Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.

AN: well, this is it. I tried my best, but I could get no longer than this before my dreadful exam.

Thanks for all your kind reviews for the last chapter.

In response to my wonderful reviewers… now, honestly, I created this story so as to let Sirius live again… seriously, you don't think I would kill him off Just like that, do you? (well, at least not until the end of this fanfic! Though I think you all could tell by now how likely that would be… but suspense is always good! One could never tell!)

I wish I would have a lot more time to sit down and write… but exams are coming!

And… whether Sirius' survival would be revealed just yet… you would get some clues in this chapter!

Finally….. on my dialogue being too awkward and formal sometimes… I think it's kind of inevitable, considering English is not my mother language and I don't speak it on a day-to-day basis, but… I would try to keep that in mind!

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! Now on with the story!

(Beware: this chapter was written/typed in a rush… hope it's not too bad…)

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Chapter 14 Aftermath

The person that had been hiding behind a corner waited until all the sound had died down.

He really wished he would see Potter's dead body when he turned into the hallway.

Yet, what he saw was just the mutilated body of the beast.

"Stupid beast." He wanted to kick the dead body in frustration, but refrained from doing so, so as not to get the blood on his robes.

"Lucky brat." He spat in venom as he drew his wand out to clear up the dead body.

He had to get the 'dirty work' done quickly before anyone come to the scene.

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Madam Pomfrey was checking up on the stock of the healing potion. The term had just started for a week. So far, 8 students had visited the hospital wing. 5 of them were due to cold, 1 due to food poisoning (the silly girl ate a stale cake she had brought from home) and the last 2 due to fighting.

Madam Pomfrey was checking on the shelf with bone-regrowing potion when someone knocked on the door.

"Madam Pomfrey! Open the door!" the person outside shouted.

She recognized the voice of one of the frequent 'user ' of the hospital wing.

"Mr Potter!" She gasped on seeing the battered state of the teenager in front of her. Blood was oozing freely down the gapping wound on his left shoulder. The visible parts of his body was covered with cuts and bruises. His face was so pale from the pain and loss of blood.

"Please save him!" Just then she noticed the floating dog that was being directed into the hospital wing. Harry lowered it down to an empty hospital bed.

Pomfrey wasn't even sure if the dog was alive or not. Harry gripped the edge of the bed very tightly, looked ready to fall unconscious at any moment. Yet he fixed Pomfrey with such a pleading and desperate gaze.

"Please! He's dying... Save him!"

Pomfrey swiftly took her wand out.

"You go to a bed first. I'll check on you before I -"

"No! I'm ok! Save him first, please -"

"You are definitely not ok! I've to make sure you're not going to die on me when I -"

"No!" Harry pointed his wand at Madam Pomfrey. His wand point shook. "He's dying as we argued here. I'm not receiving any treatment unless you save him first!"

Pomfrey knew stubbornness and a lost course when she saw one.

"Ok. At least sit down. " she performed a quick and temporary clotting charm on Potter first to prevent him from bleeding to death. Then she proceeded to perform general assessment of the dog's condition.

Only then did Pomfrey really observe the giant black dog for the first time. Somehow, it looked vaguely familiar…

She was not especially adept at curing animals, but what she knew would have to do.

Once her mind was fixed on healing, all other questions, worries and the outside world were pushed aside. Soon her mind set was settled to the absolute concentration level required for healing.

She ran her wand over the dog's torso and performed a quick diagnostic spell checking the dog's current status.

"3 fractured ribs… punctured pleura, lungs still intact… lucky for him," she muttered to herself as her wand tip lingered over the dog's chest and then its abdomen, " internal bleeding due to trauma .. hypotension… the blood loss is too severe. "

She then set into motion to get various potions to replace the loss blood and mend the most life-threatening of the injuries.

After performing instant but temporary clotting spell, Pomfrey fed the dog with the various potions she had fetched. Then she started the strenuous process of using spells to re-connect the fractured bone.

X X X X X X X

After around twenty minutes of undivided attention, Pomfrey finally fell back down onto a chair besides the bed in exhaustion and relief. The dog's life had been saved, at least for now.

And then she remembered Potter, who had seemed terribly quiet throughout the healing.

She turned to see that Potter had already fainted in his seat.

"Mr. Potter, you really owe me one this time… wait till you're awake!" she said to herself as she levitated Potter to the nearest bed.

Although the question of what within the castle had inflicted such serious damage to them nagged really did raise serious concern, Madam Pomfrey had to put it aside for the moment being.

Undivided attention was what she had to give for the complicated healing spells she was about to deliver. As always, she could afford not even the tiniest of mistake.

After no more than twenty minutes, Pomfrey let out a breath and mopped her forehead with a handkerchief. She was finally finished with the initial treatment of Potter. Although his wound wasn't really life-threatening – if the blood loss had been allowed to accumulate, it would have threatened his life – but the wound was deep. It was some sort of claw wound made by a very strong and large creature, judging from the size of the wound. Madam Pomfrey had to clean the wound thoroughly, made sure that there had been no fragments of bones or dirt left inside, which had been a delicate and draining job. She also had to give him fluid replacement for the blood loss. At least 2 days of bed rest would be in place…

Pomfrey checked on the dog and found to her satisfaction that it was in stable condition. Then she put on a cloak and prepared to leave the hospital wing. Someone had got to inform the headmaster of this incident. The beast that had wounded the poor boy might still be roaming unchecked in the castle…

"Madam Pomfrey? " Potter moaned weakly, trying to get himself up from his bed.

"No, you don't! " Madam Pomfrey quickly pushed Potter gently but firmly back onto the bed.

"Is he ok?" without his glasses on, he squinted to try to check on his dog.

"Yes. Now rest."

"Where're you going?" he said, looking at the cloak she had donned.

"I'm going to inform the Headmaster of this. Mr. Potter, what attacked you? Do you think it's still inside the castle?"

Potter looked with a frown on his face over his dog before answering.

"It's dead. It's in the corridor just outside the Charm's classroom. "

"You killed it? "

"I did…"

"Ok, then, rest. Someone will get the details of this incident out of you later. You need to rest for your wound to heal properly."

"But, Madam Pomfrey – please don't tell Professor Dumbledore about my dog, can you?"

"Why? Where does this dog come from?"

"It's … it's my dog. I … "

"How come you have brought it to Hogwarts?"

"I just got it over the summer when I was with my relatives… it has been my only companion… it's very loyal …I just can't leave it with my relatives when I come to school, as you see, they're not very fond of it… I have to bring it with me. If it hasn't intervened when the beast attacked me, I would have died. Please… don't tell professor Dumbledore or any other people about it… they would take it away from me, and I - "

Madam Pomfrey had dealt with teenagers for too long to not recognize a lie when she saw one. However, the desperation in his voice had not been faked.

She always made it a point not to disclose any unnecessary information of the students to the teachers, as long as such information won't really hurt anyone, including that student him/herself. After all, she had to respect her patients' privacy. More importantly, if she started reporting everything the students had done wrong, no one would dare to turn to Madam Pomfrey after injury for fear that they would get reported, which would always make the injury worse. But of course she couldn't really let the students know about that. She also often made it a point to scold students who have performed stupid feat harshly.

"But I can't lie to the headmaster, you know that."

"Please, you don't need to lie… just don't mention it… or else he would not let me keep it… "

"You are being childish and silly, Harry. You are a year six student already, not a six-year-old. I will have none of more of this nonsense now. "

"But -"

"Sleep and rest before you start worrying about anything else, you get that?" Madam Pomfrey didn't give him any chance to protest as she pushed him back and tucked him in. Potter really was too tired to protest anyway, and his eyelid dropped quickly.

She finally left the hospital wing to go to Dumbledore's office.

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Remus put down his quill to rub his eyes. Grading those children's homework had always be tedious and frustrating and difficult (although sometimes it would be outrageously amusing, laughing at the absurdity of the silly answers they gave). After hours of straining to discern those boys's actually unreadable writing, his eyes really felt like shutting down forever.

He leaned back in his armchair and stretched his long limbs a bit.

The fire in the hearth flared up and turned a brilliant green before dying down to its original height. It was a signal that someone was calling him via the internal floo network. Remus quickly crouched down besides the fireplace.

News at such a late hour normally wouldn't be any good.

"Remus, " Dumbledore's head was immersed in the green flame.

"What's the matter?"

"Harry was attacked." His grim expression chilled Remus' heart.

"Is he alright?"

"Yes. He apparently got attacked after he met with me tonight, on his way back to his common room. He claimed that he has killed whatever it was that attacked him and went to Madam Pomfrey for help afterwards. He lost some blood, got a few gashes, but nothing Madam Pomfrey hasn't already taken care of. "

"So is he now in the hospital wing? How come he is attacked within Hogwarts?" if even Hogwarts had been infiltrated with the dark forces… what were they going to do?

"According to Poppy, he is now sleeping in the hospital wing. What I want to know now, is what, why and how he was attacked. Meet me at the corridor outside Charm's classroom. We'll find out."

Remus quickly left his sleeping quarter. As he stepped into the empty hallway, there was a moment of hesitation of where he should go. He wanted to go to the hospital wing to check on Harry. Even if Dumbledore had assured him that Harry was ok, he couldn't help but want to prove it with his own eyes to see to it that he really was ok…

Yet, in the end, he decided that he had better not disturb Harry's rest.

…………………………………….

When he arrived, Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, Snape and McGonagall were already there. After a nod to them, Remus surveyed the scene. There was dark blood, scratch marks of claws and burnt marks of spells missing their target on the floor, the wall and pillars. The extent of area involved indicated how fierce the fight the fight had been.

Dumbledore was examining the scratch marks and blood on the floor. McGonagall had her wand out and was performing some sort of diagnostic spell around the area, a stern frown set on her face. Madam Pomfrey looked slightly uncomfortable, standing to a side, maybe feeling nauseated with the blood.

Snape, on the other hand, was standing there, cool and his usual scowl in place, while his coat black eyes were scanning the area silently, taking in every little details.

"Albus, I thought you said the beast has been killed. Where's its body?" Remus asked.

"It's not here when we arrived."

The absence of body screamed definite foul play from someone from within Hogwarts.

"How long has transpired between Harry first stepped in the hospital wing to when we arrive here?" Remus asked.

"Less than an hour. Probably less than forty minutes." Madam Pomfrey said, pulling her cloak closer around her body.

"There is the residue of silencing charm performed over this corridor. The caster has tried to eliminate the residue, though the handiwork was not done well enough." McGonagall said.

The heavy and rapid footsteps announced the presence of another person.

"Professor Dumbledore. I come as soon as I received your call. " It was Hagrid with his cross bow in his hand, his face dark with worry, "Is Harry alrigh'?"

"Yes. He's hurt, but he'll survive." Madam Pomfrey answered for Dumbledore.

"Hagrid, you can go visit him tomorrow. Now I need your expertise here." Dumbledore waved his hand over the scene.

Hagrid nodded. He started examining the hallway.

"There're at leas' bin two animals. The fightin' has been brutal… also someone cast some defensive spells, no doubt Harry?" Hagrid dipped his finger into a pool of blackened and almost dried up blood on the floor and sniffed.

"It's a shadow ogre. "

"We do have those vicious creatures in the Forrest, don't we?" Remus asked

"Yes, we do."

"They're fierce and powerful predator, no doubt about it. But they don't normally fancy human fresh… certainly not to the extent that they would come all the way inside the castle to prey on some random people…"

"No, they surely wouldn'. After the hundreds of years of dwellin' the forrest, I have no ever heard of them getting in the castle or even hurtin' no one. "

"Someone bewitched it?" McGonagall asked.

"Probably no. Yeh jus' don' curse it. Their fur's highly magic repellen', actually. It'd require a real high level of energy ter break through."

"It's apparently the handiwork of a Death Eater or someone related to them," Snape spoke for the first time, his tone lazy as if he did not really care about it. "The principal is the same to the increased incidence of people being attacked by wild animals recently. Someone has developed portions that carry the smell of the prey those beasts lust after. They would spill the portion onto their target and then all they have to do is to wait for the beast to do all the dirty work for them. "

"But our culprit has done a little bit more than just wait," Remus said, " he or she wanted to prevent people from coming to Harry's rescue. However, judging from the skill, he probably was not experienced enough in such deeds. "

"Which probably means," Dumbledore said, frowning with tiredness, "it could be a student being instructed by someone outside… to attack Harry. He apparently knew of the meeting between Harry and me tonight to have planned the attack at a time when Harry would be most vulnerable to fall for it. "

Dumbledore turned his gaze to Remus.

"You told me to tell Harry about the meeting time today. When I told him, Hermione and Ron were there with him. I'm not sure if anyone nearby was eavesdropping on us. I'm not sure whether any of the three have told anyone else about it. " Remus said.

Dumbledore nodded and then turned his gaze downwards and contemplated the situation.

"Albus…" Snape stepped closer to Dumbledore to speak quietly with him.

Remus couldn't really make out what they were talking about. But judging from the expression on Dumbledore's face, the information Snape provided seemed to help him make the necessary connection between the bits and pieces of clues they had gathered so far.

As Snape stepped back, Dumbledore nodded to himself.

"Ok, then… we do have a suspect after all. Severus, perhaps we should discuss this at my office. The rest of you please help clean up this mess. Hagrid, help me identify what the other animal present here has been. Thanks for your help here tonight."

After issuing his orders, Dumbledore left with Snape. Hagrid bent over the battle scene to try to figure out more about the fight that had taken place there.

"I wonder how Mr. Potter has defeated a shadow ogre by himself." McGonagall said, "not to mention it must have taken him by surprise."

"He's a strong boy… and he's got experience for such thing… " Remus said, feeling relieved that Harry was OK, at the same time also worried if anything like this would happen again. One can only have so much luck…

"Silly boy…" Madam Pomfrey muttered to herself. Then she turned to Remus and McGonagall "I'll have to go back to check on Mr. Potter now, if you don't mind."

She was a bit pale under the torch light.

"No, Poppy, of course we wouldn't mind. You must be very tired after the healing… do go and catch some rest." McGonagall said.

She walked off.

Remus stood, staring at the scene, pondering everything, especially the meaning behind the attack.

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AN: well, that's it for the moment being. Hope it's not too bad.