Ok, some of this really is mine and some is the property of other people. A few of those other people are J.K. Rowling, H.G. Welles, whom ever owns the movie The Labyrinth, and the estate (assuming there is one) of the historical figure Grigory Rasputin. There may be others I have failed to list.
Some of the things here are my own i.e. my original characters and various devices that are not directly based on anyone else's work. I claim only my own things and the plot, which is all me.
I make no money from the things that are not mine and make no money from this fanfic because it is so dependant on things derived from and or borrowed from other peoples' work.
Gryffindor-210 Points- Frogfoot receives 10 points for a helpful and detailed private e-mail review; Ezioku receives 10 Points and a pair of tweezers; DnD4ever receives ten points and a bottle of halcyon. I'm sorry but chapters may have to stay at this two week per chap rate.
Slytherin-270 Points- Mic, welcome to the group. You are awarded ten Points and I request patients, Black unfortunately is important to both Potter and the male Garom, and so is not expendable…yet; RivanKnight receives ten points for delicious deviousness
Ravenclaw-10 Points- 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.
WARNING- there is a bit of reminiscing (at the end of the chapter) and past violence, which was directed at a child, is discussed. I try to be clear without being blatant. Feedback is appreciated.
Chapter 45: (this chapter starts a few moments before the previous chapter ended)
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The female stood there, in the middle of the street. Uncertainly watching Sirius Black and the male run toward what looked like a pitched battle. 'What should I do? What should I do?!' Panic and doubt clawed away at her fragile sense of purpose. Until, falling back, the Other let her take control.
Moody stumbled a few steps but regained her balance and saw Black dart around a distant corner. Deep inside, the Other was trembling. 'I was getting ready for dinner… We were going to split detention so we could grade those Second Year essays…what happened? What did you get me into?!' From the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Snape running toward what looked like a demolition site. Except for the huge Phoenix overhead.
Her black eyes widened at the sight of the flaming insignia, 'If Snape is running to cut Black off,' she started running, 'Then I'll flank Black and we'll have him, and whoever he's trying to help.'
*No, it's a rescue mission.*
'So there are more of Albus' worshipers around, and we have them trapped. Good. Once we stop Black, we'll-'
*No.*
The refusal stopped Severa in her tracks. It had never before refused an idea or an order. Things were definitely progressing, rapidly. The breath hitched in her throat. Memories of hundreds of nights spent, certain that there was more to her life than just her own, swirled around her. Around the immovable fact of Alastor's betrayal, and the fact that Lord Voldimort was the one to finally tell her the truth.
'You are wrong.' The certainty in her mind was absolute. Shaking the fragments of painful loyalty to her guardian aside she rushed toward the corner Black had disappeared around. 'My guardian was my jailor and it took his enemy to set me free.' Leaning against the building for support, and protection, she waited a moment to analyze the battle before her. Focusing on the violation of trust and fury at the betrayal, she directed the energy at the thing inside her. It withered from the scorching hate like a Grindylow in the sun.
Black was between herself and what appeared to be two members of the Order, pinned down in front of a trinket shop. The building itself looked near collapse. On the far side of the paved and litter-strewn clearing, five Death Eaters were positioned in advantageous nooks. But they were still unable to get a clean shot at the annoying little Orderlings.
Ducking back as a spell missed Black and shattered the wall behind him, flinging pieces of wood everywhere, Severa drew her wand. Squinting slightly because of the hex induced haze she aimed taking her time. No one knew she was here and the threat of injury from friendly fire was minimal. Everyone's focus was on the other side of the street.
A flutter of motion to her left at the exact moment she was speaking the words to her curse broke Severa's concentration. Her spell missed and hit a sign in a shop. All that could be read now was an outrageously decorative 'Z' the rest was scorched.
Her pulse was running at double-time and she was cold with sweat and the night air's chill. 'You did that on purpose!' She screamed in her mind.
*I thought it was a threat!*
Severa's eye widened is mild panic. 'So. You betray me now too?!'
*No! I mean only to protect you. This is madness. Voldimort told the truth yes, but he told it for a reason. He is using you just as much as they have. And he has done less to earn your trust or loyalty! Please jus-*
A slash of brilliantly white electricity flickered from a dark alley across the intersection exploding a garbage skip. Bits of litter were thrown into the air. In the confusion of such powerful Magic being released with no apparent target the exchange of curses and hexes paused again. Sirius Black made a crouched run toward the stone planter where the other Order members were hiding.
Leaping out into the open she leveled her wand and violently stabbed at Black's back while shouting. "Aveda Ca-"
*NO!*
Severa Moody was aware only of a rushing of claws and fangs and will.
The female gasped as a second blast of lightning tore from the alley and across the street. Desperately her darkly blue eyes tried to make sense of Black and two smaller forms dashing into a crumbling building.
Grabbing a deep lungful of air she twisted reality, just a little, and in a flash and cloud of glitter she appeared in the back of the shop. Three concussive hexes brought the front wall and most of the roof down at last. In blind panic she spread her arms wide and focused on somewhere safe yet close enough that she could get everyone there, intact.
~
The male held his breath. An awareness of her presence had been growing for some time, coming to his attention at the Halloween Ball, but her absence was starting to affect him too. When the female Garom was forced to Glam the Humans out of harms way he waited a few seconds, then Glammed himself to her side.
'His freaked out relationship with his sister is not my concern,' the male coldly forced the thoughts and feelings aside and kept his eyes closed while the glitter was still swirling through the air. When it settled he took in the scents first. 'The female, and Black ok… Potter? Weasley, Granger and Writtenhouse?! And, blood.' His pupils narrowed to slits as he tried to see. The female was curled up and whispering to herself shaking like a beaten dog…not a good sign.
Sweeping the great silk cloak from his own shoulders and dropping it over Potter, he gave the Golden-Boy a cursory check for injuries. Nothing was broken or dislocated, But the large green eyes were vacant, pupils dilated, Potter was in mild shock. 'Which is a good thing,' the male decided. 'Shock makes people easier to direct, easier to lead, easier to save.'
He shoved his silk wrapped burden at Weasley. "I can't believe you allowed him to get into a confrontation like this," he hissed. Ron opened his mouth to defend himself but the male glared the redhead down. "You would be out of the Order if I could find someone to replace you. You have managed to endanger every single person in Hogsmead as well as everyone here. Now watch that tunnel," he shot a glance to his left, "They will be coming for us. Soon." He watched as Weasley lit his wand and took up a position beside the entrance they had just come through.
The male then moved to crouch low over Hermione. "Mister Writtenhouse," he growled. "Do back the smeg off. I can't work with you breathing down my neck." With a sigh he added, "No matter how much I may disdain your House, I will not further injure Miss Granger." The male waited until his spatial awareness told him that the Second Year boy had moved back several meters and then tried to diagnose what had been used against the Gryffindor-Brain-Trust 'A blood thinner… She'll need treatment before she can safely be moved, but I can't handle such a delicate case. I'm already trying to manage a hostile situation. While hiding in a filthy chamber, at the end of a Morlock tunnel! The female could handle this though, I think. She was hand raised by Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin, right?! If half the stories about him are true…'
Not bothering to stand, he half crawled to the female Garom on his hands and toes. It would have been awkward, if it hadn't looked so cat like. He slowly reached for her right arm. She gave no resistance when he straightened it and did not draw it back around herself when he released her arm to fish in his boot for the syringe he always kept loaded with Blocker, just in case.
"Not that it matters," he would have attempted a lopsided grin. But that just wasn't him. "It's clean though. You need to take it now, we can't afford to have her storming back while we're down here." She didn't react when he slid the needle into a vein in her wrist. Dropping the cap to the ground he slid the needle back inside, safely recapping it.
The blood collecting beneath Black required his attention next. Black was lying on his stomach and not moving. Kneeling beside the unconscious man he checked for injuries. Finding none he carefully checked Black's scalp, most of the blood loss was coming from cuts there. 'But scalp wounds bleed a lot, even when they're minor.'
Behind him, the male could feel movement. Deliberately the female ran her hands through the air above the injured girl. Granger moaned and the male cringed at the noise. Pulling a few of the larger pieces of debris from Black's tangled hair he grimaced as fresh blood flowed.
"Black is- he has never reacted well to Unframed Magic." He was speaking to the female. Trying to reassure himself. Black hadn't moved independent of his own direct physical manipulation. 'Another bad sign.' He shrugged that thought off as well.
Carefully he rolled Black onto his back. Aside from a few cuts on his face and left hand, and a split lip, he was just unconscious.
Aidan helped Hermione to her feet. Wanting to do something right in his superior's eyes, Ron watched the tunnel with a shame driven intensity. A discarded tin rattled and clanged as it skittered across the paving stones. One of the boys had accidentally kicked it, but when the male turned back, he could not tell which one, they all looked guilty; of course, they were all Gryffindors.
Without time to think, he scooped Black into his arms and jumped to his feet.
"We need to run. Miss Granger your heels will bruise but that is the nicest thing that could possibly happen at this point." The sound was too distant for the Humans to hear, but soon the approaching footsteps would carry the ever vigilant, and territorial, Morlocks to them.
Black stirred a little then settled with his head against the male's chest.
The male fought for calm. The old nightmares were coming back. He had been good, hadn't gone back into any of the forbidden rooms or passages. But not even dawn would save him now, only speed and stealth.
He addressed the female Garom with orders. "I'll take vanguard then fall back, you take point and get them to the school. Give Potter your cloak and keep him with you. He is your priority."
"I can't feel her." The female whimpered.
It wrung something inside him, something that almost hurt at the knowledge of her fear and pain. He caught her eyes and harshly whispered, "It's just like the Vacuum. She will be back." It was supposed to be reassuring. 'Maybe she won't react the way he did.'
"She will seek revenge."
"Well, yes." The male hissed impatiently. "I thank you for getting my Mark out, but next time please choose the site you're ending up at. You really couldn't have put us in a worse place without involving the Dark Lord himself. We need to move. Now."
Running in the dark tunnels beneath Hogsmead was not something he had ever wanted to do. Everyone in Slytherin knew what lived down there. Everyone in Slytherin knew what those things did, to pretty young girls and boys if they caught them.
He was sending the female signals that he had no idea how she understood, or even how he knew how to send in the first place. The male was desperate, trying to forget everything he knew about the Morlocks while remembering the little he knew of their tunnels. The female was somehow telling him that they were coming up on a two way intersection, and he somehow told her which way to go. It worked, but it was creepy.
With a dip of his head he signaled the female to stop at the next chamber they came to. Even carrying Black he wasn't being taxed physically. The sweat and harsh breathing were fear driven, as had been their flight. But now it was over.
"I'm lost." He made the announcement because it needed to be said. The female paled. She had been a Slytherin for only a few months but she knew of the Morlocks.
Her voice was flat. "The children?"
He knelt and lay Black on the cold stones of the tunnel floor. "Black," he shook the man gently by the shoulder. "Black?" Unfocused dark brown eyes squinted open.
"You?" Black croaked, nearly coherent, and looking sick.
"Black, you need to throw up." Obviously the nausea hadn't registered yet, so he lifted Black's prison lean frame and helped him stand.
"I don't feel so well…" He had one arm around his stomach and one hand braced against the wall. Brows knit trying to figure out where he was, Black actually looked quite pathetic.
"Just throw up," the male pitched his voice to a soothing purr. One arm still around Sirius' waist he brushed the long dark hair away from Black's forehead. "Everything else will be here to deal with when you're done." He was somewhat encouraged when Black took him at his rather meaningless word and surrendered to overwhelming nausea.
Ron was trying to help Hermione; her feet had in fact bruised rather badly. He had removed his robe and lain it out on the floor for her to sit upon.
Harry hadn't flung off the two cloaks, as the male had half expected him to, once they had stopped. Instead Harry was beating himself to pieces for having been the cause of all this mess.
Aidan was looking a bit sick himself, trying not to watch Sirius vomit in the corner.
The female watched their entrance and the potential exit in the far wall. She, at least, was doing better.
"I assumed we were under the building you took them from." He was holding Black's hair back so it would stay out of the way, out of the mess. 'As Black regains his composure he will no doubt realize where we are. Without the cover of a simple orange's scent to protect us! I've already taken him through the tunnels a few times, and the man already knew what to expect from the monsters down here. That threat was the only reason Black had eaten the orange on one of our trips. So what do I do now?!'
He was supporting more of Black's weight as the vomiting eventually faded to dry heaves. Shifting his hold to stand behind Black, he pulled the trembling and exhausted body close to his own.
"We're under Hogsmead." Sirius hadn't been sure of where he was when he had drifted in and out for the last several minutes. He remembered the smell of leather and the feel of cool metal, like buckles. He shook his head and felt the arm around his waist tightened. At his back he felt the male draw a slow deep breath. Going ridged, instinctively, he harshly snapped, "The room isn't spinning anymore. You can let go. Now."
The male leaned over Black's shoulder. Sirius twisted in the male's grasp and craned his neck to meet the male's eyes. The male watched thoughts flicker through Black's mahogany orbs, and loosened his hold enough for Black to stand alone.
The male spoke hurriedly and softly. "I think we can hold this place better than one of the tunnels. In your Animagus form you would not be of interest to them. If you and Mister Potter-"
"Harry!" Sirius jerked around trying to find his godson. He would have fallen, but the male caught him. Black didn't seem to notice, this time.
Putting Black back on his feet, the male held his shoulder tightly. Nearly touching the man's ear he hissed. "Black, listen to me. We need to hold this place as long as we can. She and I," he indicated the female, "will survive far longer than the children. As a dog you are of no interest. Wrapped in silk Potter should be undetectable. Do you understand?"
"What time is it?" Black looked about frantically, finally realizing where they were.
"It is very nearly early." He really didn't want to have to dash Black's last hope. 'I have to tell him though. He'll refuse to obey if I don't tell him how bad things really are.' "Dawn is too far away to save us, and even if I thought we could stand that long I can't find fresh air. No passages to the surface."
Sirius drew his wand and whispered a Lumos, then gave a bitter laugh. "I hate the dark."
He let the man go to check on the kids. Clocks he couldn't hear struck midnight, his internal clock was right on time. The male drew a small vial from an inner pocket. Across the room the female mimicked his actions withdrawing an identical vial of her own.
Sirius had checked on Hermione and Ron, then made sure that Aidan still had his wand. He leaned against the wall beside Harry and reached over to snug the two layers of silk closer over the boy's shoulders and drew one of the hoods over Harry's eternally messy hair.
"Why is it so important that I wear these cloaks?" Harry muttered.
"Silk dampens Magic Harry," Sirius explained softly. "Makes it harder to track someone by their Maginetic signature." The male was taking his midnight dose of serum when Black addressed him from across the chamber. "It's going bad, you know."
Putting the vial away he shrugged. "Hadn't really noticed that one Black." He moved to check the air in one of the tunnels. There had been something…
"The Potion." Black clarified as he pulled the second hood over Harry's head. "The Plasti-juice, it's going bad."
The male continued to try and ignore the irrelevant nonsense that Black kept blithering. There had been something in the air of the tunnel he was guarding. Something he couldn't quite detect.
"I can't believe you're poisoning yourself with that junk."
Black wasn't taking his inattention the way he had hoped. "Black, be silent and become a dog," he growled.
"When our time's up." The absolute immovability in Sirius' voice caused the male to glance up. Their eyes locked briefly and Black was left with the impression of nearly being devoured by something a good deal more dangerous than a Morlock.
The male looked away. "That, I understood." He motioned with one hand, directing Weasley to get up and take over watching the female's tunnel. Something was coming, and the Morelocks were following it straight to them.
Sirius had been silent, thinking over the male's responses. "I can't believe you don't recognize that the Plasti-juice you're taking is spoiling."
"Black, if I knew how to brew Plasti-juice maybe I'd know more about it. I never really bothered to research it though. It's not all that effective and really doesn't have that many applications." He caught the female's attention with a glance in her direction. Moving aside he let her test the air in the tunnel.
"You, didn't brew it?" Black was frantically putting pieces together in his head.
The female took a few steps into the tunnel; her eye shine glimmered off of the moist brick walls. "It reminds me of you," she whispered, her expression distant with concentration. "Like a part of you." She returned to the soft light of their chamber.
Some one had charmed a few bricks in the ceiling to glow. He wouldn't have authorized it, but the male wasn't about to try and determine who had done it.
Black squinted through the loose hair that fell in his eyes. The single thin braid with the smooth green bead at his temple, the male's Mark, swung lazily when he tilted his head to clear his vision. "Did Snape brew it then?"
"Black I told you- I just told you I didn't brew the damn Potion."
"Well let me tell you about it then." Black aggressively advanced on the male. "Once it's brewed it's good for about twenty years. According to you, you've been taking it for twenty years or so. The black eyes and junk in your lungs is because the fusion is coming apart. I haven't got a clue why Albus would want to blend a Garom with either Snape or Miss Moody, but he did. And now you're dying."
The male almost smiled as Sirius glared, standing nearly close enough so he could count the Human's pulse, if it were only a little quieter in the room. 'If he weren't so easy to manipulate I'd have to Break him…' A shudder edged past his cool façade. The last time he had Broken someone it had been a matter of necessity. Even Alastor Moody had left the room before he was done.
Black, naturally, misunderstood the male's slight tremor and gave his usual fear based response; holding his breath going ridgid and emotionally withdrawing as fast as he could. A slight noise behind him and Sirius was a moment too late to stop the female from throwing a spell that caused Harry to drop to the floor. Even though she caught the limp boy, Sirius was after her with his wand out and a curse ready.
The male grabbed Black's wrist and forced his wand to point to the ground. "We needed to do it Black." He whispered into the man's ear. "Those guards in Azkaban really are paragons of virtue next to the Morlocks. I won't let them take the children." He felt Sirius' eyes dart over the chamber's interior. All four youth's were unconscious and lying on the floor.
"I'll die first," Black whispered.
"You don't need to Black." The male countered. He took up a position beside the tunnel he had been investigating, the female began watching the other. "I was just walking back to Slytherin Common when they jumped me." He was murmuring almost as aimlessly as Black had been doing a few moments before. The foul serum felt like it was burning down his throat still. He tried to focus on important things and let go of the control he usually kept on his thoughts and words. "I told you once, that I don't like the dark."
"But," Black looked up from making sure the children were safe, again. Vaguely something was registering; something of the sort had been said on their trip back from Smeagol Lake. "Your eyes glow, how would you even be in the dark?"
"They locked me in one of the old Guard Quarters, I told you that much. Back then, you see, before I was able to do anything about the way the House was run, the Morlocks would sometimes make raids in the back passages of the dungeons."
Sirius knew where the story must be going. He wanted desperately to stop it, but couldn't. "They found you." He wasn't asking. He already knew.
The male was wired. Too much energy and no release. A rare reaction to the Potion, but not totally unfamiliar. "When the Morlocks tired of what little sport I provided, they left me. I couldn't move for hours. Healing as quickly as I usually do has drawbacks. They were able to, play, with me for longer than usual because I was healing between, rounds."
'Stop.' Sirius was nearly sure he had mouthed the word and not just thought it. But the male wasn't looking at him so it made no difference.
"I found a passage to fresh air. It was just before dawn, the Morlocks had fled from the increasing light. I passed a cemetery and saw a Vampire take one last look at something, before he flew off. That's how I met Starch." He gasped a painful laugh. "I was bleeding again, from climbing the ladder. Starch was trying to keep from draining me he was so desperate for blood."
"Starch," the female echoed.
The male held his breath and turned to follow the female's eyes. Trapped in his mid twenties, thin and gray tinged; the Exotic Vampire soundlessly emerged from the impenetrable black of the tunnel. In a blur of motion the male was suddenly clinging to Starch.
He was shaking and a single strangled sob passed his lips. As sudden as his reaction had been, it was over. Dropping his arms from around Starch's neck he stepped back. "Can we make it to the surface?"
It took Starch a moment longer to recover from the elation that the male had fed him through their blood link. "I didn't come from the surface," his voice was raw. Thin slightly rust colored tears welled up in his gray eyes, but refused to fall. "If I can get you back into the system connected to the school, can you find a passage back to the dungeons?"
The male gave a sharp nod and started making plans. "Black, can you carry Potter?" To the female he snapped, "Wake Weasley we need his wand. You're with Writtenhouse."
Sirius knew an answer was not required. He gathered Harry into his arms and whispered a lightening charm to reduce the boys weight so he could run.
Starch checked Hermione, drew his wand and performed a few fine healing spells before taking the girl into his arms. He caught the redheaded boy watching him cautiously, and smiled. "Mister Ron Weasley, I believe?" At a grudging nod he continued. "You are right, I am a Vampire, and an Exotic at that. I can also take better care of her than anyone, alive."
The female was carrying Aidan Writtenhouse as though he were a baby; one arm under his shoulders keeping his head to her shoulder, her other arm around his shins forcing him to curl into a tight ball. It looked awkward, but kept their weight more centered.
The male gave a silent, motionless, command and Starch and the female led the mad dash into the dark.