Ch.7 - Hello and Good-bye Peter...

Severus instructed the Order members to stay put. Severus then quickly ran down stairs, wand drawn. The sight that greeted him, he did not like. Marissa was being held by two Death Eaters, with a gash along her arm, while three others stood off to the side, their wands trained on him.

"Severus.. our Master is not pleased with you." Severus could hear the smirk in Wormtails voice.

"Wormtail. What brings you here? And I don't recall doing anything to upset Him. So, would you care to enlighten me?" Sev smirked at the ex-Gryffindor.

"Why...you left us for three months... with no word. Our master thought you turned traitor. He's spent most of his time planing your death." Wormtail gleefully informed him. Personally, Wormtail was hoping the Dark Lord would...'share' Severus before he was killed. He wanted to have some 'fun' with him first.

"Oh, Wormtail..." a soft voice from upstairs drifted down. Wormtail nervously aimed his wand at the bottom of the stairs. "What did you do to me, Wormtail? It's been a long time... Why did you do it, Wormtail? Why?" the voice called again. Wormtail was looking uneasy. He looked around, and saw that everyone else was staring at the stairs, too.

"Come on up, Wormtail. I have a surprise for you..." the voice sounded closer, and took on a threatening note. Everyone waited. The voice seemed to have disappeared. Since Severus was closer to the stairs he saw it before everyone else, and jumped out of the way. A low growl was heard, before a large black figure shot out from the stairway.

"Avada Kedavera!" Wormtail screamed, but the figure dodged the geen light, and launched itself onto Wormtail, biting his leg. Wormtail screamed, as the other two Death Eaters disapparated. Marissa punched one of the Death Eaters holding her, and kicked the other one.. a little below the belt. She grabbed her wand, and stunned them both. Severus had his wand trained on Wormtail and Sirius. He stunned Wormtail when he got a shot, while Marissa was busy looking for something to stop the bleeding of the gash she got, when they grabbed her.

Sirius turned back, and stared at Marissa's arm. It was bleeding.. but it didn't look like blood. Marissa saw him staring, and covered up her arm as best she could. Albus, Remus, and everyone else came down the stairs. Moody took the three Death Eaters to the Ministry, Wormtail in front. Sirius was still staring at Marissa, though.

"Sirius? Are you ok? Why are you staring at Marissa?" Remus' last question got everyone's attention.

"She's.. she's not human, Remus. She's not human." Sirius whispered.

"What are you trying to say, Sirius?"

"Remus.. her blood. Look at her blood! It's not.. human." he tried to explain.

"I don't get it Sirius."

"Remus. look at her arm. Where she got cut. Look." all eyes went to Marissa. All eyes but one.

"Sirius, now is not the time for Marissa to explain." Severus said. Sirius kept staring at Marissa.

"Um.. Sev? Could you heal this for me, please?" Marissa asked. Severus nodded, and stepped in front of her, making it so now one could see her, and moved away a moment later, when he had finished healing her. He moved over to the counter, took out a pice of parchment, and some ink, and scribbled a quick note. He called his hawk owl, Shadow, to him and sent him off. He turned around and stared at Marissa.

"Marissa, you need to tell them what-"

"No! Sev, I can't! You know how other wizards have acted towards my people! What if they kill me too?"

"Marissa, listen to me. they won't kill you. they have a werewolf in their ranks. They won't care what you are. They should just know, because they saw your blood." Severus explained calmly. Marissa sighed.

"Ok, fine. Um... I'm - I'm an Elf. A Forest Elf." her confession was met with gasps. Marissa kept her gaze trained on the floor.

"Marissa... We would never hurt you. We were stupid and afraid of your people when we ment them in the past. We know better now. We won't hurt you." Remus spoke, voiceing everyones thoughts.

"Really? Your no kidding? You won't.. hurt me?" Marissa whipsered.

"No, we won't. But the blood thing just freaked me out. I'm sorry." Sirius added.

"What.. blood thing?" she asked, confused.

"Well.. It's not everyday you see red blood with streaks of silver, now is it?"

"Oh! That, yeah, all Forest Elf blood is like that." Marissa nodded.

"So, do you guys want to go back upstairs and listen to more music, while we wait for Moody to come back from the Ministry, to see what's going on?" Severus asked.

"Yeah, lets all go back up." everyone agreed.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! and sorry, it took me so long to update. I've been sick lately. There's like the 'pre-flu' going around. You get the symptoms, but not the fever. and it sucks. So sorry that it took so long to update.

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