Author's Notes:

As promised, the second chapter of the week.

Thanks again for everyone's patience (not that any of you had much choice).

I hope you enjoy

Harry Potter, the Valerian, and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter Fourteen: Hogsmeade, Finally

Ebony answers some questions before proving how dangerous he could potentially be. Remus asks Severus for another favor, Hagrid finally faces Percival Parkinson, and Harry is finally allowed to go to Hogsmeade.


Yoko and Arcana waited until McGonagall had arrived, pacing the Tower restlessly, as they did so.

"We'll leave you to figure out how he got in here, Minerva," Arcana told her, Yoko already darting out the portrait hole.

McGonagall nodded, expression fierce as she looked over her Gryffindors, almost all of them gathered in the common room or on the stairs after Ron's screams. "The Tower will be fortified. I've sent Creevey to the Headmaster."

"Fallen was with Severus and Tarana will likely be returning shortly," Arcana told her, turning to leap out after Yoko.

In doing so, he missed Harry's rather violent flinch.

XX

Fallen never did make it back to the Tower, as Yoko and Arcana found him first.

"Split the school," Arcana ordered. "Send Ivory out to the grounds and tell him the dementors are not to enter the grounds and to destroy them if necessary. Tarana was on the third floor and will likely arrive at the Tower with the Headmaster. She'll find one of us on her own. In the meantime, Fallen, you've spent more time in the dungeons and around the Entrance Hall, ensure that, if necessary, there's a clear shot out."

Fallen jerked, startled. "We're letting them leave?"

"More than that," Yoko told him, tilting his head. "We'll be aiding in their escape, won't we, Your Majesty."

Arcana nodded sharply. "Ebony and Sirius Black are to be found by us and escorted out to the Forest. If you can, keep them there until Tarana or I can speak to them."

"And if we can't?" Fallen rumbled.

"Let them go," Arcana said simply. "I don't want them confined to the castle grounds, especially with the Ministry looking to have him Kissed." He turned away when it looked like Fallen was going to argue. "We've wasted enough time already. Yoko, search out any of the secret passages you know and keep Filch away from them."

Yoko and Fallen bowed their heads, before turning on their tails and disappearing into the dark corridors.

XX

Tarana raised her head when the gong that usually signified the class changes began repeatedly resonating through the halls.

"Shit," she muttered, turning sharply, and darting for the Tower. "You would manage to pinpoint the exact day we let down our guards, Ebony," she cursed her brother.

Ron was in the middle of a hysterical retelling to one of the Sixth Years and Neville was being systematically dressed down by McGonagall for having lost the passwords to the Tower.

That explains how they got in this time, she thought to herself.

She turned and searched out Harry and found him sitting with his back to an armchair's side and an arm wrapped around Blaise's shoulders.

Draco had turned calculating eyes on her, and she was relatively sure that by dawn the rest of her Kin would realize that she and Harry weren't Bonded.

A great deal of time had apparently passed between the initial assault on Ron and her arrival.

"-he was standing over me with a knife, and-"

"I would count your blessings, Ron," Tarana interrupted. "Sirius has been a fan of knives, switchblades in particular, since his fifth year and learned to utilize them in battle during the war. Your death, if it was what he wanted, would have been swift and you would never have known it was happening."

Ron paled.

Harry stood up suddenly, drawing Tarana's attention. "The map," he hissed with a feral smile.

Tarana watched as he dragged Draco up the stairs by the wrist before his words registered and she and Blaise quickly followed.

A familiar piece of magic was being spread out on Harry's rumpled bedclothes, and Tarana shook her head as she leapt onto his trunk to look down at it.

"I find myself more surprised that I'm not surprised to find that you have this, Harry," she said shaking her head. "I'd assumed the twins had helped you to get out of the castle, but this makes just as much sense."

Harry hesitated, wand tip on the parchment, and it was obvious that he was weighing whether she would take this, as she did the Invisibility Cloak, from him.

"Just to be as much a pain in my ass after he graduated and had a family, James would have given this to you simply to see what you would do with it, and likely to continue to ensure that my heart is never safe."

Blaise and Draco leaned over the parchment.

"What is it?" the dark-skinned Gryffindor asked.

"Looks like old parchment," Draco sniffed.

"Well," Harry said, rather enjoying himself and sharing a grin with Tarana. "How about now? I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Like it had in the classroom, ink spread from the point of Harry's wand and revealed the Marauder's Map to his friends.

Draco poked at the little figure that was himself, bouncing beside tiny, indistinct figures marked 'Blaise Zabini' and 'Harry Potter'. There was even a tiny black cat with 'Queen Tarana' inscribed in the banner above her. "Your father made this?"

"With significant help," Tarana agreed. "Ivory was a part of the creation as well, an unofficial Marauder we used to call him."

Even as she spoke, her eyes were trailing over the map, searching out the only two names that shouldn't have been there.

Ebony was loping beneath one of the folds of the map when she saw him, but she was distracted by Draco.

"Here," he said, jabbing a finger at the map. "Isn't this one of the names on the title?"

'Padfoot' was darting across the lawn, alone, toward the Forbidden Forest.

Ivory was too far away, closer to the front gates, and likely there as a deterrent to the dementors stationed there, to try and intercept him.

"You'll never make it that far," Harry said, looking up at her.

Tarana shook her head. "I don't need Sirius," she said, searching out another name. "Can you reach Fallen from here?" she asked Draco.

Draco nodded slowly. "I think so..."

"Have him meet me on the third floor," she looked at Harry. "I know where Ebony is going now. Good work boys."

Tarana turned and bolted back out of the Tower, leaving the three boys to give one another high-fives and grin.

They'd been helpful and hadn't nearly died.

XX

To slow her speed or try and bank away from the shadow ahead of her, would mean to lose her target, so Tarana does the unexpected, and barrels straight into Ebony, sending them rolling and sprawling across the stone with her full, and not insignificant, momentum and weight behind the blow.

It said a great deal about how the two had separately spent the last decade, that Ebony was still the first to recover, rolling to his stomach, paws beneath him, and eyes already dark.

A wave of darkness came up from the floor, already molding itself into a giant palm as it picked up Tarana, gaining her paws, and slammed her once, twice, three times against the wall before holding her there.

Her vision wavering, she couldn't focus long enough to pull her Element and not immediately set fire to her brother.

"So, the prodigal son is alive," she rasped, trying to appear unbothered by the position Ebony held her in. "It's good to see you, brother, after so many years."

Ebony shook himself from head to tail before approaching her.

It was familiarly unfamiliar to the panther because Ebony had always been 'put together'. He might as well have pulled his metaphorical shirt sleeves and adjusted his non-existent collar.

"Time is already running too short, Tarana, to be putting up with babbling small talk," Ebony told her.

Tarana pulled a rueful smile. "We're already searching for the coward you informed us was in the castle," she told him. "Though we would have appreciated a little more detail. Who's the source of your information?"

Ebony's tail swayed and despite his comment about time, he didn't seem to be in nearly as much of a rush as he had on Halloween.

Mentally, Tarana frowned.

It was almost as though Ebony wanted to be found.

"Once the half breed arrived at Godric's Hollow to retrieve your charge, I went out in search of you and Arcana," the dark leopard told her, "as neither of you had been in the rubble despite having arranged to meet that night. Sirius went in search of the little weasel." Tarana mentally filed the sneered term away. "By the time I deemed the both of you temporarily lost, Sirius' confrontation had gone surprisingly in his opponent's favor and he was useless to me, trapped behind the walls and bars of Azkaban. I used the Order to further my search and eventually found that Dark had caught and Thralled Arcana, much as the others did."

"I can't see you and the Order working hand-in-hand," Tarana commented. "You thought them amateurish and that was the kindest term you had for them."

"And I still found them to be so," Ebony sneered. "Their moves were disgustingly easy to foresee and it became boring and the deaths paid, ultimately, unfulfilling."

"Sirius," Tarana murmured. "Sirius figured out who betrayed the Potters. Did he tell you before or after his escape from Azkaban?"

"Well before," Ebony said. "There was little he could keep from me when I was his only contact to the outside world. Unfortunately, he was lost to us for the time being and we both turned our rage to other targets."

Shadows shifted behind Ebony and the leopard didn't so much as twitch as Fallen stepped out of them, keeping low and his eyes fixed on the larger Valerian.

For all the Ebony was concerned with him, Fallen might as well not have been there at all.

Fallen's tail twitched irritably. "Who's your target, Shade?" he asked coldly.

Ebony tilted his head, but kept his eyes on Tarana, easily the largest threat for all that Fallen was Valeria's General. "Simple-minded as always, Fallen," he sneered. "Leader of our Great Army and you can't figure out something as simple as that?" he scoffed and, with a sharp twitch of his head, threw Tarana at the direwolf.

They sorted themselves out in seconds, but Ebony was nowhere to be seen.

"Son of a bitch," Fallen growled, darting in the likeliest direction.

Tarana, however, turned her attention to the one-eyed witch statue that stood only three or four meters away.

Ebony was already out of the castle.

XX

Dumbledore and McGonagall were waiting when the Valerians eventually made their way back to Gryffindor Tower, having been as unsuccessful as Tarana had assumed in picking up either Sirius' trail in the Forest or Ebony's in Hogsmeade, though Ivory was still searching the village itself.

Arcana reported that though they'd managed, briefly, to corner Ebony and get answers to some of their questions, they weren't inclined to share those answers with anyone on the Hogwarts staff.

"Think of it less that we don't trust you," he assured them. "And more that this way, you can't inform the Ministry of anything it asks."

The caveat hadn't made either the Headmaster or the Deputy Headmistress all that happy, but they had been firmly reminded that Sirius and Ebony were of the Collective and until the Ministry of Magic stopped hunting him, the Valerians would keep their secrets as long as they liked.

XX

Inside the common room, much of Gryffindor was still awake, though, for the moment at least, Ron had bored himself with telling and retelling the story of having woken to Sirius standing over him with a wicked-looking knife in one hand.

"Last I checked it was well past curfew," Fallen snapped, slipping to the left while Yoko took the right.

Tarana and Arcana remained by the entrance until the others had corralled the majority of Gryffindor back to bed.

The Bonded and their friends hovered hopefully at the bottom of the stairs and were, for the most part, ignored and allowed to remain.

Neville looked rather gutted.

"I assume your missing passwords were found in Sirius' care?" Arcana asked.

Neville nodded miserably. "I'm so sorry," he said, looking between them all. "I swear-"

"Easy, Neville," Yoko assured him. "We don't blame you for what happened. What did she take?"

"What didn't she?" Draco asked quietly, grimacing when Blaise turned to glare at him.

"Fifty points and all rights to visit Hogsmeade," Harry said, taking a step away from Draco to avoid being knocked over if Blaise decided to shove him.

It was clearly not the first time that Draco'd opened his mouth.

"And," Blaise said, sneering. "The rest of us have been forbidden from telling him what the new passwords are. He'll have to stand outside the portrait hole until someone comes around to open it."

"That's not quite as bad as you seem to think it is," Yoko pointed out. "He's with someone who will know it nearly all the time."

Blaise didn't look any happier for Yoko's attempt at reassurance.

The room flinched when the sound of tearing fabric made them all look to Fallen.

The direwolf tore his claws free of the armchair he'd ruined with a snarl. "We fucking had him!"

"He's nearly as good as slipping a net as I am," Yoko pointed out. "And I'm the thief and assassin."

"He's had practice," Tarana revealed. "He admitted that the deaths of the Death Eaters on Lucius list were his work, passed on to him by Sirius. It wasn't secret-keeping, however, but vengeance-driven."

"It doesn't sound like him though," Arcana said, frowning. "Ebony doesn't do kills of passion. Of vengeance. Not when the alternative is something to gain. Those men could have proved Sirius' innocence."

Tarana grimaced. "The Collective believed me dead for over a decade," she reminded him.

"A mistake we won't be making again," Yoko attempted to joke, though it was half-hearted at best and didn't garnish so much as a chuckle.

"And with you being Thralled…." She shrugged. "Odds are that Ebony was playing a long game. It just wasn't regarding Sirius Black."

Fallen sighed. "The three of you have always been close," he agreed. "And it's been proven that if one of you were ever hurt there was generally hell to pay. It isn't that much of a secret that if one of you died the remaining would tear apart the world." His eyes narrowed suspiciously, and he glanced between the Crown. "When you actually died, however, there were remarkably few deaths attributed to the Shade."

There was silence as Fallen and Yoko switched their gaze from one member of the Crown to the other, waiting for one of them to give them an answer or change the subject.

Arcana eventually sighed. "I'd seen Ebony last year. Around April."

Tarana blinked and turned her head to look at him. "You never told me that."

Arcana didn't look back at her. "Any artifacts she and I didn't send to Hogwarts for Christmas, were given to Ebony to hide. Ebony's mind works in such corkscrews that no one but him would be able to pick apart where to even start the scavenger hunt he's likely created to hide them. They'd be safe from Dark."

Fallen growled, lowering his head in a threatening manner. "You gave some of the most powerful artifacts from our world to Ebony?"

"I don't recall needing your permission for what to do with relics from my Kingdom, General," Arcana retorted coolly. "I gave Ebony a mission and trust him, even now, not to fuck it up. Did you, or did you not, receive the Mirithian Stone when you returned to the Manor at the end of the last school year?"

Fallen averted his gaze for a moment before blinking and jerking his head back to Tarana. "You didn't come back to the Tower."

Ron frowned. "Sure she did," he said.

"No," Arcana said slowly. "She didn't. Yoko would have passed you on his way back. You were the closer of the two."

Yoko side-eyed the Queen, wondering how she was going to talk her way out of this one.

"Why was it, Tarana, that it wasn't the terror and abrupt awakening from Harry, but the warning bells of Hogwarts, that told you there was something wrong?" Fallen asked.

Tarana didn't bother to look to Yoko for guidance or assistance because she knew she'd find none there.

The two had argued on more than one occasion over her choice to remain temporarily un-Bonded to her charge.

"Harry and I don't have a Bond," she said, raising her head, though she didn't meet any of the eyes in the room except Harry's.

His green eyes stayed on her own and they drew strength from one another, already aware of the explosion about to come.

And sure enough, there is an immediate outcry.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Arcana growled.

"We've moved around you under the impression that you were at least a little connected to the boy, Tarana!" Fallen yelled. "Of all the children here, he's the most likely to be found in the thick of things!"

It started low, low enough that the humans on the other side of the room didn't immediately realize she was doing it, but Yoko immediately flinched away from her and Arcana got to his paws.

A familiar sound for Harry.

The low, threatening growl that, when loud enough, was powerful enough to shake the windows in their frames and rattle the bones of those closest to her.

Any of the children that had braved returning to chairs and tables during the conversation quickly vacated them, not wanting to be in the way if it came to blood, and Blaise gripped Neville's sleepshirt tight enough that his knuckles were white.

"When," Tarana asked with a none too subtle rumble beneath her words, "did it become your job to watch over my charge and judge my Bond with him?"

It said a great deal about the 'wolf's courage, that he got to his paws and stalked toward her despite her obvious anger. "When you died," he spat back, causing Tarana to jerk as though he'd slapped her with his paw. "Do you know how fucking difficult it was, constantly shifting and moving, trying to keep him within our sphere of influence at all times? Of keeping him practically tied to Blaise and Draco despite wanted him to regain his freedom because while he was near them, we could call it collateral protection? I threatened more than one member of this staff last year, Tarana, when I was called out on being 'excessively violent' because I overstepped the boundaries those fucking Headmasters put in place around us and Yoko wasn't much different! That kind of protection is a pain in the fucking ass to maintain when you aren't fucking Bonded to him!"

Though her rage had obviously fled her, Tarana didn't so much as twitch despite Fallen practically bathing her with foam and spittle he was screaming so close to her.

"My reasons are my own," she told him evenly.

"For what it's worth," Yoko unexpectedly interjected. "I knew they weren't Bonded, and I've been watching her. What she's been doing every night is almost as important as the Bond itself." All eyes were suddenly on the fox. "For the last six months, I've watched her Weaving spells that I'm certain aren't in any of the Lineage Bonds we created with our Families, spells I'm not sure we can add to the settled Bonds we already have. And considering she isn't even one of the most practiced or accomplished Weavers, this is still one of the tightest and well-woven Nets I've ever seen."

Attention swung back to Tarana and she sighed. "We have a greater understanding of humans now than we did when we first Wove our ties to the Families," she told them. "With every step I made in reweaving my connection to the Potter Line, I thought of something else. Something that hadn't occurred to any of us when we Wove the original threads." She glanced at Yoko, who had first revealed the mutation to her almost three weeks earlier, then at Harry again. "It's growing, feeding off itself and multiplying its power as it does so. Soon, I will be tied nearly as tightly to the Potters as I am to Arcana."

Yoko glanced at Harry and made doubly sure that his next comment never made it to Tarana or Harry's ears. 'I've been watching it even when they aren't,' he said. 'But if Harry and Tarana ever figure out the true depths of this Bond, especially if they Bleed it, they'll likely be able to call one another back from the dead.'

Oblivious to the extra insight Yoko gave to the others, Harry stepped down off the stairs.

"Considering everything else that's been going on," he said evenly, keeping his focus on Tarana's own resolute gaze. "What with the search for Sirius and Ebony and the fight you lot were having with each other; I didn't want to pull Tarana away from her brothers. She asked me during the holidays if I wanted to Bleed again," his hand trailed subconsciously over the massive scar on his upper arm from the last Bleeding he and Tarana had done. He raised his head and tried to look as regal as Tarana usually did, worthy of being Bonded to the Valerian Queen. "I chose not to renew the Bond. I declined."

"Harry that was so friggin' fool-"

"It was a well-thought-out decision that had nothing to do with you," Harry turned his head slightly to snap. "It isn't your choice. It isn't any of your choices. The Bond is between Tarana and I and we'll solidify it by blood when we're bloody well good and ready." He inhaled sharply and exhaled slowly, trying to regain himself. "It's been a long night," he muttered, turning on his heel. "I don't think I want to talk anymore. Let me know if something interesting happens, Blaise."

Draco gaped at him for a moment before finding his voice. "Harry!"

Harry didn't even look back at him, instead, flicking two fingers at him over his shoulder.

Draco hissed and scowled at the now empty staircase. "Those are a lot more fun when he doesn't use them on me."

XX

Perhaps because the protections on the castle had failed again, Dumbledore called the Heads of House to his office and a discussion took place that ended with Minerva making an angry visit to the Tower that evening in search of Tarana.

"He's planning more protections," Minerva informed her stiffly as they walked the corridors together. "Filius has been 'asked'," and her tone made it clear that it was less of a request and more of an order, "to teach the front doors to recognize Sirius."

Tarana tilted her head. "I wasn't aware the castle had that level of ability."

"We're not sure it does," Minerva admitted. "You're aware, I'm sure, that the castle has a level of sentience, but even by that standard this seems to be too much to ask of it."

"Otherwise you could have used it to prevent Dark and Arcana from entering two years ago," Tarana stated.

"Exactly," Minerva said, frowning. "And when we asked why he hadn't attempted that at the time, Albus turned to Filch."

The man in question had been seen tucked beneath a tapestry Tarana knew from James' time led to a mostly unused courtyard.

"He's boarding up the passages," she said. "The boys noticed him during their classes. That was on Albus' order, I assume."

"It was," Minerva sighed. "I tried to ask him, after the meeting, why he was so certain that it was Sirius that had betrayed the Potters. I even pointed out that Peter'd never had a courageous bone in his body before that afternoon in London." She shook her head. "I'm not sure where his head is," she said tiredly. "This is the first time I've spoken with him and he doesn't seem to even take another view into account."

"In his defense," Tarana said carefully, "there doesn't seem to be much proof yet that Peter survived that confrontation. The only one we can ask is Sirius and that requires us to catch him. Perhaps Albus plans to interrogate him?"

Minerva's mouth twisted. "Perhaps," she said, though she seemed unconvinced. "Even the answers he does give don't satisfy, however. Filius told me that Pomona tried to convince him that it was an unwise idea to assume we knew what happened that night and he blew her off. Oh, he had quite the time trying to calm Pomona that evening."

Tarana didn't say a word, realizing that there was no more she needed to say.

She waited until she and Minerva had parted ways and she was headed back to the newly returned Fat Lady – and the security trolls hired to guard her – to allow the feral, triumphant smile to twist her lips.

She knew that of the two ak-esh in the castle, only she had any real input into the mindset of Sirius Black, and thus the bulk of the transformation of the Heads of House was down to her and Minerva's susceptibility to her fondness for the Marauders.

Yoko had done his part, however. In his attempt to close the gap between himself and Tarana – and she wasn't unaware of his attempt to do so, if only to try and convince her that her protection of Sirius wasn't wise – he had tapped memories that had been more or less forgotten by the staff, whether they had taught the Marauders twenty years ago or had simply gone to school with them.

The exception had been Severus, and Tarana couldn't blame him for that, and she had been surprised by the man's defense of Sirius when they'd met on the Tower. It coincided, however, with tension between Fallen and Severus and she didn't want to ask either about Severus' sudden – and rather specific – change of heart on the matter of the betrayal.

It wasn't even close to the hardest the ak-esh had ever worked.

XX

Harry's reprimand of the Valerians and Draco the evening before had driven at least a portion of the judgment they'd laid at his and Tarana's feet from them.

Ron had become an instant celebrity and recounted daily the events of Saturday night's attack to eager listeners.

He wasn't a fool, however.

"I don't understand why he ran," he told Arcana after retelling the story with apparent relish to several Second Year girls. "He was an Auror, right? I remember Dad telling us that he was dangerous because he'd been an Auror and would know how the Ministry was going to try and find him."

Arcana didn't tell him that he was also dangerous because of Ebony's continued freedom and all the power that came with the dark leopard.

The tiger had, admittedly, been wondering the same thing.

If Sirius had truly wanted Harry, or Ron in this case, why did he tear the curtain?

He couldn't have known how hard a sleeper Ron was and that this wouldn't normally wake him thus it was a serious risk.

It had, according to the reports from the rest of the dorm, woken Draco, Harry, and Blaise, the lightest sleepers of the Third Years, and Ron's scream had woken the rest of them.

But as to why he'd run, that wasn't what confused the King. 'His element of surprise was over. The moment you'd woken the Tower, and make no mistake you'd woken more than just your dorm room, your terror had also triggered the return of, at the very least, myself to the Tower. From that second he had one job if he wanted any third attempt: get out.'

There was something else that was bothering them both, but they hadn't had a chance to ask the other Valerians and their Bonded to barter ideas about it.

Neville, having been the reason that Sirius had been able to get into the Tower at all, was now the most hated student in the whole Tower.

In addition to the punishments laid out by McGonagall, he'd lost an additional fifteen points on Sunday, when Horus attacked a Fifth Year in the common room, going after the girl's eye.

He'd escaped another detention and possible expulsion by the fact that Horus had only done so because she'd been bullying him.

She spent the afternoon in the hospital wing ensuring that no damage had been done to her actual eye and lost the same fifteen points for having been bullying the younger teen in the first place.

After that, Horus was a more oft-seen member of the group, coming down to meals and fluttering around Neville's classes.

The most unusual thing about the falcon, however, was that by some gift from Hogwarts in Neville's First Year, it had been granted the ability to talk, of a sort, giving it a more parrot-like nature despite it clearly being a peregrine falcon.

The bird didn't understand that it wasn't supposed to speak when Neville was in class, and it was the Valerians stepping in, each and every time without fail, that had prevented the bird from being evicted from the room.

"The boy is clearly not safe on his own," Fallen had sneered at McGonagall on Monday. "You've quite neatly painted a target on his back, the attack on that little lioness of yours has made it clear that Horus is only looking to protect his owner. You throw him out and I'll cut the next person who throws so much as a balled-up piece of paper at him."

McGonagall had pressed her lips together but allowed the falcon to remain.

"Get him under control, Longbottom," she told him as he left. "If he disturbs my class again, you will be serving more than a detention with me."

"Yes, Professor," Neville had mumbled.

XX

It wasn't just the Valerians that had rallied around Neville.

Two days after the attack, Neville's grandmother had sent him a Howler, a magical letter that magnified its contents into the air at a hundred times its normal volume, effectively embarrassing the receiver.

Even after taking the Howler to the Entrance Hall outside the Great Hall, they could still hear her, word-for-word, telling him in great detail how he had brought shame upon the entire family.

Blaise and Yoko had immediately followed Neville, but it was Harry and Ron, neither of whom were particularly fond of Howlers after Ron had received one the year before, that pointed put their wands beside their plates and warned the nearby Gryffindors against mentioning the Howler when Neville returned.

Fred and George later stumbled upon Neville, surrounded by a handful of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and had dragged the younger teen away, loudly informing the teen that they'd been looking for him.

Closer to dinner, Draco had sent a Fourth Year Slytherin running off with a literal tail between her legs having tried to bully the brunette in his presence. He called after her that she was lucky because Horus would have gone for her eyes.

Slowly but surely, Neville was relaxing despite everything happening around him as his friends circled him protectively and the Valerians wisely widened their own, snapping viciously when some idiot tried to make their feelings on Neville's stupidity known.

XX

Neville wasn't the only one with problems.

Four days before Buckbeak's trial, Blaise gathered his friends and dragged them down to Hagrid's.

"He needs to practice this speech in front of a live audience," he told them. "How he comes across in front of the committee is going to make or break this argument."

Draco and Fallen exchanged a look but wisely followed their friend down to the cabin by the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

The reading went horrible.

Hagrid read the papers just fine, but he couldn't get the right emotion behind the lines.

His recitation was dead and matter of fact, in some places and borderline tearful in others and none of it was at the right times.

Draco had been vicious in his questioning, defending his decision by reminding Blaise, Hermione, and Neville that the committee wasn't going to be any better, and neither was Percival Parkinson.

They spent close to three hours down with Hagrid, with little to show for the effort involved.

Lagging back with Ron and Harry, while Blaise, Neville, and Hermione struggled to find a way around the problem ahead of them, Draco shook his head. "Buckbeak's chances aren't looking good. He's got no charisma, no flow. It would be easier for him if someone could speak for him."

Ron shook his head. "Where the hell would we find someone like that in four days?" he asked.

"It's too bad that Blaise or Hermione couldn't do it," Harry pointed out. "They've been at this from the beginning. They know every element inside and out."

"They're underage," Draco told him. "For something like this, they can't stand as a solicitor. Witness only and Parkinson will never let them take the seat. Their testimony would only help Hagrid."

The group would try again daily, with Tarana and Arcana joining in Blaise and Draco's attempts to give Hagrid a crash course in playing the court, to no avail.

He just couldn't strike the right chords.

XX

Good news comes two days later, but not for Hagrid or the researchers.

Tarana informed Harry that she had come to a conclusion based on the attack the night of the party and couldn't see any reason to keep Harry out of Hogsmeade any longer.

"I don't want you wandering off, however," Tarana told him, warningly. "Stick close to the rest of us, all of you, because we still don't know who Ebony's warning refers to."

The group was so eager to properly show Harry Hogsmeade, that the caveat didn't bother them.

The conversation with Albus and Minerva, however, didn't go so well.

"My Lady, this is seriously unwise," Albus said, leaning forward on his elbows, the twinkle in his eyes long gone. "Sirius is still a threat to Harry and these walls are the safest place for him."

"I disagree," Tarana countered easily. "For one, these walls haven't kept out Dark, Ebony, or Sirius and thus, his greatest protection comes from luck and those around him, mainly myself and my people. "Also," she continued, blowing right over whatever Minerva was going to try and inject into the argument. "I have thus far not seen any evidence that Harry is the target you warned me he would be."

Minerva's brow furrowed. "But he-"

"His greatest chance at Harry was in Surrey, the night we left," Tarana told them. "He failed to appear, though I know he was there when we departed on the Knight Bus. He sent him an extremely expensive Christmas present and made no attempt to tamper with it, another surefire way to ensure Harry's demise. We could, of course, counter that he would know we'd search it, but then what was the point of sending the gift in the first place?"

Minerva frowned eyes distant as these additional pieces bounced around her own reservations.

"When Sirius finally did get into the Tower, he didn't choose Harry's bed, which would have been obvious given that he's left the Firebolt Sirius sent him on the trunk at the end of his bed since Yoko returned it, he chose that of Ron Weasley, two beds over from him." Tarana continued. "In fact, there has been more damage done to my charge by the dementors of the Ministry, than there has been by Sirius Black or Ebony."

"Very well," Minerva sighed, earning a flicked glance from the Headmaster. "I ask that you be doubly careful and keep a close eye on him." She held up a hand when Tarana cast her a dark, warning look. "Not because you can't protect him, Your Highness," she assured, "but because, given the last two years, trouble seems to find him."

Tarana's lips twisted, amused despite herself. "We all plan to be on our guard," she told the two. "I'm not a fool, but I can no longer keep him contained within these walls without cause. There's simply no evidence to further hurt him by keeping him here."

Albus sighed, reaching for his quill. "I'll add him to the list, Your Highness, but please keep our reservations in mind."

"Your reservations, for what they're worth, are noted," Tarana sneered.

XX

Hagrid's hearing fell on the same day as the trip to Hogsmeade.

As Blaise and Neville were the two to remain behind at the castle this time, and it was their promise that they'd stick close and wait for Hagrid's return to the castle that pushed Hermione to join the others in Hogsmeade.

For the most part, Harry's first true trip to the village was a raging success, hampered only by Hermione's fretting.

Ron walked Harry through every aisle of Honeydukes giving him a detailed report of what was where and what was new that was rather appalling because of its accuracy.

("Has it occurred to you, Ron, that you spend a bit too much time thinking about food?" – "Not really, why?")

The twins are either already or still at Zonko's Joke Shop when they slip inside for a quick look and they steal Harry to show off their own favorite store, leaving Draco to trail after them as opposed to staying with the tense forms of Ron and Hermione who have stopped taking potshots at one another and moved on to hatefully ignoring one another.

For that reason, lunch at the Three Broomsticks is also tense and is a rushed affair.

Draco takes Harry to a couple of the other stores while Hermione and Ron trail after them before they end up at the Shrieking Shack.

It certainly looked as haunted as the story claimed it to be.

Tarana seemed unusually uncomfortable around the shack, but Harry was having too much fun to question her about it.

On their way back up to the castle, Hermione could have sworn she'd seen Ivory slinking through the yards and alleys but didn't have a chance to ask any of the others if they'd seen him.

Standing just outside the gate, Yoko and Blaise were waiting, Neville hovering and wringing his hands together as he stood behind it.

XX

Severus rarely entered Hogsmeade during the weekends set aside for the students, on the grounds that with most of them in the village, Hogwarts itself was empty of them.

He was irritated, therefore, when he'd settled with a bottle of chilled Butterbeer he saved for such weekends – as he couldn't be sure when a student might need something and the scotch was saved for evenings if he didn't want the idiots to turn him into a raging alcoholic – and a stack of magazines he'd like to get through by the time the worst offenders at the castle returned, and some fool knocked on his door.

His mood soured further when his visitor turned out to be Lupin.

"What?" he asked sharply, not bothering to invite the werewolf inside.

Lupin inhaled deeply. "I'm sorry for intruding, Severus," he said on the exhale. "But I was wondering if you could tell the difference between an animal's blood sample and a human's."

Severus sneered. "Any fool can," he stated coolly, glancing at the folded piece of bed linen in the werewolf's hand. "You can't smell it?"

Lupin flinched, slight but there all the same, and pleasure curled in Severus' gut.

It was good to find that at least someone regretted their past together.

"It was too old by the time I got it," Lupin admitted. He offered the sheet to Severus. "I was hoping you knew of a way to get the answer faster than sending it to Fallen's collaborator in the lab. I…I don't know who else to ask. I-"

Severus eyed the bloody fabric with distaste. "You expect me to get a reasonable sample from this? How old?"

Lupin grimaced. "February. It's Scabbers' blood. I know this is a lot to ask of you, Severus, especially with everything else you've done for me this year, but please this is about the safety of Harry and-"

"I don't care for the boy's safety, Lupin," Severus said sharply, cutting him off. "I assume one of them asked you to bring this to me?" he sneered as he snatched the cloth from the werewolf. "I'm extremely busy at the moment. It isn't often that I have the time to try and catch up on my own work when I'm busy running around doing everyone else's. I'll get to it when I can."

"Thank-" Lupin's gratitude was spoken to the wooden door.

Later, much later, Severus will regret tossing the sheet on a chair and deliberately forgetting about it.

But for now, it brings him great pleasure that Lupin needed something from him desperately enough that he might as well have been begging at his doorstep, and that he could make him wait.

XX

The group broke into a run as they approached the gates.

The two dementors that had stood guard there had been dragged, judging by the marks on the ground, off into the woods, no doubt some of Yoko's work.

Blaise, usually terrified to be outside the castle walls even for classes, was a straight and livid line as he watched them approach.

"Hagrid-" Hermione breathed.

"Lost," Blaise said shortly. "Parkinson knew that he wouldn't be able to pay restitution and his cabin officially belongs to Hogwarts. He claimed that Buckbeak and Fang were property that could be used to pay for the damages. Buckbeak is going to be executed, a date yet to be set. Fang's status is still being questioned because he hasn't hurt anyone, and they can't justifiably execute him. But if Parkinson has his way, Hagrid will have to give him up, too."