Gryffindor-100 Points- Caprice earns 10 Points for being teacher's pet (she proof read this chapter); Eizoku is awarded 10 Points for doing all of the required reading for the classes she missed

Slytherin-190 Points- RivanKnight is awarded 10 Points for catching my delecterable reference (she also proof read this chapter); Milee is awarded 10 Points for inventing a very effective, and cleverly abbreviated, version of the common Cheering Charm

Ravenclaw- if you reviewed and I didn't count you tell me, or review this chapter and get some points for your House.

Huffelpuff- if you reviewed and I didn't count you tell me, or review this chapter and get some points for your House.

Chapter 39:

Tala had given three pints of blood and taken some sort of potion to build up her supply so she could give more in a few hours. The reason why Remus was not healing as a Were should, was that someone had been carrying dried Wolf's Bane and it was now in his blood stream. A blood cleansing was impossible without the proper Medi Wizard training and though Starch knew a few charms that would work, they would only work on purely Human blood.

The male and female had worked on Remus and Tala for nearly an hour before the female announced that they needed to rest. The male, who had been hyper the entire time, followed her as docilely as a shadow. Starch was left to see to it that Remus got his blood and Tala did not exert herself.

It was, to Sirius' mind, a strange request to make of a Vampire. To leave him in charge of blood? Did the Garoms really need their naptime that badly?

"He is not in need of a 'nap' as you put it," Starch glanced at the new bag attached to Tala's arm. It was filling at a normal rate and everything seemed to be going well. "He was pushing himself toward an episode just to keep active enough to help. Now that I have things under control he is trying to avoid the crash he set himself up for."

Sirius had the unsettling certainty that his mind had been read. "How did you-"

"I didn't read your mind," Starch cut him off, "I read your lips. Nearly everyone moves their lips when they are in deep thought." He chuckled softly, "He told me about this accident he had when Potter was mouthing some sort of insult at him a few weeks ago…a perfect example of using the person's own mind against them." His gray eyes narrowed as they rested briefly on the bead in Sirius' hair. "That old blue eyed fraud has used my every weakness against me so often, I should think he would be bored with me by now."

Sirius tucked the braid and bead behind his ear. "You don't have one," he noted.

Starch moved to check on Tala. "No. Our relationship is very different from what he will have with you." Pushing his hands into the pockets of his black lab coat, he met Black's eyes across the unconscious woman's form. "He threatened you, didn't he, what did he get you to believe that he would do?"

'Should have known better than to look a Vamp in the eye,' Sirius could have smacked himself in the head. The numb tingle that comes with being under a Vampire's hypnotic control was not obviously present, but he knew that if the good doctor really wanted an answer, he would have one. "He trapped me and-"

"No," Starch shook his spiked mane. "I don't care what he actually did. I want to know what you believed he would do. There is a big difference between the two."

A Vampire who took the time to reason an answer out of a Human, was showing a great deal of respect for the Human, which is rare. Sirius looked at Tala. The potion they had given her, to increase blood production, had also put her to sleep. (A convenient side effect since she needed to stay still or risk severe nausea.)

Nervous, Sirius bit at his lower lip and turned away from the concerned gray eyes that bore into him now. Hugging himself, in a last effort to keep it in, he started to pace. Unconsciously keeping to the length of his cell, he spun on his heel and walked the same number of paces back.

Something had happened, Starch could more than see the tension in the man before him, he could hear the racing of the Human heart and smell the old fear that was being reawoken. It was enough to make him worry. "Black," softly he called the man's name. He walked around to stand beside the narrow path that Sirius was following.

Head down Sirius kept pacing, but started to shake. Spasmodically he jerked his head back and forth, "No. He said he wouldn't, that's the end of it. It doesn't matter now. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"Black," in desperation Starch grabbed his shoulders, and forced him to stop pacing. The shoulders, bony from years of being underfed, flinched violently at the first touch, then went still. He put as much sympathy and true desire to help into his words as he did his eyes. "Sirius, what happened."

He didn't try to turn away, the hands on his shoulders held him still. Closing his eyes, to shut out everything. Black didn't know that Starch would recognize the gesture.

The male did the same thing when he was unable to run anymore. A last ditch effort to hide from the truth.

The way he was standing, rigid with fear, trying to make himself smaller, gasping for each tiny breath and avoiding eye contact, Starch was starting to get an idea of what the connection between Sirius Black and the male was.

"I thought he was going to kiss me." Sirius' words hung, like dead things in the cold, still, air.

'The situation is different this time,' Starch forcibly reminded himself. 'There is no bond between myself and the Human here.' The male had always displayed a, frightening, ability to manipulate people and situations…'He leaves me alone with Black knowing I'll question him. He knew I'd try to find the reason he wanted the Human in the first place… He wants me to know.' It made sense. Keeping Black at arm's length he tried to provide enough space to keep his words from being rejected. "He tries to seduce me, nearly every time we meet. Sex is the most powerful manipulative force he knows, and he uses it like a tactical weapon. He believes you can understand what is going on. That is why he gave you the lead, talk to Tala." He tried to emphasize the last three words, but wasn't sure if they got through.

When Starch took the blood to Remus (Sirius still was not being allowed to see him.) Tala tried to sit up but fell back and closed her eyes.

"Could you give me a hand here?" She swallowed back the nausea and Sirius slowly helped her up. After a few breaths she opened her eyes and looked around for the first time. "Is this really his lab," she spoke softly, as though she were in a hallowed place. "I never thought I'd see him again, let alone get to see his lab."

"Well," he cast a critical eye over the cluttered tables and simmering brews, "as secret laboratories go, it's not too shabby." He grinned at her look of disbelief. Sliding back into his usual happy-go-lucky persona was easier than trying to ask about the male.

"Don't you know what this place is?!"

Sirius tilted his head to one side. "His secret underground lair?"

"Rip would be so disappointed," she shook her head and returned Black's grin. "Don't tell me you are that new to the family!" At Sirius' confused expression her eyes went wide. "You are?! When did he mark you?" Indicating the bead in Sirius' hair. She then reached up to her own hair and ran an identical braid between her forefinger and thumb. The beads at the ends of the braids matched.

Sirius' smile faded and he looked away as he sat on his stool. Clasping his hands between his knees he hunched forward and tried not to loose the good mood he had started to convince himself into. "I dunno, two weeks maybe, maybe a little more. Family?" Questioning her words made it a conversation about her and not him. "What do you mean family? The way he talks it's more like I'm chattel." A huffed laugh and lopsided grin followed.

Tala laughed, "Oh, don't get me wrong! We're definitely his property, but haven't you noticed that there's more than just the one side to it?" Scooting back a little, she drew her legs up under her and smiled down at him. "I'll tell you my story. But you must understand that I have figured it out. You can't even consider sharing yours until you are sure you know the truth."

Black nodded when it became clear that she expected some sort of response.

Tala shook her hair; it fell like a blanket around her shoulders and was just long enough to brush the steel slab. "My tribe was more than just my people, they were my family. When it was discovered that my father was a Dark Wizard, my mother and I were driven from our home and off the reservation land." She, unconsciously, began to imitate the warm smoky voice that her grandmother had used when telling the old tales. "I was only five years old at the time. I remember mother speaking with someone late at night. He was only a few years older than me, maybe he was eight or nine. But he was small; I was nearly as tall as he was. I remember mother begging him, but I don't remember exactly what she said. Only that the conversation ended when he asked to see me." Looking through the fog of many years, she did not notice the tears that misted her eyes. " When he was braiding my hair and threading the bead he said that he would take care of me. I did not understand what he meant."

"Your mother sold you to him," Sirius asked horrified at the implications.

Tala smiled, "I do not know what forced him to travel to America but he sought out my mother. Something had happened, a deep betrayal that he could not reconcile within himself. He saw the same sort of wound in me. He knew that he could heal my heart, though he could not heal his own. In healing me he was looking for, and maybe found, some sort of balance for himself."

"So he helps me with my problems and they just happen to be the same problems he has? If that's all there is to it why use the Marks?"

Smiling a little, Tala started to play with the braid and bead in her own hair. "Things are never that simple, and straight forward. There are so many levels of obligation and responsibility. He marked you for more than one reason. Yes he meant it as a constant reminder to you, but he also means for others to see it and know that you are under his protection."

Sirius needed to get the conversation away from where it was headed. Trusting the male was impossible. He would be used again, then thrown away with another secret that he could never tell. Except in his nightmares. "You seem to know him pretty well. I have to ask, what is going on between him and Snape? I've never seen them together, but they share quarters, are they lovers?"

"Snape?" Tala thought hard, but the name was foreign.

Another piece was trying to click into place, but Sirius couldn't fit it in just yet. "Snape, ya, you now looks just like the male but with black eyes," he prompted.

She steepled her fingers before her mouth and rested her elbows against her knees. "No, I have never seen any one that I would say was a black eyes version of Rip. I have known him since last time- you do understand about time, right?"

'Could I have been right the whole time? If I am right what does that mean for the female…is she the same? I can't ask Dumbledore and Moody. If I am right then they are in this to their necks.' Sirius pushed the braid behind his ear, again. It was fast becoming a nervous habit. "Time? Does it have any baring on what we were just talking about?"

"There was the time Before," she ticked one off on her forefinger. "He has referred to it only a hand full of times as far as I know. I asked him where he learned a certain thing and he said, 'I don't know, maybe it was before,' or things like that." Another finger went up, "There was Last Time. That was the time when I met him, and it seems to run from about two years before I met him, until about five years later. He would have been about fourteen." A third finger, and she shifted a little to relieve the pressure where the table was wearing at her. (She had also given skin for new grafts.) "There was a gap, I'm not really sure how long it lasted. I started to hear people talking about sighting him…maybe two or three years ago. The rumors were vague, and I didn't pay attention. I knew he'd contact me when he was ready. Meeting up with him at the UnderNewYork Wandering Market sure was a surprise."

"That's where I saw you!" Finally he remembered the woman that had been in conversation with Remus as he returned to their little group after meeting with Cardigan. "You're the she Were that Remus has been writing to." The reminder of why they were there ended any sort of good mood they had been able to work up. "He really cares for you." A lame apology.

"I know." A pathetic attempt to hide the tremor in her voice.

She wiped at a tear and bowed her head, in silent prayer, he assumed.

~

By the next morning the blood transfusions had thinned out the concentration of Wolf's Bane in Lupin's system, enough that he had stabilized. The male and female decided that Remus could be safely transferred to the hospital wing. Since he needed only time to recover, his Were healing factor was coming back slowly, Madam Pomfrey reluctantly allowed it. Provided, of course, that he have a private room and that Tala created no disruptions to the Medi Witch's routine.

The transition was made early Wednesday morning, before the rising sun could become too bright for Starch to be in attendance. Head down, the male led the way back to the dungeon. His feet seemed to drag, and there was a weakness to his whole attitude that the Exotic Vampire found worthy of concern.

The male paused, and allowed the female to pass by. She went further down the hall, toward their rooms, and disappeared from sight. Sirius had insisted on staying with Remus. The Were had yet to wake for more than a few moments, and even then he was delirious. But friends are sometimes closer than blood, or lucidity.

Alone now, Starch and the male each waited for the other to break the silence. Starch casually leaned back against one wall. The male crouched a little lower and sat against the wall beside him.

Faint sounds of life, that most never heard, filled the air. The castle unobtrusively redirected a staircase here, a passageway or two there. A few doors were made to open in the opposite direction, just for the fun of it. She knew that the students, and even some of the faculty, thought that the stairs had their own separate identities. In spite of their lack of understanding she loved every soul within her walls, and protected them as she had all of the others entrusted to her for the past one thousand years.

Starch listened to the ebb and flow of Manna for several calming minutes. "I know."

The male did nothing to acknowledge the words.

"He was abused. Was it during his imprisonment?" He didn't really want to know. The truth would be something he could do nothing about. Yet the male had given him the opportunity to find the truth. So he needed to ask, the male needed him to ask.

The male's pupils were so wide that his eyes almost looked as black as someone else's. Considering his answer, though, his eyes began to glimmer as the pupils narrowed to vertical slits. "Some, mild, things were done while he was a young child. I knew that from Last Time. The guards at Azkaban are not exactly paragons of virtue. They visited his cell. I don't know much, only what I could get from one guard…after I broke him."

"He has not decided to trust you yet."

The male glanced over at the clear gray eyes that were so focused on his next response. "You know you'll never get more than I give you." Pain flickered across his friend's face.

They both knew that neither would choose to unmake their friendship, but they both also knew that the relationship really went one way. Starch poured his heart into the dirt and the male could make no more sense of it than he could understand why he hated him to the point of self-destruction.

Closing his blue eyes, the male tipped his head back and focused on the rough stones that ground into his scalp. He answered softly, "I don't need this one to trust me. I need him to obey me. Potter is his legal responsibility, as soon as the papers are approved, and if I am to protect the boy I need to be able to control Black."

"You could control him better if he trusted you-"

"Well maybe I want someone else to suffer! Is that what you want to hear?!" He hadn't intended to shout.

"I want the truth. We both know you chose him because Voldemort has figured out how to hurt you."

"Have you got any idea how many Vamps I've let dry bite me?" The venom behind the words sank deep into Starch's heart. He continued with no apparent regard for the eyes that were now brimming with bloody tears. "I have been whoring myself for money, supplies, and information for more years than I have known you. Voldemort won't be able to do more than give me the chance to go nova and then I'll end it all. The Dark Lord, him, and my own illegitimate half-life, gone in an instant."

"Why." Starch choked out the single word around the denial lodged in his throat.

Through clenched teeth he growled back, "Because there is no point in fighting, I'm never going to atone for my mistakes."

@---'---,------------------

"Lumos." The child's voice whispered the simple command with the awe of a Muggle born who still looked at Magic as though it were…magic. To his great delight the tip of his wand began to glow a steady pale green.

As quietly as small untrained feet could tread, he and his companion skittered from shadow to shadow. They were so new to sneaking around, that it didn't occur to them that the lit wand gave them away. Eventually, they made it to the main doors to the castle. Tentatively the smaller of the two tried the door handle first. It did not budge.

With a great sense of importance, and more than a little pride, the older boy drew his own wand and the younger stepped back to give him room.

"Alohamora." His pronunciation was a little off, and his flick was slightly wobbly, but the castle doors opened anyway. The adoration in his little brother's eyes was enough to make Colin Creevey feel taller than a full-blooded Giant.

Together Colin and Dennis were out of their dorms, before curfew officially lifted, to take a picture of the Giant Squid. Colin thought that the setting moon would make nice reflections on the wet tentacles, and he wanted to test his new Wizards' film, supposedly it could take true- color photos at night.

Dennis was not the shutterbug that his brother was, but he desperately wanted the chance to break the rules, a little- he was a Gryffindor after all. Plus Colin needed someone to throw the bait. (Buttered sweet rolls they had stuffed in their pockets during dinner.)

When they reached the shore of the lake there was patchy cloud cover, and something being washed in on the waves. It was very large and when the wind shifted both boys had to try hard not to throw up because of the stench. Something had died and for a moment Dillon though it might have been the Squid, but Colin pointed out that it was not large enough and had no tentacles.

"Then what is it," Dennis asked while pulling his robe up over his nose.

Colin stepped closer, the wind was blowing the putrid odor away from them for the moment. "Well…it, looks like…" he took another few steps and the clouds cleared enough for him to get a momentary glimpse. He never forgot the picture his mind took in that instant.

~

It came as a pleasant surprise to almost all of the students, that Charles Weasley had accepted the offer of temporary Care of Magical Creatures professor. The Order also found it convenient to have another member close to home.

Two students, both Creevey boys, were absent from breakfast. Most Gryffindors tried to avoid the Photo Fiend and so, thought that they were just having more success than usual.

Dumbledore again mentioned the Halloween Ball, and with a fleeting glance at a few notoriously prank prone students, announced that there would be an extra event added to the night's festivities.

"In the interest of better Magic to Muggle relations, we will be observing a few Muggle customs," his eyes twinkled.

Snape and Miss Moody came to breakfast late. Both avoided eye contact to hide their blue eyes and both resented the fact that they had to take seats with other people on either side.

"Severus," Albus smiled warmly and offered a tray pile high with meats of several breakfasty varieties. "So nice to see you this fine morning." To his great astonishment, the male accepted a few pieces of smoked sausage. His thick white beard covered most of his involuntary reaction, but the male cast him a sidelong glance anyway.

"It's going to rain," the male murmured taking a long drink from his goblet. "I think I like the rain," he shrugged. "I suppose you must be right. So far."

Albus watched closely.

A little uncertainly the male cut his meat into very small pieces. Holding a single tiny cube on the end of his fork he smelled it, almost experimentally. Opening his mouth just enough to get the bite in he chewed more than was necessary and swallowed, quickly taking another sip of wine.

Albus turned to his own plate for a few minutes. "Severus…" caution was easily read in his tone. The male was listening, even though he did not make an acknowledging gesture. "Severus, will you be able to come to the Ball?" 'Wow, a nice safe subject. Why not ask him if he needs new socks because I'm heading into Hogsmead this weekend?'

"I'm invited?"

The sincerity of his surprise shocked the aged Headmaster. "Of –" 'No, obviously it's not an of course type of situation. He didn't think he was invited. He never assumes he is invited.' "Yes, Severus, you are invited."

Another few bits of sausage were forced down before a quiet and tentative thank you was given.

~

That night, at the hurriedly called meeting of the heads of the Order of the Phoenix it was announced that Hagrid had been found.

"He was too long in the water to get more than basic curse related trauma diagnosed." The male lay on his back on the elegantly woven rug that bore the Slytherin crest. Arms crossed behind his head, ankles crossed, he did not look as though he had autopsied a colleague that morning. "She was able to do a quick model, usually there is less to work with, it's a positive match. Well there was still some hair, and enough blood to check too, but we were pretty sure from the start."

"And Lupin?" Rita sat stiffly cross-legged on the other side of the, table.

Like the rugs, the table bore the familiar markings that they all knew, but this time it was more a piece of art than usual. A sand painting with a surprising variety of colors including red, blue, yellow and green all successfully matching the House shades. it was certainly beautiful, and different.

"I suppose you mean more than 'Will he survive'…" Not bothering to open his eyes, he missed Rita's silent sneer. "I'm not sure why, but the She-Were has been rather devoted to him. He is calmer in her presence and I think she will continue to be a stabilizing force. He has nothing that we could use to identify the Death Eaters. I searched his memory, it's all frigged u-" He rolled into a low crouch so quickly that even Alastor jumped back. Eyes flaring to a blindingly bright intensity, he seemed to be listening to something beyond the haze that shrouded the secret council.

No one moved.

After a long, breathless, time the male relaxed back onto his mat. Curling up so that he lay on his side with his upper body twisted so his chest was flat on the rug. Chin resting on crossed forearms he half closed his eyes and did not speak for the rest of the meeting.

Against his better judgment, Albus left him alone. The male would not appreciate being interrupted. Even if it looked like he was only daydreaming.