A/n: Yay for me! Two new chapters of the same story within 25 days - what a record for me, lol. I actually updated everything this past month and I am so excited about that. My muses have been so kind, lol. Anyways, chap 12 of Keeper's Heart just got put up yesterday. I won't gove you allll the updates 'cuz there's many. Just check the top of my profile page for all the lowdown. Lastly, aboutt his chapter: Oh, action... action... action. Lol. Enjoy and review me.

Chapter 10

James slowly opened his eyes and tried to blink away the stars dancing in his vision. The pounding pain in his head, however, didn't go away as easily as the stars. He didn't know it, but he'd barley been out for a few seconds, though it had somehow felt like longer. Luckily – if one could call it luck – his body had taken much more of the abuse when he was thrown into the room full of desks.

His throat burned like he had the flu and James still felt light-headed like the air was thin or he wasn't getting enough to breathe. He moved his hand to his throat and it felt hot on the outside even. He groped for his wand and gave a little sigh of relief when he was able to produce it from the folds of his robes. It hadn't been knocked out of him.

He looked to the door and glimpsed something rush in and move to the far corner. If his eyes were seeing right, the dark form in the corner was holding a wand, which was only slightly visible in the darkness. James' eyes flicked back to the door where he could barely make-out Sirius just about to enter the room.

"Expelliarmus!" James shouted hoarsely. It turned out to not be a very loud shout, but it was enough.

The shadow's wand and Sirius' both flew to James' hands. Quicker than he could blink, he threw Sirius' back at him.

"Wretch!" the shadow hissed menacingly and charged in a blaze of smoke to where James lay.

His having adjusted to the darkness, the tiniest light from the stars outside was enough to let him see. Sirius called out a curse, which the shadowy figured dodged by twisting in an instant and appearing for a split second to made only of smoke. It rematerialized just as fast as it had made itself smoke.

Scared but undeterred, Sirius quickly fired off several curses at once, some verbal and some non-verbal, forcing the creature to back away from James. At first opportunity, Sirius vaulted over several of the fallen desks to put himself between the thing and James. As the creature stood back and began to slowly rematerialize from being smoke this time, Sirius carefully helped James to stand, keeping both his eyes and his wand steadily trained on the creature.

It looked mostly like a human, though taller than one would expect. It was able to twist into a cloud of smoke and become solid again at will, which suggested it couldn't be human. At that moment, it let out loud and evil laughter, making the two boys shiver as the coldness of the laughter resonated through the classroom.

"You foolssss…" it hissed, its voice igniting deep, icy fear in the pit of Sirius' stomach and making him feel outwardly even colder than before. "You cannot deffffeat me…!"

Sirius, supporting James, inched towards the door. Their backs were to the open door when the creature gave another bone-freezing peal of laughter.

"You cannot esssscape either." It hissed threateningly.

"Do you want to bet on that?" Sirius yelled defiantly. Despite the fear that was making his insides rattle, Sirius refused to show a trace of it.

The thing snarled. It put its hands up in the air as if to surrender, revealing skin whiter than was even remotely natural. In each palm of its hands, neon green electricity began to swirl bigger and bigger until it was about the size of a Bludger. It only took a second or two for the two balls to form. The creature leaned back an instant later, and then forward, throwing its arms out as if giving something a mighty push.

Sirius had time only to open his mouth to holler a shield charm before the balls hit him and James, sending them out the door and into the wall on the other side of the hallway. They slammed into the wall hard, dropped to the ground and a suit of armor beside them swayed and came down to meet the ground with a massive crash. This was followed by a small marble statue that had been knocked severely off balance when the boys crashed beside it. It finally fell also, breaking into chunks across the floor.

Sirius gasped in pain. I'm broken – he thought. ­Everything's broken – I'm going to die of pain –

Peeves the poltergeist shot out of a nearby classroom first of the humongous triple crashes. He yelped when the armor and statue fell to the floor, then snickered and chortled.

"It wasn't me!" he bellowed. "For honest this time!" He started cackling madly, seeing Sirius and James struggle to sit up quickly. "Ooo, Potty and Black are in – "

Peeves went instantly still when the creature emerged from the classroom opposite Sirius and James.

"GET HELP!" Sirius screamed and grabbed his wand. Peeves shot away faster than anything and Sirius desperately hoped he actually was going for help.

The creature sneered and Sirius could see teeth made of silver and sharper than the sharpest blade gleaming from beneath the creature's sinister hood. "I have come here to kill you and kill you I shall."

Clutching his stomach, Sirius sneered right back, ignoring the throbbing of his lips. "You lisp is gone. How'd you do that?"

The monster growled fiercely and formed just one green ball of electricity this time, though it was twice as big as the small ones he'd thrown before.

"No!" Sirius shouted as he threw himself across the floor in front of James. It was the same instant the thing tossed its deadly ball, which hit inches above and beside the two boys – precisely where Sirius had been a split second before. Pieces of wall rained down on them and the thing rumbled dangerously.

Sirius snatched up his wand from amongst the debris, thanking his lucky stars it had landed within reach. He thrust it at James.

"Make a shield and hold it as long as you can." He whispered hasty instructions. "That'll buy us some time. I'll take the minute can't anymore."

The creature conjured another brilliant green ball as Sirius spoke to James. It didn't hesitate at all and tossed the shimmering ball at the two boys.

James began murmuring the charm and spell to conjure a shield. Sirius shut his eyes tight and put all his trust in James. Simultaneously, the shield appeared the green ball hit.

James shuddered against the force of the ball, his teeth chattering loudly, but his shield held strong. James kept his concentration on keeping the shield up and strongly covering both of them.

Sirius let out his breath and watched as the green ball was deflected right back at the thing.

Most surprisingly, the thing didn't move fast enough, completely caught off guard because of the sudden shield, and its own spell collided with it. Green bolts of electricity snapped and sizzled all over it for a second, before it snarled furiously.

"Who are you?" Sirius called out, the moment the electric green bolts ceased.

"I am Vadamir, wretch, and you dare not make me cross." It said, its voice quivering with rage. "I will make you pay for that."

Blood from the many injuries sustained thus far in the fight mixed with the sweat forming in droplets on James' forehead. His arms were shaking as he held tightly onto Sirius' wand tightly with both hands. His teeth were grit as he continued to pour all his energy into keeping the shield up.

Vadamir moved his hands around in a complicated circle at lightning speed. In the center of the circle, was suddenly a pinprick of red light. It grew quickly, revealing itself to be a huge red ball of crackling electricity, surpassing the size of a Quaffle by a few inches.

Sirius gulped. As alarming and dangerous as the green balls had been, Sirius has the sickening feeling the red one would be the end of him and James. It seemed to just scream death as it sparkled and sizzled terrifyingly.

Vadamir hurled the snapping crimson ball and Sirius grabbed James' hands and the wand he was clutching with both his hands. They braced themselves just in time. The red ball hit with severe force, jolting and rattling the boys hard. The shield flickered and died as soon as the ball reflected off in a random direction.

James let go and fell back, exhausted.

Sirius fired off several curses without giving Vadamir a second to realize what had happened. He swore loudly when Vadamir pulled the trick of becoming smoke again to let the curses flash through him. Vadamir became solid again and laughed cruelly.

"I have you now." Vadamir rumbled and advanced a step as Sirius was filled to the brim with more icy fear.

"There they are, Professorheads! I tells the truth for once!" Peeves hollered, rushing full speed around the corner, followed by four or five Professors, Dumbledore and McGonagall in the lead.

"Potter! Black!" McGonagall called, sounding panicked.

Vadamir whipped his head sideways and let out a nasty hiss of fury. Without wasting another second, he stuck his hands out in front of him, palms up and conjured another deadly spell. Black smoke, thicker than anything Sirius had ever seen, funnlled like tornadoes out from each of Vadamir's sleeves. It engulfed Sirius and James completely, muffling the Professors shouts.

"Lumos!" Sirius tried to light his wand. The tip ignited, but that was it. Not even the tiniest shaft of light broke through the smoke.

He began coughing and wheezing and then panic filled him as he realized the smoke must be poison. His chest felt suddenly extremely heavy. His eyes stung, his chest burned, and then suddenly his hands were aching sharply. His body left the floor…

He groped for James but couldn't find him… he was too light-headed to think…

He coughed and gasped for air. He fought hard against the feeling that a huge snake was constricting around his body… his arms were heavier and heavier… he felt weaker and weaker… his head was spinning dizzily…

"J-james… no… no…"

A deep, frozen voice thundered through the darkness, "I truly have you now… there is no escape…"

Sirius gasped again…

Everything went silent and pitch-black.

A/n: Yes, another cliffie. All seems lost... what will happen! You have to wait untilt he next chapter to find out:P Well, besides that, please review me and make me very, very happy.