Author's Note:

I would like to say, Draco Malfoy is not necessarily good, but I don't think he's evil either. And at the moment he is still only thirteen, like Harry, and being that Sirius and Narcissa are cousins, they really have no choice in the being thrown together scheme of things, but for the moment they still aren't exactly friends.

Sorry for the long delay — I meant to post this on Wednesday, but it has been a busy week.

Reviews and Comments: To alix33: Cheesy hash brown casserole is so yummy! Wow, feeling sorry for Narcissa and Draco, thanks I think lol. To Paola1991: Harry has to have parental guidance and keeping things from him sometimes is a parent's right. Bellatrix is definitely a psycho. Molly will be involved with Ginny, you just have to be patient. To Steelcode: Thank you! To teachergirl: Thank you for saying that was an interesting turn of events. To CrazyWithABook: You're welcome! To Nria Tardo: Thank you! To PolarWriter95: Ha, you think shit hit the proper fan this time, thank you!

To coloredwords: I agree, I think the Malfoy debacle will be interesting. Harry and Zee together is fun, so thanks for loving her! To akshutalankar: I did plan on shaking the storyline, I just had to get there. Thanks for saying I'm not predictable! I have a few more twists and turns up my sleeves. To Guest: Sirius has every intention of telling Harry about the Horcruxes. Ginny was informed of what the dark object was that was taking over her soul (as she should have been from the beginning) to help her heal. Sirius wants to give Harry a detailed explanation of everything he possibly can and is compiling evidence and research together to do so. I don't think Zee influenced Harry. She told him of a subject she enjoyed and since Ron was taking the same one, he agreed. It's no different than Sirius refusing to let Harry take Divination. I love Zee's character and don't consider her too meddling into Harry and Sirius' lives. Girls mature faster than boys, fact of life. It doesn't mean that Ginny is then too good for Harry. They are too young to date yet and will not be together in the near future. He drifted apart from Ginny because they were separated for a year and then a second year of her being possessed. They will be great friends again.

To Lost: Thank you! I never said the Malfoys were nice, just not evil. To sherryola: Thank you! I'm honoured to hear that my story has been recommended on Facebook! How cool! I'm sorry that you didn't like Althea and really don't like Zee. Thanks for loving my Sirius as a parent though. To LAoR: Thank you! Things are beginning! To Guest: I'm glad you loved my Operation FUVP name. I agree, sometimes it is easier to talk to siblings than to parents. Molly is doing what is needed. Harry will learn more about everything, just not yet. To QueenLinear: Thank you! To Claire Fraser: I'm glad you can never tell if Draco is good or bad. I don't think he knows lol. As to Molly and Arthur joining the operation, not at this moment. Of course Zee came as soon as Sirius called for her. She loves him and she loves Harry. Thank you! To Fenrix_Shadowbane: Thank you!

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE:

The One Where Cissy Tattles on Abraxas

Sirius continued to stare at Narcissa once Draco had walked out of the kitchen. He took a seat in the chair across from her and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, the boys are gone — start talking, Cissa."

Andromeda reached out and squeezed her sister's hand lightly. "Cissa, tell us what has you so spooked. What happened?"

Narcissa let out a slow breath, eyes on Andromeda in surprise as if she had just realized that the sister she hadn't spoken to in years was sitting in the room.

"If Brax finds out that I came here and told you any of this, he'll kill me." She looked out of the kitchen window. "But I won't let him use Draco like he does Lucius — I won't."

Remus cleared his throat, his eyes on Sirius as he spoke. "Narcissa, you are safe with us here. I can promise you that. You know that as Lord Black, Sirius will protect you if you ask him too."

She only nodded at him. "Oh, I know that; why else do you think I came here?" She took a deep breath and looked around the kitchen before she spoke. "Who are all of you?"

Tonks smiled crookedly at her. "You know Remus, I assume, Remus Lupin. I'm your niece, Nymphadora, but call me Tonks, Auntie Cissa. And this is Zahira Zacarias, Sirius' girlfriend."

Narcissa looked taken aback as she stared at the woman who had just called her auntie. "Oh, well, erm, nice to meet you both."

"Yes, yes, formalities aside, what did Malfoy do, Cissa?" Sirius demanded.

His eyes were flashing in anger at the prospect that his cousin's father-in-law not only knew where Pettigrew was, but that he had helped him escape and there was not a damn thing that he could do about it. He wanted to punch the wall again. Zee must have sensed his rage because her hand slipped into his, her fingers lacing between his.

"Brax broke them out," Narcissa said simply, letting out a breath like she had been dying to say so. "From what he told Lucius and I, he went for Bella, and for Bella only. But once the Dementors were absent from the prison, he moved in. Since he helped put up new wards around the prison over forty years ago, he knew how to take the wards down, and in doing so, removed the wards from Pettigrew's prison that kept him from transforming. Pettigrew changed into a rat and snuck into Bella's cell when the wards went down. I don't think Pettigrew was necessarily going to see Bella; my guess is that he was trying to find a way out; he must have felt the wards were weakest in that area, as Brax removed the wards only from the one section of the prison. When he made it into the ward free zone, Bella recognized him, grabbed him, and took him out with them. She claimed that he was going to be the key to everything. Brax only wanted Bella out, he didn't care about Pettigrew."

"Why, though?" Zee asked, tucking a curl behind her ear, her other hand resting on Sirius' hip as she sat next to him. "Why would he want to break out one woman and why now?"

Narcissa licked her lips before letting out a slow breath. "Because it was Abraxas who had the diary that gave the Weasley girl the ability to open the Chamber of Secrets, not Lucius."

Sirius snorted. "I was in Flourish and Blotts that day, Cissy. It wasn't Abraxas who put the diary into Ginny's cauldron."

Narcissa shook her head. "No, but it belonged to Abraxas. He had it locked in a vault in his house in France. It was a special trophy the Dark Lord presented him and asked him to keep safe until he was told otherwise. Abraxas has kept it all these years in case of the Dark Lord's return."

"So, how did Lucius get a hold of it?" Sirius asked.

"Abraxas asked Lucius to get something from the vault last summer and Lucius found the diary. He took it, thinking that it would annoy his father to have lost something so precious to his idol. He panicked when Abraxas discovered it was missing and… he snuck it into the Weasley girl's textbooks to get rid of it. I swear on my son's life that he had no idea what would happen. He had no idea that the Weasley girl would bring it to Hogwarts. He only knew that it was something the Dark Lord valued. Lucius never imagined that it would cause all of this… and when it did… well, Brax was so… pleased. He said that Lucius was finally living up to his true potential."

"'His true potential?'" Andromeda repeated, her face pale.

Narcissa nodded. "When Lucius came back from Hogwarts, he informed his father that the diary had been destroyed. That Slytherin's monster had been killed by Harry Potter and that the Weasley girl had been saved, but that Dumbledore knew that the diary had once belonged to the Dark Lord. He told Abraxas that Dumbledore wanted to know how the Dark Lord had managed to enchant the object when he was hiding in Albania."

Remus swallowed. "Bet he jumped on that."

"He did," Narcissa said. "He took off that night, leaving Isla with us. He came back a week later and he took Isla and he went home, back to France, without speaking of where he had gone or what he had been up to. We didn't hear from him all summer until he showed up with Bella and Pettigrew. And Bella was the one who told me that Brax knew that the Dark Lord was alive somewhere in Albania and that he knew how to find him. He was alone, weak and stranded, and he would need his followers — his most loyal followers — to help bring him back to power."

Sirius paled now. "Bring him back? He's a fucking parasite! He was living in another man's body for almost a year — and it almost destroyed him! It weakened Voldemort even more. There's no coming back from that nothingness!"

Narcissa only stared at him before she swallowed. "He wants to bring him back. I don't know when. I don't know how. And I don't know how long it will take, but that's what he wants to do and he plans to use Bella and Pettigrew to help him do it."

"Pete wouldn't," Remus said, quietly. "He knows what he did was wrong."

Sirius shook his head. "He's too fucking scared to do anything else, Moony. Pete knows his options here. Help Malfoy and Bella or go back to bloody Azkaban for the rest of his life. Of course he's going to bloody-well help them." He dragged his fingers through his hair. "How does he plan to do it?"

"I don't know," Narcissa told him. "I don't even think Brax knows. And he's moved Bella and Pettigrew out of the Manor. I assume that they're in France at his estate while he figures out what to do. Sirius… he has Lucius under his control to a great extent, but I won't let him have Draco. I won't let him turn my little dragon into a man like him. I won't."

Sirius nodded. "He's welcome here whenever, Cissa, as are you. With Black blood you can always get in and I will always offer you protection under the Black Family name."

"What about Bellatrix?"

Sirius shook his head and smiled reassuringly at Remus. "No. The way the Black bloodline wards work are that access to Black Family properties is granted only to those who come in distress, looking for safety from those inside, and with no intent to harm or intent to let others harm. Bella would never come to me for that. Not in a million years. And if she tried to move on the property, the blood wards would tear her apart if they suspected any hint of harm towards the occupants."

Remus nodded, looking reassured by this. "But Narcissa and Draco?"

"Will always be granted protection here if they come looking for it and they know it," Sirius said, kindly, looking at his cousin. "What are you going to do?"

Narcissa sighed. "Draco and I will go back home. Lucius is probably pacing frantically as he knew that I sent Draco to you, but he doesn't know where you are. He knows that I disagree with everything his father is doing — and he's not exactly on board either, but as I said, Abraxas is… he's a very powerful man."

"Can't the Aurors do something?" Zee asked, her eyes on Tonks.

Tonks shook her head. "We did all that we could. We searched the perimeter and the property of Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire with our anonymous tip, but we couldn't invade the house without the express permission of Lucius Malfoy, which we were obviously denied, or without a warrant which — we would need more evidence in order to obtain. Not to mention that if Narcissa is right, and Abraxas Malfoy took them to his home in France, they are no longer under our jurisdiction."

Sirius swore. "So, he can keep them there indefinitely and he can plan his plot to bring Voldemort back and there's not a damn thing that we can bloody do about it!"

"I'll speak to King about alerting the Ministére des Affaires Magiques to be on the lookout for Lestrange and Pettigrew, but no, there's nothing that we can legally do," Tonks said, bitterly. "And right now, no offence towards Auntie Cissa but, what she says is just heresy until evidence is provided, and right now, we don't have a lick of it."

Andromeda snorted and leaned into her husband when Ted put his arm around her. "But he doesn't actually know how to bring You Know Who back. He just thinks that he knows where he is and he wants to find him."

"True," Narcissa said carefully. "But it's the implications of what he may do once he finds him that's the problem. The Dark Lord knows magic unlike anyone that I've ever met. He will know a way to help him return to power and with supporters to help him… there will be no stopping him. He'll come back stronger and more powerful than ever!"

"Why is Malfoy so loyal to that fucker?" Sirius said angrily. "We found out at Pete's trial about the Dark Mark tattoo, does Malfoy have one?"

Narcissa bit her bottom lip before she gave a short nod. "Lucius does. But Brax held him down while the Dark Lord burned it into his arm years ago — before the war really began. His early followers, the ones who knew him for years, don't have the mark. They don't need it. There's only a few of them left."

"The ones who went to Hogwarts with him," Sirius said as his cousin nodded.

"I just want to take Draco home and talk to Lucius. Once Draco is safe at Hogwarts again then I'll worry about my father-in-law and my sister," Narcissa said calmly, standing up.

Sirius nodded. "All right, but if there's anything else, I want to know."

"I just want Draco to be safe," she said.

"I want the same for Harry," Sirius told her. "We'll keep them safe and you'll keep me informed."

Narcissa started to protest, but the look Sirius shot her made her nod. "All right."

~ ASC ~

Harry was annoyed that Sirius wouldn't tell him what was going on. Sirius insisted that it wasn't anything that he needed to know and that if he did need to know, he would know it. This had infuriated Harry, who brought up the rule chart about not lying to each other.

Sirius had only stared at him. "I'm not lying to you, Harry, but I am choosing not to tell you what we discussed at this particular moment. You are only thirteen years old and you don't need to know everything."

This only made Harry angrier. "That's not fair! I was at Pettigrew's trial! I know all of the bad things that he did and… Bellatrix hurt Neville's parents, Uncle Sirius! I should know why they escaped!"

Sirius sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Harry, I don't know why they escaped. All I know is that they had help. Narcissa is scared for Draco. That's why she sent him here. His grandfather isn't a very nice man and he was a very adamant follower of Voldemort during the first war. That's all. You have nothing to worry about. We will figure all of this out. It is not your concern."

He'd sent Harry to bed, telling him that he wasn't getting any more information.

Sirius winced at the sound of Harry's bedroom slamming and Zee touched his arm sympathetically. "You're doing the right thing, Sirius."

Sirius sighed as he looked at her. "I don't know if that's true. Maybe he does deserve to know but… he's only thirteen, and what am I going to tell him? Theories? The last thing that I want him worried about right now is the possibility of Voldemort coming back. I won't put those fears into his head — especially when I don't have any proof that it's true. Remus and I discussed telling him about the Horcuxes, and we want too… we don't want to keep him in the dark but… we want to have something concrete, we don't want to scare him. And when we talk to him about it… I don't want him to have pieces, I want him to know everything."

Zee wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek against his heart. "You're an amazing father, Sirius. He knows how much you love him. But like you said, he is only thirteen and being thirteen, he's going to start fighting you on a few things. You tell him when you think it's time, but I agree with you, having something concrete to tell him is a good start."

He smirked and kissed the top of her head as he held her. "I love that he's been spending time with you."

She smiled up at him. "I was surprised myself. He does have a knack for cooking though. I've enjoyed teaching him. He's funny and talkative and he loves you so much. I want him to like me."

"He does," he insisted, leaning down to kiss the tip of her nose. "He does like you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bracelet that he had made for her, dangling it between his fingers. "I forgot I had this for you," he said.

Zee stared at the simple silver braided chain full of silver and gold charms. "It's beautiful."

"Harry helped me put it together when we got home," he said simply. "He said that it was perfect for you. He knows that your love of animals is an important part of who you are. He even helped me pick out a few of the charms."

Zee held her left wrist out so that Sirius would snap the bracelet into place.

"We bought a charm in every country we visited," he continued. "A different animal to symbolize every place we went."

Zee stared at it, touching the last charm near the clasp. "This one isn't an animal."

Sirius smiled as she held the little claddagh symbol of a crowned heart held by two hands. "No, I bought that one in Ireland. It represents love."

Zee grinned widely, standing on her toes to kiss him softly. "Thank you. I love it and I love you."

Sirius kissed her again, tilting his head to her forehead. "I'm more worried about Pettigrew and Bella escaping than I've admitted. On top of everything that happened with the Chamber in May and my discussion with Dumbledore about Horcruxes… and then with Bill about setting this Horcrux mission up… this isn't exactly what I call a good omen."

She framed his face in her hands. "Like you told Harry, you don't know what is going to happen. You don't know what is true. You don't have the facts. Don't let your fear blind you, Sirius. We'll figure this out. Together."

He held her close, sighing as she held him. "I love you."

Zee smiled when he pulled away. "I love you."

She kissed him softly; deeply. He groaned against her neck.

"Merlin, I miss making love with you."

"Me too. Soon," she kissed him again. "I'm going to head home. I have to be at work early tomorrow. You stay close to Harry. You need each other." She kissed him goodbye and he sighed, leaning against the front door after she left.

The last thing that he wanted was to be alone tonight, but Zee never stayed over when Harry was here. It was his own rule and he regretted it tonight. He looked up at the ceiling, closing his eyes.

He knew what he needed to do.

~ ASC ~

Harry stormed up to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him and writing furiously in his journal, claiming how unfair Sirius was being. When he finally went to bed almost an hour later, he slept restlessly.

He woke in the morning to find Padfoot sleeping on the end of his bed with Marauder snuggled next to him and his eyes widened in surprise. Sirius hadn't slept in his dog form in years. He suddenly felt very guilty about the way that he had yelled at his father the night before. He reached forward to rub his head and Padfoot made a soft yawn and licked his face making him laugh before he padded out of the room.

Knowing his father had slept on the end of his bed the entire night suddenly made him feel safer and he knew that Sirius was struggling with the idea of Peter having escaped a lot more than he had let on. Harry wanted to ask Sirius again about what Narcissa Malfoy had told him, but the sight of his father as Padfoot had worried him. If he had felt the need to sleep as Padfoot, Harry knew that he had been too afraid to sleep alone, and that worried Harry more than anything.

He made his way downstairs for breakfast just as an owl came flying through the window. He took the letter, seeing Sirius' name on the outside and handed it to his father when he walked into the kitchen.

Sirius unraveled it quickly and read the words, his lips pursed.

"What?"

"It's from Minerva. The Minister of Magic has decided that the Dementors should guard Hogwarts. Apparently it's because you and Remus were at the trial for Wormtail and Neville's past connection with Bellatrix. He's concerned that escaped prisoners might try to head to the school, considering their past crimes against the Potter and Longbottom families."

Harry looked flummoxed by this. "Why would they come to the school? That makes zero sense."

"I don't know," Sirius said, dropping the letter and dragging his fingers through his hair. "The last thing that we need is bloody Dementors hanging around the school. Floo Uncle Rem and ask him to come over here. I need to talk to him."

Dementors at Hogwarts?

Harry knew how often his father had nightmares about the Dementors and he wondered how bad it was going to be to have them at the school.

He for one, didn't like the sound of it at all.

~ ASC ~

Ginny carted her trunk behind her as she headed towards the Burrow. The familiar sight of the ramshackle home brought tears to her eyes and she found herself running. She had just made it to the gate when the front door burst open and Molly and Arthur both came running towards her. She let her parents swoop her up into their arms and she hugged them tightly, smiling as her mum covered her face in kisses.

"Oh, darling we've missed you!" Molly exclaimed, kissing her some more.

Ginny smiled wider when her father tugged her away from her mother to hug her tightly. "I've missed you both, too." Arthur took her trunk and she followed them into the house, surprised to find it rather quiet. "Where is everyone?"

"Percy is packing his trunk upstairs and the rest of the boys are out in the orchard playing Quidditch," Molly said, hurrying over to the counter. "Are you hungry, Ginny?"

Ginny nodded absently, watching her mother putter around the kitchen for a moment before she got up to help her. They worked in companionable silence for a moment before Ginny spoke.

"Mum?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I'm sorry."

Molly turned to look at her. "For what, dear?

Ginny sighed and put down the yellow pepper she was slicing wiping her hands on the apron that she had donned. "I'm sorry that I shut you and Dad out. I didn't… I didn't mean to, it's just… once I said it all aloud to Bill, I-I didn't want to say it again — I didn't want to go over it, and the thought of telling you and Dad… seeing the disappointment in your eyes… I'm sorry, Mum."

Molly wiped her own hands before pulling her daughter into her arms. "I am not disappointed in you, nor is your father. We love you so much and the fact that this happened to you… we've been so worried, Ginny."

Ginny hugged her mum tighter. "Has Bill been telling you everything?"

Molly shook her head. "No, though I have been giving him a piece of my mind about that. He gives us snippets, but he won't tell us everything! He said it's not his place."

She smiled against her mother's shoulder. "It wasn't."

Molly smiled at her husband when he came back into the kitchen. "Your father and I love you so much, Ginny; more than you can possibly imagine. We only want the world for you and we want to keep you safe and keep you happy and…"

"We weren't there to protect you," Arthur said softly.

Ginny turned from her mother and ran into her father's arms.

Her father kissed her cheek. "We feel like we should have protected you, even though we know that's stupid and that we weren't even there, it's a parent thing." He kissed her again. "I love you, baby girl."

Ginny smiled at them. "I… I want to tell you everything. I do… I just…"

Arthur gestured to the kitchen table. "We always have time to listen, whenever you feel you are ready."

Ginny smiled and took a seat at the table. "I think I'm ready to talk about… some of it now."

Molly took her husband's hand and squeezed it tightly as she took a seat across from her daughter, tears in her eyes. "Okay."

Ginny let out a slow breath and closed her eyes. She wasn't ready to tell them everything and she knew that she might never be ready to tell them everything, but she did want them to understand. She needed them to and she knew that they needed to hear it from her, almost as bad as she needed to tell them.

"I found the diary that first night when we got home from Diagon Alley…"

~ ASC ~

On the first of September, Harry dragged his trunk downstairs to return to Hogwarts. Sirius was pacing in front of the fireplace and he could see the tense stance of his father's jaw. Sirius and Remus had argued for almost two hours the night before until Tonks had come over, Wolfsbane Potion in her hand, and demanded that they head to the Lupin cottage before the moon came up. She stayed with Harry, telling him not to worry and that Fudge was just panicking because prisoners had never escaped Azkaban before and he was trying to do everything that he could to catch them. Sirius had even sent an owl to Dumbledore before he left, who informed him the next morning that the Minister of Magic had overruled him.

There was nothing that they could do.

Dementors were going to be guarding the school until the two prisoners were apprehended and the Minister of Magic was refusing to budge on his decision.

"Do you remember everything that I told you last night, Prongslet?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes a bit bloodshot. He hadn't slept a wink the night before and had drank more Firewhiskey than he wanted to admit before he had transformed into Padfoot to sit with Remus.

Harry nodded. "Dementors aren't fooled by invisibility cloaks and they don't distinguish between good and bad people."

Sirius nodded stiffly. "Always carry chocolate with you. The sweetness will counteract the feelings they will leave in you. Being around them… it's like the world will never be good, nothing will ever be good, you'll never experience happiness or love or laughter ever again — just the cold, gloomy darkness. They make you remember the worst things you've ever experienced, and they feed on that pain, Harry."

Harry only nodded again. "I won't sneak out, Uncle Padfoot. I promise."

Sirius pulled him close, kissing the top of his head. "I don't like this at all. I don't even care that they are doing it for your protection. Having Dementors at Hogwarts is a stupid fucking idea and Fudge needs to pull his bloody head out of his arse. Wormtail and Bella… someone on the outside helped them escape, I know that much, and my bet is that they also have an in with the Dementors. Cissy more or less confirmed that."

"Do you think that they'd really go to Hogwarts?"

"No, I don't. Whoever helped them, whoever is helping them — if it was actually Abraxas Malfoy — they're the ones pulling the strings. Peter doesn't have the brains for it. He was way too out of it when he went to Azkaban and he has way too much self-pity to plan his own escape. Bella… she's batty as hell and always has been. I imagine spending over a decade in prison hardly made her any saner. I just don't know why… why those two… I don't like it, Prongslet, I don't like it at all." Sirius told him, dragging his fingers through his hair.

Harry watched his father for a moment. "I'll be fine, honest."

Sirius nodded, framing Harry's face with his hands. "I wish that you were staying home with me."

"I want to go back to school, Uncle Siri."

"I know and I know that I can't keep you in a giant bubble as much as I want to."

Harry smirked at him. "I'll be fine and I refuse to let you put me in a giant bubble."

Sirius chuckled. "Okay, if you insist. Uncle Moony will be there if you need anything, and I mean anything, Harry. No more of this late night exploring into near-death situations. You go to Uncle Remus if you see or hear anything suspicious — promise me?"

"I promise."

Sirius nodded, kissing his forehead. "All right. I love you," he said fiercely, hugging him close. "We'll talk about going down into the Chamber of Secrets and a few other things once school starts up. Come on; let's get to King's Cross."

~ ASC ~

Thirty minutes later, Harry was moving through the train trying to find a compartment. The last thing that he expected was to open the door and find his father asleep against the window seat. Remus had his coat pulled up like a blanket and he had dark circles under his eyes. The night before had been the first night of the moon and Harry knew that he was probably beyond exhausted.

Ron and Hermione moved into the compartment behind him.

"Why is Professor Lupin taking the train?" Hermione asked, moving to take a seat on the bench.

Harry sat next to Remus and let out a slow breath. "Uncle Sirius probably insisted that he should travel with me."

"He looks exhausted," Hermione observed as she watched him sleep. "Should we be whispering?"

Harry shook his head. "Nah, he sleeps like the dead. He was up all night with Uncle Sirius. They're very angry about the Dementors coming."

"Mum and Dad are too," Ron admitted. "Mum contemplated not even sending us back to school, but we protested — even Percy. He said that he had been promoted to Head Boy and that he wasn't going to let Dumbledore down by hiding in his house like a petulant child. Dad snickered at that one, but they agreed with him."

The compartment door slid open and Neville slipped inside. His face was much paler than usual.

"Hi, Harry, Ron, Hermione."

"Hey, Nev," Harry said lightly. "You okay?"

Neville took a seat next to Hermione and shook his head. "I never… Gran says that she should have died in Azkaban."

"Lestrange should have been Kissed," Ron said bitterly.

Neville only nodded.

Hermione looked between the three boys, a look of confusion on her face. "I don't understand, I thought that we were more concerned about Pettigrew escaping? What did this Lestrange woman do that was so much worse?"

Harry shook his head. He forgot that Hermione didn't get the wizarding newspaper at her house. "Uncle Sirius says that Pettigrew escaping is not something to worry about. He says that the person who helped the two of them, whoever orchestrated this entire escape plan, is to blame. Lestrange though, she's mad. She…" he paused, trailing off as he looked at Neville.

Neville swallowed, his hands fisting in his lap. "Twelve years ago… she tortured my parents into insanity."

Hermione gasped. Her hands covered her mouth in shock and tears welled up in her eyes. "Neville, I am so sorry! I had no idea."

He shrugged. "I don't really talk about it."

"Obviously not," Hermione said, jumping up to hug him. "But I am sorry nevertheless."

Ron crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Two escaped prisoners is a big deal though no matter who they are. No one has ever escaped before. Not in the history of Azkaban Prison. I think Sirius is probably right about someone on the outside orchestrating the escape."

Harry snuck a look at Remus, who was snoring quietly. "That's not the only reason why Uncle Sirius is so cross. Malfoy showed up at my house two days ago."

He quickly explained to his friends what had happened.

"You think that it was his grandfather?" Hermione asked in surprise.

Harry shrugged. "Malfoy seems to think so and I got that impression from Lady Wiltshire, too, but Uncle Sirius wouldn't let me stay in the room to hear anything. But Ron, remember last year how Draco came to us about the Basilisk? I think that he knew about it from his grandfather, but how he came across that information is anyone's guess."

"I can never figure him out," Neville said bitterly. "One minute he's a snarky prick and a bully and the next minute he's helping us… something's got to give."

Hermione nodded. "Malfoy is a prat and a mystery best not thinking about, I think. In all seriousness though, how bad are these Dementors?"

"Bad," Ron said, paling at the thought of them. "Sirius must be extra pissed."

"He's so angry about the Dementors. He still has nightmares about them and the thought of them being here at the school terrifies him. To see him so scared… it scares me a bit," he admitted just as the lights suddenly went out. "What happened?"

The compartment door slid open and Neville flinched. "Ouch, my foot!"

"Sorry," Ginny's voice said quietly before she sat down on Harry's lap. "Oof, sorry."

Harry snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her onto the bench next to him. "It's all right. Why is it dark?"

Ron looked out the window. "The storm is getting worse out there. You can barely see anything at all."

Lightning lit up the compartment and Harry could see that his friends all looked worried. He shoved Remus lightly. "Uncle Rem! Uncle Rem!" he said, shoving him more forcefully.

Remus jolted awake. "Harry, what — why is it so dark in here?"

"We don't know. All of a sudden all of the lights went out and the train seems to have stopped," Hermione said, standing up.

Remus gestured for her to sit back down and he pulled out his wand as his breath left an impression on the air. "Stay here. I'm going to go talk to the conductor and find out what's going on."

He opened the compartment door and stumbled backward as a dark hooded figure blocked the path. It stood wraith-like and cold and when its hooded head turned to look inside the compartment, Harry felt like his world was torn apart.

He was so cold and the sounds of a woman screaming echoed in his head so sharply that he gasped and then the world went black around him.

He woke up to the feel of someone gently slapping his cheeks and he blinked owlishly at Remus.

"Who screamed?"

"No one screamed, Harry," Ron said from behind him. "You just had a fit or something and collapsed."

Harry flushed in embarrassment. "I had a fit?"

Ginny had her arms wrapped around herself. She was deathly white and looked like she wanted to throw up. Neville looked just as bad and slightly green. Ron and Hermione were both clammy and visibly shaken.

"What happened?"

Remus was opening up a large Honeydukes chocolate bar and handing them all pieces. "That was a Dementor. It's gone now. Apparently they were checking the train for signs of the prisoners on Ministry orders. Eat this, I'm going to go speak to the conductor and see if we can't get moving again. I need to check on the rest of the students."

Harry nodded glumly, but the first bite of chocolate brought instant warmth to his system. He handed his second piece to Ginny who took a tentative bite and he watched her shiver in warmth and let out a sigh of relief.

His friends were all staring at him so he simply helped himself to more chocolate rather than speak.

"Professor Lupin made a shiny silver animal thing with his wand and the Dementors left. He said that there were no prisoners here, only students, and that they had no business coming onto the train," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

Ron nodded. "I felt like I'd never be happy again. Can you imagine feeling like that all of the time?"

Harry stared out the window of the train, the sound of the woman's screams echoing in his ears. Sirius had been right, having the Dementors around was the worst feeling in the world and Harry was pretty sure it was only going to get worse before it got better.

Third year wasn't looking as great as he had originally thought.