Chapter Three:
"Where is the girl? I know you have her Sirius." It was the voice of a woman used to everything going her way. And this time would be no different. "Quickly, I haven't all day to put up with your childish nonsense. I'm lunching with the Minister's wife in an hour."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius said, keeping his face perfectly calm, a trick he had learned from the formidable woman standing before him. "Why do you think I would have that pesky little brat with me?"
Lily and James shared a look of discomfort. Remus was trying to calm Peter down because he was shivering with fear. He had met the woman once and it haunted his nightmares for years to come.
Ursula Black began laughing; a decadent, smoky laugh that made everyone in the room, but Sirius, flinch. "Really, Sirius? Pesky little brat? You adore the girl. Don't try and fool me, I'm your mother. Now tell me when she is and this will all end." Her gaze landed on the mirror behind the wall. She admired her ghastly face in it, chuckling with amusement. "So I'm an enemy, am I?"
"Yes, you are," Sirius said tersely. "And you're not my mother. You're just the women who fucked a man and got pregnant. I was just the free gift with the experience. That's where your involvement in my life ends. Now why don't you get out of here or I'll be forced to call the police. You are trespassing on my property."
Again the woman laughed. "Really, Sirius. What makes you think that your petty insults and threats would shake me up?" Her eyes began to rove across the floor, looking for something out of the ordinary. "I've dealt with these… police before. Weak, just like all muggles. Now what do we have here?" She bent over and began to examine the area of floor around the invisible door. Sirius' face became rigid, his eyes darting over to James and Lily.
"Very clever, my son. But not clever enough. You were always a disappointment to me and your father. You and your brother both. At least he's loyal to me, even if he is dumber than a flobberworm." Her long, bejewelled fingers caressed the worn floor right in front of Andromeda's door. They slid across the floor and then up the door. The camouflage began to melt away.
"Leave her alone," Sirius snapped, trying to put himself between the door and his mother. He was too slow and his mother pushed the door open. Andromeda was huddled in a corner behind the bed, trying to make herself as small as possible. Ursula pulled out her wand and pointed it at the bed. It disintegrated on the spot.
"Stupefy!" Sirius shouted, pointing his own wand at the small of his mother's back. She twisted around quickly and with an agility surprising for a woman of her age flipped into the air and landed behind Sirius, shooting a spell into his back. Sirius froze in place, only his eyes moving around fearfully.
Lily, James, and Remus rose out of their seats wands at the ready. Ursula laughed and threw up a barrier between her and them.
"I should have you all arrested. Kid-napping and attacking an old woman. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Silly little mudblood," she laughed as Lily tried break through the invisible wall. "You'll never be able to break through it. Not even a pure-blood could break it." While Lily attacked the spell with a new fervour, Mistress Black walked back into the room.
Andromeda stood there, her wand pointing at her Aunt's chest.
"Oh please, if you use magic you'll be expelled from Hogwarts, I can assure you of that. Now come along, your mother is livid. She about ready to tear apart London. And you wouldn't all those deaths on your hands, now would you?"
"Why does she care? She knows I hate her guts and has let me know on more than one occasion that the feeling is mutual." Andromeda kept her wand raised, she didn't care if she was expelled. At least it was better than having to go back home.
"But she does care. She doesn't want your chances at a good future thrown away like this. Sirius and his friends are nothing in Society, they aren't going anywhere. Is that what you want?" Ursula voice had become calm and motherly, but Andromeda could still detect a tinge of malice.
Andromeda knew exactly what to say, she had all the words on the tip of her tongue. The only problem was she put too much thought on the perfect words and gave Ursula the upper hand.
"Expelliarmus," her aunt screamed.
The spell hit Andromeda squarely in the chest, sending her flying across the room. Her wand flew from her grip and landed at Ursula's feet as Andromeda slammed into the wall and crumpled to the floor, the bones in her left leg cracking loudly.
"Ooh, that sounded like it hurt."
Ursula strode across the small room and stood over Andromeda, smiling triumphantly. "Now let's go home."
"No," Andromeda moaned, cringing as she tried to move her broken leg. "I'm not going anywhere."
And before Ursula could do anything Andromeda slammed her right foot into her knee-cap, sending the woman to the floor crying in pain. "You will pay for that you little brat," Ursula hissed, backhanding Andromeda across the face.
Her talon like nails left four deep slash marks on Andromeda's face, blood already beginning to roll toward her chin. She stared at her Aunt in utter disgust, tears of pain mixed with blood. "Bitch…" Andromeda meekly said, trying not to flinch as Ursula got to her feet. She winced in pain only briefly, as she placed her weight back onto her legs.
"I have a high tolerance for pain, little girl. You will have to do a lot more than that to bring me down," she reached down and wrapped her heavily bejewelled fingers into Andromeda's hair and began to drag her across the floor. "I will not allow you to make a fool our family." She let Andromeda's head to slam into the door frame as she pulled her out of the room. "We've already lost some face for Sirius' behaviour, I won't loose more for you."
Andromeda began screaming at the top of her lungs. She cast a look of desperation over at Lily who was trying everything to break through the barrier. She froze when she saw Andromeda being dragged out of the apartment by her hair.
Lily studied the barrier for a split second before abandoning her efforts and turning to the barred windows.
"Get those bars off," she told James, pulling off her sweater. "It's time for a little sky diving."
As her husband blasted out the bars she turned to Remus. "You up for a little transfiguration?" He nodded. "Good." She grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and spread it across her back, holding out the ends with her hands. It looked like wings. "Can you make it into a set of wings, like you did last time?"
Remus look unsure for a second, but Andromeda's screams seemed to concrete his resolution to move ahead with the spell. He flourished his wand, muttering things under his breath. And slowly the blanket began to transform into a set of white wings, stretched out magnificently. When the transformation was finished Lily moved closer to him so her could attach the wings to her back. As her flesh melded with the wings they began to twitch a little bit.
"You look like an angel," James sighed, petting the soft, pale feathers. "Go and save Little One. And be safe, Ursula has more power than you would think, and she doesn't mind hurting people." He kissed the side of Lily's face.
She smiled at him. "Don't worry. I'll be fine, this is nothing. Beautiful wings Remus." Her green eyes wandered admiringly over them.
"No prob, now get out of here. Andromeda needs your help." Remus winced as Andromeda's screams reached all new levels of intensity.
"Try and break through while I am gone." Lily backed up to the barrier and ran towards the open window. She dove through, her wings enveloping her small body. Wind rushed fiercely through her hair, causing it to whip around in every such direction.
The floors of the building passed quickly, and the ground moved closer and closer. Right before she would have smashed into it she unfurled her wings and her rapid descent was stalled. She lowered herself gracefully in front of the doors and looked around. Ursula's limousine was still idled in the street, so that meant she was still trudging down the eight floors, with Andromeda trailing behind her. Wrapping her wings back around her body she dashed up the steps and swung the doors open quickly.
The lobby was silent, Lily couldn't hear a single scream for help. Ursula must have silenced Andromeda. At the second Lily began to run up the stairs to meet them and catch Mistress Black of guard a blast of hot air caught her in the chest and sent her flying backwards. An ear-splitting screech followed and Ursula came into sight, tumbling dangerously down the stairs, her arms flailing for help.