Author's Notes:
Sorry for the delay, I have finally received my laptop back!
Due to being two weeks behind, here's the first of two chapters I'll post today to make up for the lack of a post last week.
Harry Potter, the Valerians, and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Chapter Thirteen: Strike Two
Tension continues to rise between Ron and Hermione as Scabbers' death seems more certain. Gryffindor and their new Firebolt face off against Ravenclaw to stay in the running for the Quidditch Cup. The Valerians close in on their potential infiltrator as Ebony and Sirius make another attempt at their target.
The Valerians keep the bloody sheets for two days, using it to try and scent track the rat through much of the area around the Tower to, thus far, no avail.
With no reason to keep it any longer and no way to get a more 'from the source' blood sample, Tarana had it delivered to Remus' office.
"I realize that it's likely a long shot, given how old it will be by the time they get it," she told him. "But hopefully we can get an answer one way or the other regardless."
Remus frowned at the bloodstained sheets and plucked at a cleaner section near the bloody corner. "I'll get to it as soon as I get back," he told her, looking up to smile apologetically at her.
"I admit I'd forgotten it was so close," Tarana said, glancing at the cold-looking grey sky outside. "It can wait until afterward."
She paused at the door, before turning to look back at him.
"I realize how difficult this must be for you, Remus," she said. "You've spent a long time believing the worst of Sirius and you're still here, helping to try and clear his name."
Remus frowned thoughtfully. "It's…it's not as hard as I thought it would be," he admitted. "I think…I think we were waiting for this. It's not like we wanted to believe that someone we were so closely linked to could turn James and Lily over. Especially not with a pup involved."
"Hopefully one day the two of you can finish what you started," Tarana said, tilting her head.
Remus flushed and Tarana darted from the room with a laugh, having gotten the reaction she wanted from him.
XX
The tension between Ron and Hermione was at an all-time high, with the Valerians firmly backing her assumption that Crookshanks hadn't eaten Scabbers, a complete one-eighty to only a few weeks earlier when the Collective wouldn't even look at the girl.
Ron, for his part, had stayed hopeful for all of an hour before he'd lost hope when the Valerians couldn't find him in the common room or the dorms and started screaming about the loss of his rat and really hadn't stopped being nasty to her since.
Hermione had been tearful at first but had quickly grown upset and started screaming back at him, which was a sure-fire way to clear out the common room these days.
Draco didn't see what the big deal was but had learned by this point that he should first make these comments to Harry or Blaise, and their reaction would dictate whether or not he should mention it to one of the more 'sensitive' Gryffindors.
"It's not like he was much of a pet," he told Harry and the twins on their way down to practice, one of the only ways that the two managed to stay out of the escalating feud between their friends. "He was practically ancient, already sick, and he was a rat."
"He doesn't have to be pretty, Draco," Harry pointed out.
Draco's expression clearly said it did, but he didn't say so.
"He spent so much time complaining about how useless he was," Fred said shaking his head. "I really thought he'd be happier now that he didn't have to worry about it."
George snorted. "All the thing did, even when Perce had it, was eat and sleep," he said. "Ronnie's having a tantrum because he lost his favorite toy."
"Come on, guys," Harry said firmly, glancing at Tarana. "Sometimes you just don't know what you have until it's gone."
The glance sold it and the group fell silent.
That wasn't to say that Harry disagreed with anything his friends had said, exactly. He did think Ron was rather blowing things out of proportion, but he also agreed that Crookshanks was the most likely culprit, even if he hadn't killed Scabbers.
XX
The practice went amazing due in no small part to the presence of the Firebolt in the air with them.
Though it wasn't the first time that Harry had flown on it, it still took his breath away, reacting so easily to his lightest touch that it was almost as though it was reading his mind as opposed to his grip.
During their warmup, Harry looped the pitch twice before he started weaving in and out of his teammates, racing Draco and his Two-Thousand-and-One at one point.
The ease with which he outstripped the chaser was enough to have the rest of the team cheering, even before Oliver called them back to task.
Inspired, the entire team performed at their best with Draco and Oliver adjusting plays on the fly and getting not a single complaint from the rest of them.
In fact, at the end of it, the only thing that Oliver could find criticism with was Harry's problem with dementors.
"You've sorted it out, haven't you?" he asked as they changed out of their practice gear.
Harry swallowed, thinking of the misty shield he'd managed to make and hold for almost a minute before his concentration had shattered.
"Yeah," he said confidently. "All set."
George wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders and shook him a bit. "Ah don't worry about it," he said.
"The dementors won't turn up again," Fred added. "Dumbledore'd go ballistic."
"We'd best hope so," Oliver said, though he didn't sound very convinced. "Anyway, let's head back, go to bed, and get an early start tomorrow."
XX
The group walked into a loud argument between Ron and Hermione with Neville attempting to play an uneasy peacekeeper in the middle, and while the rest of the team fled up to their dorms, Blaise grabbed Harry and Draco each by a hand and hauled them out of the common room.
"I can't listen to it anymore," Blaise complained quietly as he led them toward the stairs. "If they're not arguing with one another, they're complaining about the other."
Harry grimaced.
While he and Draco had an escape where neither Ron nor Hermione were present, Blaise and Neville were stuck with them full time.
"That bad, huh?" he asked, apologetically.
"Worse than whatever you're thinking," Blaise replied snappishly before flinching. "Sorry," he muttered. "It's been a long few days."
"Where are we going?" Draco asked.
Blaise hesitated and it was clear that he hadn't thought that far ahead.
Draco huffed and took the lead, descending the stairs.
Harry and Blaise exchanged glances as they followed him.
"It has been a while since we visited Severus," Harry pointed out.
Blaise didn't bother to answer.
XX
"What are you three bothering me for this time?" Severus asked, eyeing the three teens in his sitting area.
"We're just here to visit," Harry assured him.
"We needed to avoid Armageddon happening in the common room," Draco told him, near simultaneously.
"We?" Blaise asked, narrowing his eyes on the blond.
"Can you imagine me keeping my tongue for much longer?" Draco asked him.
Harry developed some type of coughing fit.
"How are your lessons going, Potter?" Severus asked when it became clear that the three would happily go back and forth for their entire visit.
It took Harry a moment to realize that Severus was referring to his lessons with Remus, and he took his wand out and cast the spell before him, giving the room a cold, silver glow to go with the mist.
"That doesn't look like much of a shield," Draco pointed out.
"It's not a full Patronus," Severus told them. "Though it is significantly more than most thirteen-year-olds are capable of."
"I've been struggling with holding onto a happy memory," Harry admitted. "Every time the dementor gets close, I lose it to the worst parts of it."
"There are some," Severus advised him, "that find it difficult, as you do, to hold onto full memories. You know where the memory ends and you continue to let it unfold to its inevitable end. Try and pause, if you will, the memory. Let it sit in your mind like a muggle still and you should be able to hold the emotions you require."
Harry dismissed the fog-like Patronus and sat back in his chair, head bowed, and clearly thinking.
"Are you able to cast a Patronus, Professor?" Blaise asked.
"I can," the potions master admitted, holding up a hand when Draco leaned forward. "Built on one's happiest memories, a Patronus is personal, because those moments are, usually, held close to one's heart."
Harry looked up from his reverie and stared at the Slytherin Head of House because it was the most poetic the man had ever been in their presence.
"Sorry," Blaise grimaced.
Severus' expression twisted. "Given your other teachers' lacking, it isn't likely you'll learn anything unless I teach it to you," he sneered.
"They aren't all horrible," Draco pointed out. "Professor Young doesn't do too bad, for a half-blood teaching Magical Theory, and Professor Lupin isn't a bad teacher, just one that isn't around for almost four days a month."
Severus could clearly be seen biting the inside of his cheek, so he had something to say and was choosing not to.
"Do you plan on continuing your Magical Theory class?" Severus asked instead.
Draco shrugged. "I wasn't sure I was going to like it, seeing as how it was Father's choice, but it's grown on me. That and Ancient Runes."
Harry spun his wand in the dizzying circles characteristic of the Patronus Charm and a thick silver fog exploded out of his wand, forming a semi-circle barrier around him, much to his delight.
"What memory did you use?" Draco asked, poking at the incorporeal fog closest to him.
"I was inspired," Harry snickered. "We started Magical Art and, thanks again, Professors, because it's like that one makes my other class more understandable." He pointed at the Patronus, which was already fading as his concentration did. "The first picture I drew."
Severus' eyes narrowed at the faint flush he could just make out past the silver fog and he wondered what the picture was that caused it.
"Have you had any luck with palmistry?" Harry asked Blaise, aware of his professor's scrutiny and eager to turn everyone's attention away from himself before someone else noticed the heat he could feel on his cheeks.
Blaise shook his head. "I'm getting better, but it just doesn't feel as easy as the tea leaves. I enjoy the lessons, now that Trelawney has stopped trying to predict how many ways Yoko and I are going to die-"
Severus grimaced.
That was a rumor that had made it through much of the school.
Allegedly, Yoko, having gotten fed up with the woman's consistent 'predictions' had poisoned her Fifth Year class's revision of tea leaves, with only the professor being either immune or not dosed.
The students had slept for three days and Trelawney had been placed on administrative leave while Dumbledore and the Board of Governors investigated the incident.
Trelawney had come seriously close to losing her job, even after the students, supposedly of their own accord, woke and couldn't tell anyone what might have been in the pot.
Severus had been investigated as well but had been quickly dismissed as he had no grounds to poison a bunch of students and, in all honesty, would have been smarter about it and not done a full classroom at once.
Also allegedly, the night before the students woke, Trelawney, still in her nightclothes, had burst into Dumbledore's office in tears about some hallucinogenic nightmare she believed was a vision about a demon fox.
Knowing what little he did about the Assassin of Valeria Severus was relatively certain that it could have been a great deal worse.
"But Hermione's sheer hatred of the class is making it really hard to keep enjoying it. She has a snide or dismissive remark about everything." Blaise continued, oblivious to Severus' train of thought.
"Hermione isn't taking Divination," Draco said.
Blaise eyed him. "I'm pretty sure the know-it-all spitting information I don't want to know or hear at Trelawney is Hermione," he countered.
"She and I are in Ancient Runes together," Draco informed them. "She can't be in Divination."
"Ms. Granger," Severus said slowly and with every ounce of the derision he put into her name in his class, "has been given special privilege," he sneered. "She could not be talked out of the number of classes she signed up for at the end of last year and, as usual, exceptions were made."
Harry frowned. "But you stopped me from giving up my other break for Magical Theory because I couldn't learn anything if I was too burnt out."
"And if she had been in my House," Severus informed them coolly, "Granger certainly wouldn't have gotten special treatment, especially not in the manner they did it."
The trio tried to get Severus to explain himself, with Draco even pressing the 'Gryffindor-Slytherin' card, but the man didn't say another word on the matter, neatly twisting them through to other topics.
XX
Despite the cold, and mostly damp, weather of much of January, the day of the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match was bright, though still bitterly cold.
Breakfast was a struggle for Harry, as everyone apparently wanted to see and touch the Firebolt.
Oliver had wanted to center it at the table, like some sort of trophy, but Tarana and Arcana had wisely nixed the idea, as breakfast was a time for eating, not flaunting, and odds were higher that damage would be done to the broom by any number of factors in doing so.
The fact that the influx of idiots trying simply to see the Firebolt, regardless of whether they could touch it or not, pushed the territorial boundaries of the Valerians also likely had something to do with it.
There were some serious visitors, however, as well.
Cedric Diggory, the seeker Harry had been playing against when he'd lost his Nimbus Two Thousand, came over to congratulate him on such a fine choice in replacement and hoped for a rematch soon.
Draco called him an idiot, though he had the good sense to wait until after he'd left.
"Honestly, when you and I were looking at replacements the Firebolt was never even on the list," he sneered at the retreating Fifth Year, "and it wasn't because of the price tag. It's a racing broom. Made specifically for competitive racing. If it was going to be good for any position, it would be the chaser, as they're the more mobile players."
Harry shook his head. "Having ridden it though it really is an amazing ride for quidditch," he pointed out.
"Well, yeah," Draco said, blinking at him, "but how would you know that if you've only read the stats on it and haven't actually ridden one."
Harry shook his head and let Draco have the point.
XX
"Potter!"
Harry turned, startled, by the call of his name from Theodore Nott inside the walls of the castle.
Fred and George stopped only a bit past him and turned back, suspicious.
"It's alright," Harry assured them. "He's a friend of Draco's."
The twins looked over at Draco, who nodded in the direction of the door and stepped closer to Harry.
"I heard you were getting special lessons with Lupin," the Slytherin sneered, looking Harry over. "Don't suppose you've had much luck with them, have you?"
Theodore's tone made Fred and George turn back, fists clenched, but Draco jerked his thumb toward the door, wordlessly keeping them on their path. With a last angry look at the Slytherin, the two slipped out the doors.
"I'd ask how you heard about them," Harry said evenly, "but I've learned better."
Theodore smirked.
"I am curious as to why you're suddenly interested," Harry said. "I've been having lessons with Remus for almost a month."
Theodore shrugged. "I suppose I just wanted to see if it was worth trying. The Patronus Charm is a great addition to your arsenal, especially in light of recent events, and if you can master it, it must not be as difficult as it claims to be."
Harry's expression didn't change, but he was curious as to where Theodore was going with his line of poking.
"Well, there are other uses for the Charm," Theodore pointed out. "So, learning it wouldn't be a waste even after the Ministry catches Black and gives him the Kiss."
The Slytherin waved dismissively toward Draco as he moved for the doors, putting his hands in his pockets, and ducking his face in the House scarf around his neck to combat the chilly wind.
"What was that about?" Harry asked the door.
"A warning," Draco told him.
Harry looked skeptical.
"'Other uses' for the Patronus implies using it against or for something that isn't a dementor," Draco pointed out. "Since I can't imagine some other malignant wraith appearing on Hogwarts grounds, I imagine it's a student."
"And after the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor match, only Slytherin is still picking on you about your reaction," Fallen pointed out.
"I'd keep your wand on you," Draco advised him. "Just in case."
Tarana growled. "If you fall in this match, Harry, you will never leave the ground again." She warned.
Harry grimaced.
He couldn't fault her worry, but the finality in her tone said this time, it wasn't a threat.
XX
With Draco's competitiveness leading the Gryffindor chasers, Gryffindor quickly took the lead, eighty to nothing.
Above the game, however, Harry was too distracted by Cho Chang, Ravenclaw's seeker, dogging him.
It quickly became apparent that she wasn't bothering to look for the snitch herself and was using Harry to do so instead.
Twice she weaved between him and his search path when he'd sped up to go around her, however, so he couldn't call her a bad player.
No idiot would be able to judge where he and his Firebolt would be before they were actually there.
Twice he found the snitch, hovering in some far corner, but was physically blocked by Chang, and once he'd had to roll away from his target to avoid a neatly aimed bludger.
Fred weaved around him and bat the black ball back at the beater and Draco rose past him, chasing Stretton into the air.
"Stop being so bloody noble, Potter," the blond called.
Harry rolled his eyes but dipped his broom end-over-handle to dive in a half-somersault toward the ground.
Chang, predictably, gave chase and, at the last moment, Harry swung a sharp left and soared back into the air.
Given only a handful of moments before Chang would rejoin him again, Harry's gaze swept the pitch for the tell-tail gold glint a fourth time and found it fluttering in sharp, swaying jerks – like a hummingbird – by the Ravenclaw goal posts.
Keeping half an eye on the snitch, Harry dove into the thick of things between the rest of the teams and, using the superior maneuverability of the Firebolt, quickly left Chang behind as he gained on his target.
He nearly lost sight of it when, on the other side of him, a flash of black drew his attention.
Tall, robed figures were standing on the edge of the pitch.
Strangely, there was no hint of the chill that had accompanied the dementors in the past, but Harry wasn't thinking about it.
His focus had, almost entirely by this point, narrowed to the snitch, now beginning to flutter away from its place by the goalposts, and it was sheer instinct that had him avoiding Samuels, one of the Ravenclaw beaters, as he sharply gave chase, one hand slipping off his broom to brandish his wand toward where the dementors had been standing in that brief glance he'd given them.
"Expecto Patronum!" he roared over the wind, before flipping his wand and shoving it back up his shirt sleeve, hoping it wouldn't fall as he put both hands on his Firebolt and shot after the snitch in earnest.
In seconds, it was his.
XX
Harry was surrounded by his friends and teammates when Remus finally made it to his side, a tense smile on his face.
"That was some Patronus," he said in place of a normal greeting.
Harry grinned up at him.
Space suddenly opened around him as Arcana parted the crowd. "Corporeal too, for all the damage it did," the tiger said, amused.
"I didn't even feel anything this time," Harry enthused.
Remus' smile turned rueful. "Well," he said, glancing down at the tiger beside them. "That would be because they weren't dementors."
Harry's brow furrowed as Draco came to his shoulder.
"What?" Draco asked, gaze bouncing around the three of them.
Harry shrugged and Remus tilted his head in the direction Arcana had come from.
The tiger was still clearly amused as he turned on his tail and led them to where Ivory and Fallen were circling three miserable-looking Slytherins and an entirely livid Tarana.
"You could have gotten someone killed!" she roared, voice easily traveling the distance the others still had to cover to join them.
"Apparently they'd intended to try and unseat you," Arcana told him. "Which any person could have told them was rather foolish as your problem is with the effect of the dementor, not with their appearance."
"-the panic you caused could have gotten someone trampled on, one of the players could have fallen, if I had any say the lot of you would be on the way home-"
"As it is," McGonagall interjected, looking none too impressed herself as she stormed over. "You will all be serving detentions! And you'll be happy with the eighty points you've lost Slytherin! On your feet, all of you," she added sharply. "We'll be talking to Professor Dumbledore about this."
Closer now, Harry recognized Katelyn Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, as well as another Slytherin he knew by sight but not name as they were all urged to their feet.
"And it might help you to know, that the trick I used on the dementors in the last match burned the dementors from existence. It could have done serious harm if I had chosen to use it on you to defend the rest of this stadium," Ivory sneered as they passed, snapping almost playfully at the unnamed Slytherin, and causing the girl to shriek and dart around to McGonagall's other side.
Tarana - and given her Element, Harry wasn't going to put it past her – was practically blowing smoke out of her nostrils as she turned away from the Slytherins.
"Well done, Harry," she told him tensely, though she smiled at him.
"And to cast the spell and catch the snitch," Ivory added with a grin. "Like watching James fly again."
Tarana and Remus both looked uncomfortable with the comparison, which sort of ruined the comment for Harry, though he tried not to show it much.
"Harry! Draco!" Ron called waving at him. "Come on!"
"I sense a party in your future," Remus smiling.
Draco snorted. "We haven't even won anything worthwhile yet," he said, shaking his head, but following Harry toward the rest of the team and the changing rooms they were all heading to.
XX
Harry managed to buy himself a few minutes before joining the rest of the House in the Tower.
"Professor!"
Severus turned with a sneer. "Do you not get enough work from me, Potter? You need a detention and another assignment?"
Harry grimaced. "Sorry, Professor," he said breathlessly. "I was just handing in the assignment you gave me during our detention the other day."
Severus' expression didn't change, but he took the rolled parchment from the brunette.
"I suppose we'll see whether you've learned anything, won't we?" the man said, spinning on his heel and continuing on his way.
Harry made a face at his back, before turning to where Tarana stood at the top of the stairs, watching Severus with narrowed eyes.
'I suppose that poorly made deception had a purpose?' Tarana asked her charge.
"He doesn't like it when we visit him without Draco," Harry whispered. "But he gave me some advice about the Patronus Charm, and I think it helped when I cast in on the pitch earlier. I wanted to thank him."
Tarana shook her head. 'I don't want to downplay the accomplishment you've made, Harry, but remember that it will be much harder to cast in the presence of a dementor.'
"I know," Harry sighed. "I had really thought that learning it had fixed me."
'There's nothing wrong with us that won't be fixed by completing our Bond,' Tarana reprimanded him lightly.
"I know," Harry said, jogging up the stairs. "I just don't want to distract you now."
Tarana paused for a moment, watching him with affection, before loping and quickly catching up.
XX
With the party in full swing by the time Harry and Tarana arrived, you would have thought that Lions had already won the Inter-House Cup.
Harry, though he had to fight his way through numerous Gryffindors all wanting to touch the Firebolt as he tried to get it up to his room, eventually made it to the stairs, where Blaise and Draco were sitting, essentially blocking the way up.
"Everything alright?" he asked, glancing at the two of them.
"Too many people," Blaise said, but he glanced at Draco when he said it, making Harry blink.
"You're all too exuberant with your partying," Draco sniffed defensively.
"This House has celebrated everything for the last two and a half years," Harry countered, amused. "You'd think you'd be familiar with this atmosphere by now."
Draco rolled his eyes and shifted over so Harry could bypass him on the stairs.
"Hey," Harry called once he was past them both, "can you tell your friend I said thanks?" he asked. "Without his advice, I wouldn't have had my wand on me to cast the Patronus."
Draco tilted his head. "Sure," he said with no interest in doing any such thing.
Theo hadn't told Harry that out of the goodness of his heart.
At some point, he was going to want something in return.
XX
The Shade passed through the shadows and up the stairs, where he found his charge pressed between the wall and the ratty nightstand.
With his head pressed back against the wall and his arms wrapped around his legs, it was almost as though passing back in time to the then-teen waiting for his friend to wake after the transformation took him over and brought him back to the Marauders.
He could almost pretend that Sirius Black hadn't been locked away – a caged predator.
"Another attempt on the Tower, particularly at this point in the game, is ill-advised, Sirius," Ebony warned him, coming around the bed to meet the exhausted and lucid grey eyes of his charge.
Sirius shook his head, tangled hair so matted and heavy with grime and months' worth of grease it barely moved. "I don't know how long this moment is going to last," he rasped, not trusting his mind to not take any attempt to mentally communicate with the only friend and ally he had left to him, and drag him into the mists again.
He leaned his head back again and looked up at the ceiling.
"I need your help again, Ebony," he said softly.
Ebony paced forward until they were practically sharing breath. "You have it," the Shade told him. "You've had it from the moment you swore your oath on Darkness and Hate. I'll help you see this - the greatest of your vengeances - through to its inevitable end." The leopard pulled his head back, blue eyes glowing in the mid-afternoon sun that was sneaking its way through the shredded curtains. "I only wonder if you will last that long."
Fire burned in the Black Heir and he met Ebony's gaze.
"If it is the last thing I do on this earth," he swore again. "I will see that little bastard dead for what he's done."
In the convict's clenched fist, parchment crumpled.
XX
Severus ran his fingers over the chicken scratch lines of Harry's note, torn between being grateful for the fact that the boy acknowledged his part in the Patronus the boy had cast on the pitch and wondering if he could somehow get the boy a calligraphy teacher because his handwriting seemed to be getting worse as the years progressed.
"Severus," Yoko said, stepping into the office.
"Not quite the Valerian I was expecting," Severus said, eyeing him.
"Gryffindor is partying the night away," Yoko told him. "It's getting rather loud and we're having an impromptu meeting at the Astronomy Tower. I was sent to see if you were free."
"Don't patronize me," Severus told him sharply, pushing to his feet. "Fallen was too much of a coward to do as asked and you two traded assignments."
Yoko didn't seem all that offended by his harsh tone. "I think he's giving you space," the fox countered. "Whatever he's said to you has him in quite the knot."
Severus ignored the opening to share with the Scout, swinging his warmest cloak over his shoulders. "I don't have all night," he told him. "Let's make this quick."
Yoko lowered his head, watching the man through half-lidded eyes as he passed him out the door.
XX
"I still have no results from the lab you asked me to send Crookshanks' blood to," Remus told them regretfully. "Though I feel that's a long shot."
"And they're likely still trying to get caught up after the holidays," Yoko pointed out.
"The staff seems to be coming around to your machinations," Fallen said, turning his head to look at the Queen, settled with Arcana in the middle of the room they'd taken as their 'court' this time around.
"More of a mixed bag," Severus amended.
"Most of the staff still find that Sirius is guilty," Remus told them. "But the Ministry's decision to give him the Kiss has received a decidedly more mixed reaction. They want him to suffer, and he won't do that without his soul."
"On that, we can all agree," Fallen growled. "I've always hated that punishment."
"I'm hoping for too much in asking if we've found where he's hiding, aren't I?" Remus asked.
"Fallen and I haven't had any luck inside the castle," Arcana told him, shaking his head. "Not even any hint of where he might have chosen to lay low if they could find a way into the castle long-term."
"The idea of him hiding in this castle, with all eyes and ears out looking for him, is ludicrous," Severus sneered. "Even I could have told you that."
"Best to cover our bases," Tarana cut in. "Because it was such a long shot, was one of the reasons we decided to do so. Ebony is too difficult an opponent not to anticipate things he might do simply because the rest of us would have found it too difficult."
"Any luck on your end?" Remus asked, looking down at Ivory.
While the King and General had been searching the castle for any sign or chance of Sirius and Ebony, Ivory had taken the more difficult search grid of the areas outside the castle walls and grounds, including the Forbidden Forest.
"There are a few other areas I want to check before giving it up as lost," Ivory admitted. "I'll keep you updated on the search of them."
"If that was all," Severus said when there was no further speaking for several minutes, already turning for the door.
"Actually," Yoko said slowly. "I've been hesitant to bring this up because I know it doesn't make any sense, but does anyone else find it odd that we haven't found Ron's rat or even a corpse by this point? I mean," he glanced around, reading the reaction of his words. "For a rat of Scabbers' size, there may not have been enough blood for a killing blow in the bedroom, but there was certainly enough that he shouldn't have been strong enough to get far. And there wasn't much of a blood trail to be found beyond the dorm."
"It probably crawled into the wall and died somewhere. The House Elves will likely find and dispose of it if they haven't already," Fallen said callously.
Yoko didn't look convinced. "I suppose it's possible," he glanced at Tarana, who was looking at Ivory and Remus.
The leopard was watching Remus with his head tilted and his partner looked oddly troubled.
"Remus?" Tarana asked.
Remus jumped and shook his head. "It's nothing," he told them, smiling tiredly. "I just remembered something that I'd forgotten to do. I'll let you know if those results come back."
Even Severus was confused as the Marauder darted down the stairs in a completely unsuspicious manner.
Ivory rolled his eyes but darted after him.
XX
The Valerians took one last pass, more for form's sake than necessity, before returning to what they hoped was a far quieter common room.
It was just after midnight when Arcana felt Ron go from content – these days only when he was asleep – to confused, to terrified.
The tiger spun sharply on his tail and shot toward the Tower, cursing himself for having put himself so far from his charge in his complacency.
Yoko darted into view, more a low slung silver blur than a fox, ahead of him and Arcana's longer stride quickly brought them even.
'What happened?' Arcana demanded.
'I don't know,' Yoko replied evenly, pace picking up to try and keep up with the loping strides of the larger cat. 'Blaise isn't answering.'
The two bore down on the portrait protecting the common room, which opened as they approached, but not because Sir Cadogan knew better than to try and keep them out.
A student bolted out and away, not even wearing a robe or slippers.
Draco was stepping onto the landing as they came bolting up the stairs.
His expression was grim.
Behind him, they could hear Ron screaming.
"I'm telling you; I saw him! Sirius Black attacked me with a knife!"
Any sympathy Arcana had for Sirius was suddenly dwindling fast.
