Her stomach sank—she could find him nowhere. "Sirius!" she whispered, terror eclipsing her voice, but she knew the moment she spoke that it was in vain: she was entirely and utterly alone.

"Welcome to Malhaceil Bluff, Andromeda."

Lestrange's voice belled over the assembled group. Grandly, imperiously, he gestured to the towering stones that encircled the lot of them. She watched as he circled her menacingly, a terrible raptor over a wounded doe. "It is glorious, isn't it, Andromeda?" he asked, voice full of reverence as though this foul altar were the Holy Grail itself. "You should count yourself lucky, my dear," he went on, a mad sort of delight barely concealed in his voice. It made Ani tremble. "Had we not brought you here, you might never have been witness to such glory.

"But of course, this place has not always been one of glory and importance." Lestrange knelt suddenly and slithered long, pale fingers underneath Ani's chin, tilting her to look into his eyes. "No indeed. In fact, once upon a time this place served a far more unworthy purpose than that which we will put it to tonight."

Faster than her eyes could follow, Lestrange's hand shot into Ani's pocket and pulled out her wand. He leaned back, twirling it over his fingers. "I'll have to take this, darling," he said with a cold laugh. "Wouldn't do to have you attacking us, now would it?"

"Do you know where you lay, blood traitor?" Bellatrix stepped out of the throng of viewers, black eyes snapping. A wind caught the strands of her black hair and lifted them up, dancing around her face like Medusa's snakes. "This place," the witch went on, "was once surrounded by a small village in a time where magic was even less understood than it is now." She glared down at Ani, as though she were the source of all the violence and prejudice that their kind had once endured.

She laughed, suddenly, and Ani felt as though her soul itself were shriveling at the cruelty and madness in Bellatrix's tone. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," she mocked. "Oh, how closely to their hearts those filthy Muggles took those words." Lestrange pushed to his feet to tower over Ani as Bellatrix took over his slow, circling gait. "Chasing witches and wizards from their homes, taking their wands, snapping them in two, murdering their children! Murdering them, sacrificing them on this very spot.

"Oh, some of our kind say that the witch hunting had no real effect," Bellatrix whispered scathingly. "But those with proper wizarding pride—such as the Dark Lord, our master—grow livid at the thought of the injustice, of the degradation, of the blasphemy of the deaths of those witches and wizards who were caught." She smiled down at Ani, and suddenly her face was as hollow as a skull. "No doubt things have improved since that time—perhaps not so much as the Dark Lord and those who share his vision might have liked… oh, but there's still time for that. But in the meantime, Andromeda Hellsing, we have come to utilize Malhaceil Bluff for a far greater purpose."

As though on cue, the crowd surged and separated, and a weak and pale figure was shoved unceremoniously onto the middle of the stone circle. Lestrange and Bellatrix pushed back, leaving Ani and the other figure alone in the center. The man looked up and the pale light of the stars caught in his amber eyes.

Ani opened her mouth to scream—found she could not. She fought to reclaim her voice and finally, half-shrieking, half sobbing, called out, "Dad!"

Cephas Hellsing looked as though Death had come for him half a century too soon. His flesh was shrunken and hung off his bones like that of a man twice his age. Festering cuts and bruises blackened his flesh and the circles under his eyes gave the impression that his eye sockets were empty. His hair—once so golden, like his sons, and now almost purely white—hung lanky and dirty over his forehead. His hands were bound tightly behind his back and his chin dropped weakly onto his chest. He was bound, beaten, broken… a shadow of the man he'd been less than a month before.

Somewhere in her heart, Ani went mad with hatred. They would pay for what they had done to her father.

At the sound of his daughter's voice, Cephas looked up, eyes wild with horror. Ani scrambled to her knees and crawled towards him, ignoring the scornful laughter that floated up around her. "Ani!" Mr. Hellsing rasped as his daughter flung herself at him, circled his waist with her shaking arms. "Ani, run away!" he whispered, hoarse with agony and dread. "Go, Ani, run away, I'll try to keep them off!"

"I'm not leaving you!" she shouted.

But the words had barely left her mouth when strong arms circled her waist. Cephas Hellsing let out an animal moan as his daughter was pulled away from him and a pair of hands gripped his shoulders, pulled him to his feet. Ani fought like a woman possessed to return to her father's side, but it was no use.

Suddenly a wooden tip jabbed into her jugular. Ani ceased her struggle, arms pinioned to her sides, helpless. Rodolphus Lestrange, using her own wand against her, gave a soft, deadly chuckle.

"Now, Andromeda. Let's see if you can't be of some use to us."

---

We're not going to make it, Remus thought.

The charm that Aeryn Solmere had put on their brooms to enhance their speed seemed almost useless as the four of them sliced through the sky. The mildness of the night was forgotten as he bent his stiff, frozen fingers, hoping to shock some sensation back into them. No use.

"The pull is getting stronger!" Lily shouted, her voice breaking in the rush of the wind. "I think we're almost there!"

Remus saw James nod and urge the broom on faster, but even as he fought to catch up, his heart was growing steadily heavier. However long they had been flying, that was how much more time Rodolphus Lestrange had against them.

Ani might even be dead… they might never know.

Oh Ani, he wept inwardly, focusing every fiber of his mind onto transferring his message to her. It doesn't matter that you've chosen Sirius. I don't even care. Only please, please, please don't be dead, Ani. Fight them off, do whatever it takes, just hold on, Ani… we're almost there.

Then finally, after what seemed hours in the air, just as his body had given its loudest scream of protest yet, Lily screamed, "Down there!"

She dove, plummeting straight towards the earth, her red hair a banner behind her. James, who was superior to even Lily's talent on broomstick, followed suit, Sirius clutching to stay seated. Remus had neither the talent nor experience of the others, but he too started a dizzying spiral down to the ground, where a misty moor stretched out below them like a purple sea. His heart raced—Hang on, Ani, just hang on.

His hope was almost immediately extinguished. As they landed on the strangely flat and empty stretch of moor, despite the fact that they had been warned of this very thing, Remus wanted to scream. There was simply nothing there.

"Where is she?" Sirius rasped, limping forward off James' broom, his body stiff from the Cruciatus Curse and the broomstick ride. He stumbled into the darkness, fumbling wildly, as though he could seek her out that way. "Ani!" he screamed, and his voice echoed over the foggy more like a ghost's.

Remus instinctively turned to Lily and noted vaguely that he was starting to be able to see her face… the Disillusionment charm must be wearing off. Her hand was outstretched and the sysabin lay in the center. To the eye, it was still, but somehow he could feel the stone's desperate pull towards its partner. Before, in London and in the air, he could feel a vague tugging sensation and had been able to ignore it. This he could not disregard—it was entirely too strong.

"God damn it," James muttered, grabbing a fistful of his hair in frustration. "This is useless!" He illuminated his wand and swung his arm in an arc. "I can barely see… not that there's anything to see!"

"She's here." The three of them whipped around to see Sirius struggling back to them. "I know she's here," he told them desperately. "We have to break down the wardings… she won't know we're here. We have to get through them!"

"Sirius," Lily whispered, and Remus felt his heart breaking as she spoke, "we can't break the wardings. Aeryn Solmere said that it would take some great magic to do that, and none of us are strong enough for that. Besides, we're exhausted."

"We have to try," Sirius begged. "Lily, I can feel her, we just have to find her."

The four of them were silent for a moment and for the first time since this ordeal had begun, Remus saw how riddled with fear Sirius had become. His hands were trembling like with palsy and his face was bone white. He'll go mad if we lose Ani, Remus thought, and I'll have lost not one, but two of my best friends.

Without another thought he plunged his hand into his pocket and unsheathed his wand. Sirius met his eyes, barely daring to hope.

"You're right," Remus said grimly. "We've got to do something." Sirius pulled his wand out from the pocket of his robes, his eyes burning into Remus' face.

"Remus," Lily protested, shaking. "Be reasonable. This isn't working! We're alone! One of us needs to go back, get Dumbledore! He can help us."

"It'll be too late by then!" Sirius shouted at her. "Don't you get it, Evans, we have to save Ani now!"

Lily flared and if James had not stepped forward, Remus believed she might have thrown herself at Sirius. "We can't leave," he told Lily, whose face was burning crimson. "We're here, and we know that we have to find her. But you're right, too, Lily… we need Dumbledore's help." He let out a shaky breath. "This is more than we imagined it would be." He glanced at Remus and Sirius. "Maybe we can send him a signal or something."

"Dumbledore wouldn't have sent us out here if he didn't think we could do this," Remus retorted and Sirius nodded furiously. "He sent us out here armed with nothing but our wands and our minds, but the point is, he wouldn't have sent us if he didn't think we could use those things!

"So now," he went on, an idea flowing into his mind like out of the mists of a dream, "we need to do just that."

Lily opened her mouth to protest but Remus cut her off. "At school aren't they always telling us that magic is more than a magic wand and a spell?" he reminded her. "They're telling us that you have to use your mind, utilize it to its fullest! I believe," he continued, "that if we turn all the forces we have against the wardings, they will fall, and we'll be able to find Ani."

There was silence as his idea sank over them. Finally, after a long uncertain moment, Lily closed her eyes, sighed, and nodded.

"What do we have to do?" Sirius demanded. He grabbed Remus' arm. "We don't have much time."

Remus let out a shaking break and screwed his eyes up tight. "Close your eyes," he instructed them, his voice disembodied in the darkness. "Think of Ani. Think of her as though she's waiting just beyond the darkness. Focus on everything you can think about her. Now reach your hand out—" His wand shook as he extended his arm "—and will the darkness to part. Reach out for Ani. Think about her as hard as you can."

A great wave rose up inside Remus as he thought of his missing friend. His waiting fingertips could almost feel her hair. Damn, but she was just out of reach! He heard Sirius swear in aggravation.

"Concentrate!" he ordered fiercely. "We've almost got it! Don't give up now!"

Suddenly, as the words left his mouth, the earth seemed to pitch beneath his feet. He heard Lily scream as his eyelids flew open and his jaw dropped.

The wardings were crumbling.

---

Oh God, Ani begged, tears streaming down her face, please let it be over soon!

Her father let out a scream that no child should ever have to hear, his body convulsing as red light enveloped him. His screaming ceased as the light flickered away, leaving him flat on his back, chest heaving. His silence was too much to bear. Ani fought tooth and nail against Lestrange's hold, but it simply caused him to laugh maddeningly and hold her tighter.

Her father's torture had seemed to drag on forever. They asked him questions about Dumbledore, about the Order, about what was known of their Lord—they seemed to believe that his position in the Ministry of Magic gave him all the answers to these questions. When he refused to respond, they cursed him, over and over, and each time he screamed, Ani felt his pain. The dark figures took turns questioning him, taunting him, spitting on him, but Cephas held strong. Had she not been mad with panic and rage, Ani might have been proud of him—now she felt only fear.

Finally, after what seemed eons, Lestrange said coldly, "Enough."

Ani sagged with relief. The crowd backed a few steps away from her father, who pushed himself feebly to a sitting position, gasping for breath. He was battered, but alive. Her tears of agony began to slow—perhaps they would cease this madness.

"We have learned nothing more than we have in the past months," Lestrange said, sounding bored. The sport had gone out of it for him. He raised one hand, as if to motion for them to take Cephas away, when a chilling voice interrupted.

"Perhaps," Regulus Black said, a sardonic smile tracing over his lips as he stepped out of the crowd, "our guest might be more liberal with his information if he had a bit more motivation."

Lestrange shrugged. "He did nothing when we killed the Mudblood American, his own son's fiancé… why should now be any different?"

Black turned towards Ani and gave her a mocking bow. "Ah, but almost a daughter and a Mudblood isn't the same as a true daughter," he reminded Lestrange, his black eyes glowering at Ani. "If nothing else, it would provide more entertainment, as you have proven to so greatly enjoy." He raked his eyes defiantly over Lestrange's face. "Besides, it might make her a bit more receptive to your… advances… should you truly show her your power."

Lestrange glared down at Black and released Ani, stepping around her to glare down at the younger boy. "Do I hear a challenge, Black?" he asked quietly.

"Perhaps you do," the boy responded.

"Don't… touch… my daughter," Cephas gasped, clutching at his ribs and pushing for his feet.

"Tsk tsk, Mr. Hellsing," Bellatrix chimed in a singsong voice. "You didn't say please."

She swept through the crowd and pointed her wand at Ani exultantly. She lowered her voice and whispered to Ani, her voice like venom, "Consider this a gift to my dear cousin in your name, blood traitor… I will see that he gets the message personally."

Ani thought of her friends and with all her heart called to them.

Help me.

A crack, so sharp it hit Ani's ears like a physical blow, sounded through the air. Suddenly the menacing crowd was lowing like scared cattle, looking around for the source of the noise, wands at the ready. The air seemed to be vibrating in time and, like lightning, Ani thought of the few moments inside St. Mungo's that she and Sirius had before her capture.

"Take this and don't lose it," Sirius whispered as they walked down the hall, sliding a small, smooth stone into her pocket. "The moment you feel it come to life, you'll know we're there."

She thrust her hand into her pocket and pulled out the stone. Surely enough, the stone seemed to be bursting with energy, hot and tremulous in her palm. Sirius and the others were somewhere nearby.

In an instant her fear was banished. She pushed through the crowd and raced towards her father. He was straining towards her, his eyes wild with fear, shouting her name. The dark figures aimed their wands at Ani, but when they faltered as another crack rang through the air, she took her chance.

"ACCIO WAND!" she screamed, and in the melee, Lestrange's grip had loosened and her wand came speeding through the air towards her. Chaos erupted around them as the Death Eaters scrambled to grab the wand and Ani. But Ani was faster. She shot her hand out and grabbed the wand tightly in her hand. She shouted, "EXPELLIARMUS!" and slashed her wand like a knife, and half a dozen wands flew away and clattered to the ground.

The bedlam had reached a fever pitch. Another noise, this one like the ripping of fabric, and suddenly the air itself seemed to be dissolving. The stars, up until now dim and grey, were now luminous and suddenly—her heart pounded, please don't let this be a dream!—Ani's eyes fell upon four figures standing at the crest of the moor, as though they had appeared there out of nowhere. A pair of black, fathomless eyes pierced her from the darkness.

Sirius.

It was as though a volcano had erupted. Power and magic stronger than anything Ani had ever known spilled from her limbs and burned away any trace of fear. "IMPEDIMENTA!" she screamed as a body hurtled towards her. It froze midstep, inches away from her, and Ani plunged back towards her father. She could vaguely hear Lestrange screaming, as though from far away, "Do not let them escape!"

Someone grabbed her wrist and Ani jinxed them as well, and suddenly she was next to her father, her fingers twined desperately around his. "My friends are out in the moor," she gasped to him, tugging him through a gap in the crowd, shouting a jinx over her shoulder as they ran away. "We can't leave them, Dad, we have to get to them!"

Cephas Hellsing nodded and suddenly bent down and scooped up one of the wands that had flown from its master. His legs trembled with weakness, but he ran forward with her. Father and daughter, firing curses and jinxes as fast as they could say them, dashed through the crowd, and suddenly they were toppling, falling off of the altar, onto the moor, into the mist.

"Ani! Ani, we're almost there, get up, we have to run!" her father shouted as she sprawled face first onto the ground.

She scrambled to her feet and, from far away, she heard voices screaming her name. We're almost there, she thought desperately as she started to run. Just a few more feet! She could see Lily's eyes, green in the starlight, James' wand, out and at the ready, the desperation on Remus' face. And she could see Sirius, his hand stretched out to her, his lips forming her name.

Ani's legs pumped as she ran beside her father, watching as her four friends drew closer and closer. She could hear Bellatrix behind her, shrieking curses and obscenities, and as she conjured all the hatred she could muster, Ani spun in step and fired another jinx straight into the beautiful, dangerous face.

"Ani!"

She turned again and slammed forward into James Potter. Her father shouted, "Come to me!" and grabbed James' hand. Lestrange was mere feet away, his wand drawn back and his mouth opened. The Marauders and Lily scrambled to join Cephas.

Finally they were all together, and Cephas shouted the same incantation that Lestrange had used to bring her there, his voice stronger than it had been all night. As Ani slid slowly out of consciousness, she felt as though her flesh were melting from the bones. But it didn't matter. They were safe. They were free. They had escaped.

---

Sirius pitched forward and crashed his head against something hard and sharp. Swearing, he flipped over onto his back, wand out, his eyes wide, his heart pounding. Let them come.

But there was no one there.

They were inside the Hellsing house. No Death Eaters surrounded them, no freezing mist caressed their faces. They were inside the Hellsings' parlor, and they were gloriously alone.

Cephas Hellsing, looking centuries older than before, knelt at his side. "Are you hurt?" his voice rasped and Sirius shook his head, then fumbled to stand.

Lily was slumped against a chair, her shoulders quaking, her head thrown back, gasping for air. James, who had recovered quickly, was at her side, a handkerchief pressed against a freely bleeding wound at her temple. And Remus, now joined by Mr. Hellsing, was crouched next to the still, quiet body of Ani. A trickle of blood dripped from her mouth.

"Ani," Sirius gasped, and scrambled towards her.

Remus stood quickly and put a hand on Sirius' shoulder. "It's alright," he assured him gently. "She bit her tongue. She's just unconscious."

Sure enough, as Mr. Hellsing gently tapped Ani with his wand and murmured, "Ennervate," her golden eyes flew open. She looked around dazedly for a moment, then focused her gaze on her father's face.

Quicker than a thought, she was sitting up and had flung her arms around her father's neck. "Dad!" she whispered against his shoulder. "Oh Dad, thank God you're alright!"

Sirius turned away quietly, focusing his attention on Lily. Remus did the same. This moment was meant for the gods only to witness. For him to watch would be a trespass.

But that moment soon passed. An instant later, Sirius felt a hand slide into his own. He turned to see Ani—dirty, bruised, disheveled, and gloriously unharmed—looking up at him with wide eyes. "You made it," she whispered.

He couldn't keep his hand from rising to touch her face, even as her father watched them. "I told you," he said, a slow smile spreading over his face, warming him from the inside. He wiped away a dirt smudge on her cheek. "A Black promise is unbreakable."

She laughed and threw her arms around him. It was the most beautiful noise he had ever heard.

At that moment, his nose pressed against Ani's lemon scented hair, Sirius was finally convinced that everything would be alright.