Author's Note:
I have a love of history as I've mentioned before and I wanted to use this idea in my story. It is a well known method of torture believed to be used by the Nordic people back in the ninth through twelfth centuries. However, many historians often debate how real it is and there is a continuing debate about whether the ritual was a literary invention, a mistranslation of the original texts of the sagas, or an actual authentic historical practice. Knowing what we know of how inventive people are when it comes to hurting other people, I believe that it was a real execution method — I hope you enjoy how I incorporated it in here. PS — it was shown in the television series Vikings as well (which I love)!
The Horcrux Hunt has begun!
Reviews and Comments: To E-Dett: I love seeing your name in a review again! Thank you for saying despite the cruelty of the "prank" it was deserved by Snape. He is in fact, not very remorseful of his own dirty deeds. Thank you! To Paola1991: Thank you! To be honest, I cannot believe I went there either! I agree, I don't understand how anyone can put Lily with Snape after James was killed knowing he's the reason behind her husband's death. I don't think James bullied Snape at all when he and Lily started dating (and probably not a great deal before either) as Lily was very much against it. Dumbledore definitely isn't helping by making any attempts to correct the situation. To Steelcode: We'll have to see if Draco talks to Harry about Novak or not. Cho was trying to play dirty with Harry, but the problem is, Harry has zero interest in her so it really didn't work. Thank you! To KateKof: Thank you! I'm so happy that you like Zee and her growing relationship with Harry. Remadora are definitely soooooo good together! Thank you! To CrazyWithABook: He did deserve it, no matter what. Thank you!
To coloredwords: You think that prank will help put Snape on the path to redemption? Harry and Ron are very curious about Hermione is up to. I didn't write the Buckbeak scene, no, I just had Draco complaining about it to his parents and his mother told him to suck it up because Theo had written to her and told her what he did LOL. Thanks for loving Harry and Zee moments! To speedsONEandONLY: Thank you! I have a soft spot for Theo and he and Blaise are very good for Draco. Thank you! To scrappy8: Thank you! To Wolf's scream: It is true, Draco is not mature enough to grasp some things. Harry does a have solid support network. Thank you! To Mr Rememberall: Thank you! I think having him become the potions master he is meant to be might be too far, but we'll see! To Shamelessnweird: Thank you! I'm glad you like the Remus and Zee talk. To rbear1231: Should have taken pictures LOL. That would definitely have told Snape it was a prank LOL. Thank you!
To Pascall: Thank you for reading all of my old stories and being excited to discover ASC on tumblr! It means so much to me for those people to come back! To Lauraf68: I think Tonks totally channelled Lily, too! Thank you! To Guardian of the Inheritance: Thank you! To Julie: Thank you! I got chills writing it. Thanks for the pat on the shoulder! I appreciate it! To Klogborg: Thank you for saying ASC gets a 10/10. As to the TriWizard Tournament, I write from a lot of POVs so you will see more of them to come including during that time period. To Matt9917: Thank you! To Lu Lu-Chan25: Thank you very much! I agree with you completely! Snape definitely believed that if James and Harry had died, Lily would have come back to him. He was deluded in his love for her. I do believe Snape truly loved Lily, but I also think he didn't understand what love was. It was an obsessive love and he couldn't wrap his head around it not being reciprocated back. Harry will not be okay with the bullying, no. But yes, Lily would have forgiven him, but I think there's only so much she could take before she was done. Thank you for such a lovely and full review!
To hufflepuffle24: Thank you for saying ASC is "the best story you've read in a long time" and that you're totally hooked! That makes me smile! To EosRetrograde: Thank you, I agree. Cruel, but bloody brilliant! To supersandman86: Thank you! I think Snape often forgets that Harry is also Lily's son. I agree, if Lily had come back as a ghost to haunt Snape, she would have done way worse than Tonks did. Thank you for saying I do my research and it shows, I do try. To Ana: Thank you for liking my Slytherin boys' friendship. Cho's behaviour was childish and yes, Harry was still a gentlemen. Thank you for saying Zee's words made your heart melt! To teachergirl: For once, I agree with you. Snape is a horrible person.
Thank you to my Beta — SilverStarwolfe!
My posting schedule: Every Tuesday or Wednesday (usually the latter) and sometimes on the weekends.
As always, 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 for all of your continued support!
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO:
The One With the Gaunt Property
Sirius and Tonks stepped through the doors of the pub called The Thirsty Pint in the village of Little Hangleton. They immediately spotted Moody and Bill in a booth at the back of the pub. Tonks slid in next to Bill so Sirius sat across from her next to Moody.
"How'd the match go?" Bill asked, sipping on the pint in front of him.
"Brilliant!" Sirius said with a smile. "Harry caught the Snitch and Gryffindor won!"
"Then why do you look like someone flattened you?" Moody growled, drinking from his own flask.
"Snape," Sirius growled. "He's the reason that Voldemort knew about the prophecy. He's the one who overheard it and told Voldemort."
Moody snorted. "Knew Dumbledore had some secret there. Always thought that it was rather suspicious the way that Snape started spying for the Order. I was one of the few people who knew that he was a spy and I always thought that he was a Death Eater before that, never could find any evidence, and when he first turned up, I told Dumbledore to watch his back around him. I thought for sure that Dumbledore was being played."
Tonks sighed. "I know that it's a terrible thing to learn about him, but there's literally nothing that we can do about it now. We can't change the past."
"Doesn't make me any less pissed off about it!"
Bill nodded, holding up two fingers to the bartender who nodded and started to pour two more pints. "The fact of the matter is that Tonks is right, Sirius: It's in the past. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be angry about it because you should be; knowing that he's the reason all of this happened to your friends and to Harry, for losing his parents, but it is over and done with. Now we have more pressing matters to attend to, and unfortunately how Voldemort found out about the prophecy over a decade ago, isn't one of them."
Sirius nodded, his eyes on Bill. The young man was more astute than he had given him credit for. "I'm aware. How far is the property from here?"
"'Bout a ten minute hike that way," Moody said gesturing to the left side of the pub. "It's just past the graveyard. Weasley and I scanned it briefly on the way over, there are definite signs of magical warding."
"More than the regular abandoned property kind of warding?" At Moody's annoyed look, Tonks shrugged. "Just checking. Keep your knickers on."
Moody's magical eye fixated on Tonks, his expression stern.
Sirius nodded a thanks to the bartender when he brought over the pints. "So, what does this warding look like?"
Bill scratched the stubble on his chin. "We didn't venture over close enough to take a good look, but we could feel the power emanating from it."
"Cursed?"
"Definitely. But with how many different forms, I couldn't begin to tell you," Bill said, honestly.
"Definitely some dark magic, Sirius. I'd say similar to the Death Eater safe houses we examined during the war," Moody told him.
Sirius took a long drink from his pint. "All right, let's discuss a game plan of sorts then."
~ ASC ~
Thirty minutes later, the four of them had approached the property line. Moody's magical eye roamed suspiciously around the property as if looking for any sign of intruders or anyone spying on them. He muttered an incognito charm over the four of them as they approached to help keep their presence undetected.
Bill put his arms out to stop them as they reached the warding. "Here, you can feel the power pulsing from the property."
Moody growled. "Some of the old Death Eater haunts we ripped apart back in the day had more than just a powerful warding. You may be a curse breaker, boy, but watch your back. They were good at interweaving dark curses into the wards and if you take one step the wrong way…"
He made a slicing motion across his throat before he brandished his wand and began to mutter revealing charms. They watched in fascination as clouds of gold puffed around them revealing different wards.
Moody swore. "Clever little bastard."
Sirius nodded, his own wand out. "Blood of a pureblood; ironic as well. He really did consider everyone beneath him when his own so-called 'pure blood' is tainted by a Muggle father. Bigot."
Tonks nodded, her brow furrowing as she raised her wand. "It feels too dark to just be asking for blood."
She shifted and the ground vibrated beneath their feet, thick roots suddenly shooting up from the earth, breaking through the soil and swinging upward rather violently. One of them sliced through Sirius' calf and he swore, falling to his knees. A second one knocked Bill to the ground as another one sliced his cheek. A fourth root wrapped itself around Tonks' left foot, lurching her forward and straight into the warding.
The scream caught in her throat as she fell and her abdomen was brutally sliced open before Sirius was able to pull her back. He cradled her head in his lap as Bill ripped the bottom of her shirt open. Tonks gasped in pain as Bill prodded her abdomen, the warmth of her blood oozing down her side and onto the grass.
Bill worked quickly as Sirius held her, tightly bandaging her across the ribs hard enough that she winced from his attempt to stop the bleeding. "She's bleeding too damn much."
Sirius shook his head. "I've never been very good with healing cuts like this; not when I can see her… intestines."
Moody fell to his knees next to them and his wand hovered over her stomach. "It looks like teeth marks as if the ward was feeding on her."
Sirius paled as her guts seemed to glimmer before him.
"She needs a healer. Now."
"No!" Tonks hissed through the pain. "I will see this through! Patch me up, Sirius, and let's keep going."
"Nymphadora, if something happens to you, Remus will kill me," Sirius told her, sternly. "And don't even get me started on what your mother will do to me."
"Don't — call — me — Nymphadora!" she hissed, her hair flashing to a deep blood red. "Patch me up and let's go! I'll be fine!"
Moody stared at her for a moment before he nodded and carefully sealed the wound as Bill re-bandaged her tightly. "It's only temporary," he instructed. "But it should hold for a bit."
Bill moved to check out Sirius' leg. "The root tore right through the muscle," he said, looking at the tiny hole as it gushed blood. He patched it up on both sides to the best of his ability and bandaged his leg. "That will have to do."
Sirius helped her to her feet and she gasped for breath, one hand on her stomach. "It's fine. I'll be fine."
"Dora… let me take you home," Sirius repeated, his eyes on hers. His own calf hurt like a bitch when he put pressure on it so he couldn't imagine what Tonks was feeling.
Tonks glared at him, one eyebrow lifted as if she dared him to question her. "No. You need me here and I am not leaving until we're done."
Sirius stared at her for a moment, her grey eyes so like his own, stared at him stubbornly. He sighed before turning back to the warding. Moody used a freezing charm to stop the roots from attacking them long enough for the four of them to get through the blood warding. His magical eye kept twirling in his head and looking in all directions as he and Bill held their wands out over the roots in case they decided to attack again. Sirius used a slicing charm to pierce through his palm and moved towards the warding, holding up his palm to the barrier that was demanding 'pure blood.' It glowed red and flashed before fizzing out, accepting the blood from a pureblood wizard as a tolerable sacrifice and they stepped through.
Bill healed Sirius' palm for him and they moved closer as Tonks spoke up. "The blood of a pureblood to take down the warding is very precise, is it not? What if the blood wasn't pure?"
Moody turned to look over at her, his magical eye staring at her abdomen. "Ever seen a pack of hyenas feed in the wild?"
"N-n-no," she stuttered, her eyes on Sirius.
Moody's eye sobered, his magical one locking onto her as well. "When they attack, they go for the abdomen, ripping out the guts and intestines and feeding immediately while their prey is still alive." Tonks swallowed carefully at the image. "If you would have attempted to walk through that warding, Tonks, I imagine it would have felt akin to being eaten alive by a pack of hyenas: Bloody, painful, and deadly." His eyes moved to her abdomen where a bit of blood was already seeping out of the bandage. "And you only brushed against it — imagine if you had actually attempted to walk through it."
"You paint a very vivid picture, Mad-Eye," Sirius said as they moved forward.
He turned back to look at Tonks. She had a hand on her stomach, her wand out and her hair had dimmed back to its normal bubblegum pink, relieving him slightly. If she was still able to change her appearance, she was doing all right, he thought.
Moody simply looked at Sirius. "Death Eaters do not fool around, Black. The Dark Lord made this warding specifically for a pureblood to come through and for a pureblood only. He would have trusted no one else with its location nor with obtaining his treasure and I think we all know that this isn't the kind of thing that he would be bothered to come fetch himself. Only one of his pureblood loyal dogs would have been worthy in his eyes and even then, the Dark Lord doesn't really care if they live or die as long as he gets what he wants in the end."
Sirius held his wand up and nodded. Moody waved his wand and the same gold puffs illuminated where the next warding was as they moved through the tiny wooden gate covered in overgrown branches and trees. "I recognize that one."
"Thought you might," Moody said, his voice sobering. "It's the same curse that you and Potter almost got yourselves killed over during that mission when you were investigating that abandoned manor in Sussex with Anderson."
Sirius nodded, the memory of that night gripping him. It wasn't something that he would ever forget. "I remember. James, Benny, and I were checking out the abandoned manor. We had intel that DE's had been using it as a safe house, but had abandoned it. We had checked the perimeter, found that it was safe so, we went inside to investigate and found this exact warding in place."
"What is it?" Bill asked, leaning closer as he cautiously looked at the golden sparks to try to understand what he was seeing.
"It's an ancient spell, absolutely brutal in nature. It's physical torture at its finest," Sirius said, paling a bit. "Benny he… he went first, moved into the house too quickly, lulled into false complacency because of the safe perimeter and suddenly there was this blue smoke that covered him, hiding him from our view and then we heard the words 'sanguinem aquilae' echo behind the smoke. When the smoke finally lifted… Merlin, sometimes I can still hear his screams."
"Sanguinem aquilae… the blood of an eagle? What does that even mean?" Tonks asked, her eyes moving between Sirius and Moody.
Bill paled and gripped Tonks' arm. "It's called the Blood Eagle Curse. I studied it when we took a trip to Denmark for a seminar on Nordic curses. It's a ritualistic killing often used by Viking wizards hundreds of years ago where the victim was forced to lie on their stomach. The spell creates a sort of sharp knife that severs the ribs from the spine with such precision that a person's lungs can actually be pulled through the opening and spread out across their back. When done correctly, the lungs look like the wings of an eagle."
Tonks stared at Sirius in horror. "You saw this? You actually witnessed it happening?"
Sirius nodded, his eyes full of emotion. "Anderson fell into some kind of privacy warding and Jamie and I couldn't get through it and… he was alive… we watched his lungs rise and fall as they were spread across his back for almost two full minutes before he died."
Moody raised his wand. "Did you figure out how to break through the curse?"
"Yes," Sirius said, shaking the memories from his mind. "It wasn't easy."
Bill gestured for Sirius to take the lead and he swallowed slowly as he stepped towards the ward. The image of Benedict Anderson, bleeding and gasping for breath, his lungs spread across his back like wings and his screams still echoing in his ears was still rather fresh in his mind as he slowly worked to take down the wards. The last thing that he wanted was to ever watch anyone suffer through that again. He took a deep breath before he concentrated on breaking down the curse. First he removed the blue smoke before he blasted through the sharp knives and finally after almost thirty minutes of concentrating on every particle of magic, on every piece of the puzzle, he was able to break through the last ward and he watched as purple and gold sparks seemed to explode overhead and Sirius let out a breath of relief.
"That was it. We're through."
"You're sure?" Tonks asked, hesitantly.
He nodded, using the revealing charm for any signs of magical residue. "I am. See here, the warding is clear now."
Bill led the way through the overgrown path towards the shack. The stones were crumbling around it and parts of the roof had caved in. Nature had taken over, interlocking its heather and trees through the cottage and Bill carefully hovered near the broken door to check the warding.
When he stepped to the left to check the windows, the ground beneath his feet crumbled. Sirius grabbed his hand as he fell, the earth seeming to open up beneath him. Sirius fell to his knees, making his calf scream as he started bleeding again, but he gripped Bill tightly and pulled with all of his might until the man was free, dragging him over the soil and dirt and out from where the earth was trying to swallow him. They both fell on the grass, gasping for breath.
But the ground kept cracking.
It crumbled around them, surrounding them and the shack. The ground shook and vibrated and pieces of the land shuddered. The grass burned, the soil bubbled, and the rocks shook. Part of the rock beneath Moody's wooden leg gave way and Tonks grabbed him, tugging him forward and they fell, Moody falling on top of her. Tonks bounced off of the ground and she began to bleed again.
Moody caught his breath and re-sealed her bandage, his hand on her arm in an attempt to steady her as her eyes went blind with pain. "Everyone okay?"
Bill nodded as he and Sirius climbed to their feet. "I'm not sure what I hit there."
"Earthquake charm," Moody said gruffly. "Must have been set into the ground and we missed it."
Bill wiped blood off his forehead from where the rocks had cut him on his fall. "The door is literally just there."
"We can get over easily enough," Sirius said, his eyes on Tonks. She had paled considerably by now and he knew that she had lost more blood than she was letting on. "The charm is dangerous initially, but if you can avoid falling into the earth, the worst has passed." He made a bridge over the cracked earth and wrapped his arm tightly around his cousin as they went over first, soon followed by Bill and Moody.
Bill turned to the shack, wiping blood from his eye. "He's locked the door with poison. It's rather a simple curse actually. I suppose Voldemort thought that no one would make it past the blood eagle curse on top of the whole being swallowed into the earth thing to get this far. I've seen this kind of thing quite often in both Egypt and in Central America."
Tonks stood on her toes, wincing at the stretch, and slowly lowering herself back down as she attempted to look around at Bill. "What is it?"
"Dark magic that interlocks together to create a magical door. If one tries to walk through it, the magic slices them and then flows into their bloodstream like a poison. It burns like acid and essentially you burn alive from the inside."
Tonks shuddered at the image. "How do you get rid of it?"
Bill grinned at her. "It's quite simple, actually." He turned his wand into a hose and cool water shot out, hitting the doorframe. The door sizzled and shook and with a small explosion of dark smoke, evaporated into the air. "Water beats back any potential flames and washes away the acid, but if you step through it before getting rid of the poison and it enters your bloodstream, it's almost impossible to stop. One of the blokes in my unit walked through one… the healers froze his blood in an attempt to remove the curse, but in the end it was too potent, and the only way that he could survive it was to have his arm cut off before it could spread."
Bill kicked the flimsy door in and it collapsed to the ground with a loud bang and he froze at the nest of snakes that lay there. There were at least twenty adders tangled together, slithering in a circle as if stuck on an endless loop.
"Fuck, what is it with this dickwad and fucking snakes?"
Sirius moved forward, his eyes on the adders. "The way they move in that circle is eerie. It's here all right, and I'd bet my fortune it's in the middle of that circle."
Tonks lifted the sleeves of her shirt back and stepped forward. "I got this one."
"Tonks… be careful," Sirius said, sternly, his eyes on her stomach which was still steadily seeping more than a trickle of blood through the bandage.
She smiled at him and began to twirl her wand in a circle creating a beautiful blue and white light show that orbited around them. It moved forwards and hovered over the snakes. One of them hissed and its jaws launched at it, coming at nothing and it hissed again. The light taunted them and surrounded them and to Sirius' surprise, picked them up as a whole and removed them from the shack. The blue and white lights held the snakes in a bubble of a sorts and shoved the entire nest of them into a ditch just past the house.
Tonks dropped her wand, gasping for breath as she placed a hand over her stomach and grinned. "I've never moved so many of them before, but I thought killing them… seemed heartless. It was more… magic… power than I expected to have to… use…"
"Where did you learn to do that?" Sirius asked her in amazement. "How did you contain them like that?"
"Dad taught me. We used to have a nest of them that kept… coming back every summer in the yard. Dad said that… all creatures no matter how big or small deserved to have a… chance. It's a mix between a… containment charm and a featherlight charm with a little bit of a zap to keep them… controlled," she explained, touching the wall for support as she held her stomach. Her hair flashed from the vivid bubblegum pink to the soft brown of her natural colour. "We should have at least… a few hours before they are coherent enough to… attempt to come… back."
Moody snorted. "Hopefully that's enough time."
Sirius moved towards the circle, his eyes moving back to his cousin. He didn't like that her hair had changed nor how breathless she seemed to be, but they were so close now. He turned towards the circle, his wand hovering over the loose floorboard. He used his wand to pry it open and when he was sure that it was safe, reached down and pulled the brown velvet bag from the dirt. He opened it and tipped the contents into his hand, grinning when a gold signet ring fell out containing a black stone. He picked it up and carefully inspected it.
"It's a signet ring. We'll have to confer with Albus if it's the same one from the memory," Bill said carefully.
Sirius wrapped his fist around it. "It's the same. I can feel it."
Bill's eyebrow rose. "Feel what exactly?"
"The dark magic… the… memories moving in."
Tonks reached over to link her arm with his. "Give me the ring, Sirius." She rubbed his arm gently and he slowly opened his palm. She plucked the ring out, slipping it back into the velvet pouch before she kissed his cheek. "I wish… your mother was still… alive so that I could punch her… right in the bloody nose and tell her… how amazing you are and… how much she absolutely did not deserve… you."
He smirked at her and tugged her close, resting his chin on the top of her brown hair. She was trembling from the pain now. "Love you, too."
Moody snorted, his eyes moving around the shack. "Tonks, pass me that ring, I want to make sure that we've got the right item."
Tonks tipped the velvet pouch and the ring fell into her hand, holding her palm out for Moody to examine it. He used the same spell on it that he had used at Number Twelve on the locket and she watched in fascination as it glowed green and then she dropped it, hissing in pain.
Moody frowned. "It burned you? The locket never reacted that way when we used that spell."
Tonks only glared at him, wincing at the sting in her hand. "Yeah, that's definitely the damn Horcrux!"
Bill grabbed her hand, quickly putting a small icy-freezing charm over the circular burn. "That's the best that I can do for now. Burns are tricky, especially ones from dark magic."
"Thanks," she whispered, wincing at the pain. The ring had burned a perfect circle into her palm and she stared down at it as if mesmerized for a moment.
Moody levitated the ring with his wand and nodded. "That's definitely what we're looking for — that's a lot of dark magic protecting such a tiny ring."
"That ring has a piece of a fucking soul in it," Sirius said, darkly, taking the ring from Moody. He looked at the diamond shaped stone again, his eyes on the gold triangular symbol etched on the side. "This… I've seen this symbol before. Do you recognize it?" The others shook their head and Sirius stared harder at it. "Doesn't Xenophilius Lovegood wear a necklace with this exact symbol dangling on the end?"
Bill's eyes widened. "You know what, I think you're right! Half the stuff he believes in though is not exactly believable, if you know what I mean, but if Voldemort put it on the ring…"
Sirius shook his head. "I don't think that he put it there. Look, it's etched into the ebony of the stone. It was here long before this was ever turned into a ring, let alone a Horcrux."
"What do you think it means?" Tonks asked him.
Sirius shrugged, slipping the ring back into the pouch and tucking it away in his back pocket. "I'm not sure. But I'll find out." He gripped Tonks' hand in his own. "But first we're going to Poppy now. You need medical attention. I'll side Apparate you to Hogsmeade."
"I can Apparate… myself… Sirius!" Tonks insisted, stubbornly. "I'm… fine."
Moody nodded, checking the area. "We have to get back off the property first, Black. I doubt Apparating from here is safe."
Sirius only smirked at him. "That won't be a problem."
He transformed into Padfoot, ignoring the pain that it caused in his back leg and gestured for Tonks to climb onto his back. She looked at him rather apprehensibly, but did as he asked when he growled at her in response. She gripped his fur tightly as he ran, the pain in his back leg excruciating, but he knew that he had to get her to the hospital wing at Hogwarts as quickly as possible as her injuries were much more severe than his own. He leapt over the crumbled earth and the gate and carried her safely past the property line. He carefully lay on his stomach so that she could slide down easily, not wanting her to hurt her any further. As a dog, the smell of her blood seemed more potent. He looked up in time to see Bill and Moody coming towards them. He transformed back into himself and scooped Tonks into his arms as he felt the blood drip down his own leg.
"I… can… walk… Sirius," she protested, weakly.
She was ghostly white by now and the handful of brown freckles on her nose, the ones that she usually hid with her powers, seemed to pop up from her white face.
"Shh, let's get you to Poppy."
He Disapparated with her in his arms and when they arrived in Hogsmeade, she passed out from the pressure of the Apparation. He ran towards the school.
He laid her on the bed in the hospital wing as Bill hurried off to find Madam Pomfrey. They had agreed beforehand that coming to Hogwarts as opposed to St Mungo's was the best plan in terms of keeping their activities quiet.
The door to the hospital wing flew open and Sirius looked up in surprise to see Remus standing there, his eyes terrified as he half-ran, half fell to his knees, as he slid across the floor to her.
"What happened? Why is she hurt? Why didn't you protect her?" he demanded, his eyes flashing as he shouted out angry accusations.
Sirius knelt next to his friend, gripping his arm. "She's going to be all right, Moony. I swear it."
Remus took her hand in his, kissing her fingers, his other hand brushing back her soft short brown curls. "Nymphadora, I'm here. I'm right here."
Madam Pomfrey came in a moment later, ushering them away so that she could examine her patient. When Remus only growled at her in response, she let him keep holding her hand as she unraveled the bandages.
"Galloping Gargoyles! It looks like she was eaten by wild animals! What the hell happened to this woman?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed in horror as Remus paled and squeezed her hand.
"I temporarily sealed the cuts, Poppy," Moody told her, gruffly. "But I didn't want to heal them without your expertise."
"Alastor, she should have been brought to me immediately!"
"It was dark magic, Poppy," Sirius explained, his hand on his friend's shoulder. "It barely touched her and this was the result. We got her here as fast as she allowed us."
Madam Pomfrey continued to mumble under her breath about incompetence as she worked.
Remus kept his eyes on Tonks' stomach. His own stomach recoiled as he watched the matron carefully push her insides back in before she could slowly heal her skin closed. She poured some mysterious healing potion over the partially sealed wound and re-bandaged her. She did a diagnostic over her, muttering under her breath some more.
"Her hand," Sirius added. "She burned her hand, too."
Madam Pomfrey nodded and moved to the hand that Remus wasn't holding, eyeing the circular burn. "This reeks of dark magic."
Sirius nodded. "It burned right through her skin."
"It will scar," Madam Pomfrey said, sadly. "I can't do anything about that. It will be small, but it will scar." She rubbed burn ointment on it and poured blood replenishing potions down her throat. "She needs rest. She's lost a lot of blood and her body needs time to heal."
"Sirius is injured, too," Bill added.
Madam Pomfrey looked sternly at Sirius as if he had deliberately been hiding his injuries from her sight and he sighed, moving over to another bed to show her his leg. She cleaned the hole with something that stung like he was being stabbed and he yelped, earning himself a look that could kill. He promptly shut his mouth. The matron filled the hole with a healing solution and re-bandaged his leg.
"Clean this tomorrow and re-dress it and you should be all right. Mr Weasley, let me take a look at that head."
Remus kissed Tonks' fingers as Madam Pomfrey worked on Bill. "Must she stay here, Poppy?"
"Remus Lupin, you know how important it is for her to heal and stay rested!"
"I do," he interrupted her, "but must she stay here in the hospital wing? May I take her home? Let her rest in her own bed?"
Madam Pomfrey hesitated. "She needs a potion every three hours. Her bandages will have to be reapplied in the morning and her wounds re-sealed."
"She can stay with me, in my suite. You'll come to her in the morning?" he begged.
"Come on, Poppy, let him take her. She'll still be in the castle," Sirius urged.
"Fine," Madam Pomfrey said in defeat. "I'll be there at eight AM to check on her. Use a stretcher. I don't want her stomach to re-open in transport. Give her this potion every three hours!"
Remus nodded, gratefully, and Sirius helped him levitate Tonks onto the stretcher and through the school, leaving Moody and Bill to fill Dumbledore in on what had happened. Thankfully, it was past curfew, and they met no one along the way. Remus carefully levitated her unconscious body into his bed, gently brushing her hair out of her eyes and kissing her forehead, tenderly. He wrapped her in blankets and turned to Sirius.
"You said that she would be fine!" he demanded, turning in anger to his friend. "This is not what I deem fine! What the fuck happened out there? If I didn't know better I would think that that she was maimed by a bloody werewolf! I can small the dark magic residue from her skin… she's going to scar!"
Sirius put his hands up in surrender, muttering a silencing charm around the bed so as not to disturb Tonks, and tugged his friend into the living room. "She is going to be fine, Remus. We ran into some trouble and Tonks fell into one of wards. She was knocked into it by the roots from the earth. I tried to bring her back immediately, but she refused to go! She said that she was seeing it through."
Remus' fists clenched at his sides. "You should have made her leave!"
Sirius smirked now. "Rem, you should know better than anyone that no one makes Nymphadora Tonks do anything that she doesn't want to do. We found another one. A ring, and Tonks was amazing. She saved Moody's life and helped us rid the shack of a nest of adders. This was all after she had been injured, mind you. She's truly incredible. I can see why she makes such a great Auror."
Remus' eyes moved back to the bedroom. "You got it?"
Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out the velvet pouch, slipping the ring into his hand. The thick gold band and the large diamond shaped ebony stone in the centre stared up at them.
"Here, it's a signet ring. We examined it with no problems, but when Moody attempted to use that spell to check it for a Horcrux, it burned green smoke; that's how she burnt her hand."
"What's this symbol on it?" Remus asked, examining the ring carefully.
"We're not sure, but Bill and I both thought that it looked like the necklace that Lovegood always wears. Don't know if that means if it's important or not."
"Are you bringing it to Dumbledore?"
Sirius shook his head. "I'm putting it in the vault in the study at headquarters. We'll call a meeting and destroy it. Dumbledore can examine it then. I'd like to examine the symbol more myself and try to find out what it means before we destroy it."
Remus nodded, looking back towards the bedroom.
"Rem?"
"Hmm?"
"How did you know that we were in the hospital wing?"
Remus was quiet for a moment before his eyes met his friend's. "When I marked her, when we… I just knew, Sirius, I just knew that something was wrong and my heart…stopped. I thought she was… I thought she was dead and my world stopped."
Sirius pulled his friend into his arms and the moment Remus' face touched his shoulder, the sob snuck out. Sirius held him tighter, running his hands along his friend's back as Remus cried. His fingers clutched Sirius' shirt desperately and he wiped furiously at his tears.
"I can't lose her, Siri, I can't!"
"Moony," Sirius said, framing his friend's face in his hands. "You aren't going to lose her. Now go in there and be with your mate. Take comfort in being there and let her take comfort in you." He kissed his forehead and smiled at him. "I'll be right out here the whole time."
Remus hesitated, but then he nodded. He wiped the tears from his eyes and moved into the bedroom. Tonks was still asleep on her back, her breathing soft and quiet. He crawled into the bed, carefully, his eyes on her bandaged stomach. He gently laid his head on her breasts, the comfort of it, the smell of her calming him as he pulled the blankets close and closed his eyes. The rise and fall of her chest and the steady drum of her heartbeat lulling him off to sleep.
~ ASC ~
When Remus disappeared into the bedroom, Sirius summoned Kreacher to him. He handed him the velvet pouch with the ring in it and demanded of the elf to seal it in the vault in the study at Number Twelve. He then sent a quick Patronus to Zee asking her to come to Remus' suite at Hogwarts. It was ten minutes before she arrived and he hugged her close when she came in through the portrait door.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded, kissing her neck, her ear, her cheek before finally kissing her softly on the lips. "I'm fine." He tugged her over to the sofa, snuggling her into his arms. "Tonks was hurt pretty bad."
Zee's eyes widened in alarm. "Is she okay?"
"She will be," Sirius said as he explained about what they had stumbled onto on the Gaunt property and how Tonks had been injured.
"But you found one?"
Sirius nodded. "We did."
Zee examined the symbol that Sirius had drawn. "The symbol is interesting, you're right. It looks familiar to me. It was on the ring?" When Sirius nodded, she sighed. "I can ask Raffigan about it?"
"The historian?"
She nodded. "I know that she hasn't really given us much on the potential necklace we found in Slytherin's chest, but maybe she'd recognize this symbol? After all, it is imprinted on Slytherin's ring."
"Hmm, maybe. I think I know someone who might have an idea. Has Raffigan said anything else to you about the necklace?"
Zee shook her head. "No, nothing definite. She believes that it was the necklace that Slytherin had made for his daughter-in-law as a wedding gift. It was supposed to be quite elaborate and befit with the finest jewels of its time including emeralds and diamonds. Today it would be worth millions of Galleons if it was recovered."
"So, just an ordinary necklace then," he said, stifling a yawn. "Nothing Horcrux worthy, I mean."
Zee tugged the blanket down from the back of the sofa. "Just an ordinary and incredibly beautiful necklace. I paid her for her research, but I don't think that there's anything else that she can help us with unless we find the necklace, then I assume that she would want to examine it properly. Let's hope that Voldemort didn't destroy it by putting a Horcrux inside of it. It sounds like it truly was a beautiful necklace, both full of historical beauty and value as well as monetary." She wrapped the blanket around both of them, her eyes on his leg. "Sirius, you said that you weren't hurt?"
He yawned. "Just a scratch. Pomfrey fixed me up."
She nodded and urged Sirius to stretch out on the sofa as she snuggled into his side. "As long as you're all right," when he nodded, she smiled. "We can talk about the ring some more in the morning."
He smiled at her. "I can't go home. Rem might need me."
She kissed him softly. "Which is why we're going to sleep right here, silly."
Sirius held her close as she rested her head over his heart. "I love you."
Zee smiled against his chest. "I love you, too."
And then he drifted off to sleep.
Zee woke up less than thirty minutes later to the distress sounds rumbling beneath her head. She gently ran her fingers through his hair, taking his hand in hers. "Sirius. Sirius, it's okay, baby, I'm here. I'm here, wake up."
His eyes flew open, stormy and dark. He shivered and closed his eyes again. "Just a dream, I'm fine. It was nothing."
Zee shifted and cradled his head against her breasts. "You're not fine. I'm sure touching that ring today brought up all sorts of bad memories."
He sighed as her fingers drifted contently through his hair. "I don't like to talk about it."
"All the more reason why you should," she said, softly. Her fingers continued to play with his hair as her heart beat steadily under his ear.
"It wasn't just the ring. One of the wards… I saw what happens when you go through it once and seeing it again made me remember how horrible it was. I was on a mission for the Order, nineteen years old, still fresh-faced and I watched this curse rip through this Hit Wizard and he died slowly and painfully and there was nothing that I could do to help him. I wasn't going to let that happen again today."
Zee didn't speak. She simply continued to stroke his hair.
"Then with Tonks getting hurt… and then touching the ring brought back memories of being under the Cruciatus and… I don't want to talk about it."
Zee kissed his cheek. "Before the holidays, you spent over an hour telling me why you were worried that you weren't enough for Harry. That maybe he needed to see a Mind Healer to help him cope with what he's seen and what he's experienced. But you won't consider the same thing for yourself."
"I don't need a Mind Healer," he insisted.
Zee kissed his cheek again. "You need to talk to someone, Sirius. These memories… they're eating you alive."
"I don't need a Mind Healer," he repeated, stubbornly. "I'm fine. It's just a few bad dreams."
Zee only nodded, continuing to trail her fingers through his hair. "Will you think about it? Honestly, will you take the time to think about it or consider talking to someone? Remus maybe or even me? You know I'm here whenever you need me."
Sirius turned to look up at her, the concern in her eyes making him feel ashamed for trying to push it all away from her. "I don't want to burden you."
She smiled and bent her head to kiss him softly. "You could never burden me. I love all of you — even the broken parts."
He smiled at that and turned slightly, snuggling back against her breasts. "You're much too good for me."
She kissed the top of his head, her arms draped around his neck, hands resting on his chest. "I think I'm rather good for you, actually."
He closed his eyes. "I love you, Zahira."
Zee smiled against his hair as she held him close and watched as he drifted back to sleep. She gently traced his face with her finger, over the rough stubble that needed to be trimmed down, smiling as his breathing evened out into a deep sleep. She closed her own eyes, her arms still wrapped around him in both comfort and protection.
It was only a few moments later before she too was fast asleep, her man in her arms.
~ ASC ~
Narcissa rolled over to snuggle into her husband's warmth and frowned when she felt that the silk sheets had gone cold. She sat up, eyes moving around the room, but she saw no sign of Lucius.
She moved out of bed, tugging her silk robe over her lace and silk nightgown and letting her bright blonde hair tumble over her shoulders. She slipped on the satin flats that matched her robe before she went off in search of her missing husband. It was barely eight on a Sunday morning so, he couldn't have gone too far.
She found him sitting at the dining room table. A cup of coffee at his elbow and papers spread around him.
"Darling?"
He looked up startled and then smiled. "I apologize. I didn't mean to wake you."
"You didn't. The bed was cold."
He smiled at that and opened his arms when she walked over to him, letting her sit on his lap. He nuzzled her neck for a moment. "We can go back up to bed."
Narcissa smiled at him and kissed him softly. "We will. After you tell me what has you up so early on a Sunday morning?"
He shook his head. "Its nothing."
"Lu, don't lie to me."
Lucius sighed and gently walked his fingers up her arm. "It's happening, Cissa. Father has… the Dark Lord is going to return sooner than we ever thought possible."
"What do you know?"
"Not enough to stop it." He rolled up his sleeve to show his wife the tattoo of the mark. The deep black lines of the skull which had faded over the years seemed to have brightened. "It's getting stronger. Father said that they have a new body for the Dark Lord to reside in while they brew a potion to help him rise up like a phoenix, to be reborn in the flames... he's getting nourishment of some kind. He's still weak, but I can feel him getting stronger, getting the nourishment. My mark it… burns ever so slightly."
Narcissa framed his face in her hands, her fingertips dancing along the rough white blond morning stubble. "You have to make a choice, Lucius. We can't let Draco get caught up in this. I won't watch him get branded like cattle the way that you were. I want better for him."
"I do too," he admitted, turning his face to kiss her hands. "But I don't know how to pull myself back from this, darling. Cissa, when he is reborn, he will call me to him. You know what will happen if I don't go."
"My cousin says that he has a plan."
"He might very well have one, but in the meantime, what am I to do? If I refuse him, he'll kill me and then you and Draco will have no protection. If I go... I don't know if I can do what he wants me to do. Not this time."
Narcissa kissed him softly. "We'll figure it out, Lu. Together, just like we do everything."
He kissed her hands and buried his face in her neck. "We have another problem."
"What's that?"
"Bellatrix wants to come and stay at the Manor. She says that it will be a family occasion and that she wants to get to know her dear nephew."
"Absolutely not. I forbid it!"
"I said as much to my father when he mentioned it."
"We both know that the disappearance of Novak's wife has my mad sister written all over it! She always loved to torture pregnant woman for sport. It was a sickness inside of her. When I was pregnant with Draco she —"
"I know," Lucius interrupted softly. "I remember. Rabastan stopped me from killing her at the last second. I wish I would have."
Narcissa closed her eyes. The two miscarriages that she had had before Draco had been Bella's fault, she remembered. It was also because of her sister that she had barely managed to carry Draco to term and the reason why she could never have any more children.
"Draco can't come home if she's here. I don't even want them in the same country let alone in the same room as him and maybe we can tip off the Aurors about her coming back to England —"
"— No, Cissa. We mustn't! Remember, any wrong move and we're dead. Not to mention that we have to stop Draco from asking so many questions. I swear to Merlin if he writes home once more complaining about that bloody oaf Hagrid and his goddamn bloody Hippogriff, I am going to strangle him! I already told him that there's nothing we can do about the Hippogriff as Black put his foot down at the last Board of Governors meeting and claimed that he has nineteen witnesses who claim that our son insulted the animal specifically after Hagrid told him not to."
Narcissa chuckled. "He gets that from you."
Lucius glared at her. "I don't whine."
She merely grinned. "Yes, you do. When you don't get your way, you can throw quite the tantrum, love."
He shrugged, pointedly ignoring his wife's insult. "He needs to grow up and he needs to realize that he doesn't need to know everything that we're doing here or what I know that my father is doing. Who knows what else he found in my father's study before I caught him and Theo down there. The less he knows about what his grandfather is involved in, the better."
"His Occlumency skills are quite strong, Lucius. You know I taught him myself. We can trust him."
Lucius kissed her fingers. "It's not about trusting him. I won't risk him, Cissa. I won't risk either of you."
She nodded. "You talk to your father and tell him that my sister is not welcome here."
Lucius nodded, closing his eyes. "I'll write to him now and inform him."
Narcissa stood up, her eyes on her husband. "Then come back to bed."
He smiled at her as he watched her leave the room and he closed his eyes. For the first time in longer than he could remember, he was afraid.
And the worst part was that he wasn't sure if he was lying to his wife or to himself.
~ ASC ~
Remus woke slowly to the feel of his hair gently being stroked and he turned to look up into the grey eyes of his mate.
She smiled at him. "Good morning, lover."
He kissed her softly, his hand on her chin. "How do you feel?"
"Sore," she admitted. She made to shift and winced. "Ow." Her eyes fell on her bandaged stomach and widened. "Oh, right."
Remus glanced at the clock. "Poppy should be here soon to check you out and re-bandage that."
Tonks nodded. "Come here. Come hold me."
His brow furrowed. "You're injured. I'm not moving you."
She smiled and attempted to sit up on her own, tears stinging her eyes at the pain of it. Remus grabbed her shoulders, his eyes flashing.
"Nymphadora!"
"Please? We'll both feel better."
Remus sighed and he carefully moved behind her to where she was gesturing. He propped himself back against the pillows and then carefully lay her back against his chest, nestled between his thighs and her hands holding his over her heart.
"See? I feel better already."
"Stubborn minx," he muttered, but he smiled when she turned her head and he bent his own to kiss her softly. "You scared me, Dora," he whispered, kissing her again.
"I'm sorry. I should have sent word that I was fine before you saw me like this."
He shook his head, breathing in her hair. The sight of it in her natural soft short brown curls only reminding him of how weak she was. He kissed the freckles on her nose. "I didn't... I felt you."
She smiled at him as he nuzzled her neck. "You felt me?" Her hands curled around his, still resting over her heart.
"I… not all the time, but since I... I just knew that you were hurt and Merlin, please don't scare me like that again, Nymphadora! I thought I lost you."
Tonks turned her face to his and kissed him again, long and soft. "You, Remus Lupin, are quite stuck with me. I have no plans of going anywhere without you."
The bedroom door opened and they both looked up at the matron who pursed her lips.
"Have you been resting?" she demanded, suspiciously.
"She slept all night, Poppy, and I administered the potion every three hours as instructed. She barely woke up to take them," Remus supplied, making to move out from under her, but Tonks held him in place.
"No, stay," she insisted.
He only nodded and kissed her temple.
Madam Pomfrey unwrapped her bandage and Remus let out a slow breath as he looked at the jagged cuts. They looked remarkably better, but still quite brutal. He closed his eyes as he remembered how last night the matron had forced her insides back in. She carefully applied a salve to the wounds and sealed them again before bandaging her once more with fresh dressings.
"I'll be back to re-dress this tonight around eight. You are not to leave this bed outside of having to use the bathroom and then you must have assistance or I will make you stay in the hospital wing. Do you understand?"
Tonks nodded. "Yes. Thank you. Is it possible for me to shower?"
Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "I'd prefer that you don't get the bandages wet and that's a lot of time on your feet. If someone helps you, you may have a sponge bath. Tomorrow a shower should be fine, but not before. I will tell you after I change your dressing in the morning."
"Thank you."
The matron nodded, touching Tonks' hand where the small burn was. "I'm afraid this will scar as well. I did what I could to reduce it. It's hardly very visible, but a burn like this from dark magic, you're lucky that it didn't do a lot worse."
Harry stuck his head in the bedroom doorway with Sirius and Zee behind him. "Tonks? Are you okay?"
She smiled at him as Madam Pomfrey finished applying salve to her burn. "I'm going to be fine Harry, don't you worry!"
He nodded and Zee placed a hand on his arm. "Why don't you come help me make some tea while Madam Pomfrey finishes up her examination of Tonks?"
Harry nodded and followed her out into Remus' tiny kitchen nook, sneaking a look back into the bedroom. "Her stomach looks bad. I mean, it's a really big bandage."
Zee smiled at him, slipping her arm through his and leaning her head on his shoulder. "I don't know everything that happened yet, but Sirius said that she's going to be okay."
"I know," he muttered.
He'd been woken from a dead sleep to his mirror vibrating incessantly on his nightstand twenty minutes before. Sirius had simply said that they had found another Horcrux last night, but that Tonks had been injured and was all right. He had then instructed Harry to come to Remus' suite. It hadn't reassured Harry in any way.
But they had found another one.
The thought made him giddy and slightly terrified at the same time. He couldn't help but wonder, did he know? Could he feel it?
He turned towards the woman resting her head on in his shoulder and found himself in Zee's arms and he wrapped his arms around her. He was taller than her as she was so tiny without her usual heels, but he clung to her, feeling reassured as she rubbed his back.
"It's okay, Harry. She's going to be fine."
He nodded, closing his eyes as he was engulfed in the warmth of her hug making him feel remarkably calmer.
"Prongslet?" Sirius asked from behind him.
Harry turned his head to look at his father as Zee kept her arm linked through his. "What happened? How did you find it?"
Sirius smiled at him. "Come on; let's go sit in Uncle Moony's room. Tonks and I will tell you everything."