DISCLAIMER I'm not Jo. Most of these characters aren't mine.
A/N: Oh my goodness!!!! If no one is reading this, I fully understand. Ten months is entirely too long to go without updating!!!! Please forgive me! If it's any consolation, this is the longest chapter yet (even though it's still not particularly long). There will be some revisions to previous chapters to make the story flow more smoothly…
"Sirius…how—" Harry whispered. He was torn between overwhelming joy and anger at the sight of the man before him. He had, after all, spent the past year and a half mourning the death of his godfather, and now, the supposed deceased was standing in front of him and clearly expecting to be welcomed into open arms. Well, Harry wasn't going to let Sirius off for this one without a really good explanation.
"There's no time to explain that now," Sirius replied, "but I promise I'll tell you everything soon. Please don't be angry with me for making you grieve for so long. I had a very good reason, I promise."
Harry helped his godfather to his feet, still looking mutinously at him. Lavender and Parvati looked absolutely terrified; Dean and Seamus thunderstruck; and Ron and Hermione each had a mix of terror and shock on their faces. Poor Neville had gaped wordlessly for a bit, then passed out.
"Ennervate," Sirius said, pointing his wand at Neville, who woke with a start. Dean and Seamus pulled him to his feet and all three of them, along with the rest of the group, turned their eyes to Sirius.
"Well, Harry," Sirius prompted, "aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"
"Right," Harry said, and without taking his eyes off Sirius, he said to the group, "Er…this is my godfather…Sirius Black. Sirius, you know Ron and Hermione; that's Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil." The Gryffindors each raised a hand or nodded when his or her name was mentioned.
"So what are you all doing wandering around?" Sirius asked.
"I could ask you the same question," Harry replied coldly.
"Fair enough. But you all know how dangerous it is to wander around at night nowadays."
"We're on our way to Professor McGonagall's office," Parvati said, and it was clear from her tone that this interruption of their progress was unwelcome.
"Why—"
"Ginny was attacked by a vampire in the Common Room," Hermione answered, before Sirius could finish the question. "She and Harry woke the rest of the House and now everyone's together in the Common Room. The Fat Lady's portrait was ripped to shreds…worse so than when you broke in during our third year."
"A vampire." Sirius repeated. The way he said it, it wasn't really a question. Harry could see the cogs turning in his godfather's head.
"Sirius?" Harry asked, "Do you know something about this?"
"What? Oh…no…," He shook his head as if to clear it of the daze that had come over him. Harry rather thought that Sirius knew more than he was letting on, which only added to his frustration at his godfather's unexpected reappearance.
Apparently he was not the one who could see past Sirius' unconvincing façade. Hermione was giving Sirius an I-know-you're-up-to-something-and-I'm-going-to-find-out-what-it-is sort of look that Mrs. Weasley would have been immensely proud of. Harry met her eyes and knew she was thinking the same thing. Sirius was acting very oddly, and maybe he shouldn't be trusted?
"Well, anyway," Harry said, forcing himself to concentrate on his original task, "we need to get moving. That vampire could still be around, and we don't know what else could be in here."
The group moved on in silence, Harry checking around every corner with Hermione's mirror and mercifully unaware of Ron's continued and increasing acts of hostility. Several times, Harry turned a corner just in time to miss Ron's whispered (for Ron still had not mastered non-verbal spells) and poorly-aimed jelly-legs jinxes. The others in the group were noticing, though, and Ron could hardly manage to conceal a look of glee as Lavender's long-suppressed laughter manifested itself in a snort barely disguised as a sneeze and Harry, startled by the sudden noise, whipped around to find the source.
Even with the help of quite a few hidden passages and stairs, it still took the group longer than the normal route would normally have taken, due to their painfully slow pace. It also struck Harry as odd that Sirius, like the students minus the trio, did not seem to know about most of the detours they took. Harry though that Sirius would have known about these hidden corridors and stairs, as he had helped create a map of Hogwarts in his own school days that included all of these corridors and stairs, and from which Harry gained the knowledge of said corridors and stairs. Harry's suspicion rose with every floor they descended.
When they finally reached the stone gargoyle that marked the entrance to the Head Teacher's office without further incident, it was with a collective sigh of relief.
Harry, in whom Professor McGonagall had confided the password because of his frequent trips out of the castle and his involvement in the Order of the Phoenix, said "Ginger Newts," and the gargoyle leapt aside obediently.
The group climbed, with Harry in the lead, onto the staircase that led to McGonagall's new office, which revolved like a spiral escalator, taking the stairs two at a time. When Harry reached the top of the stairs, however, his sudden inability to move caused Ron and Hermione, who were on the step below him, to smack into him, which had a domino effect among the rest of the group, resulting in Sirius, who had taken up the rear, tumbling back to the bottom of the stairs, where the gargoyle had not yet returned to it's normal position.
"What the—?" Ron exclaimed, as Neville, to whom it had not occurred to lower his wand, accidentally jabbed him in the back.
Harry, without answering, stepped to the side so the others could see what he had seen. The office door was wide open and McGonagall was lying on the floor, wand held loosely, and apparently out cold. Lying in the doorway, clearly the victim of a Stunning spell, was—
"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Harry said exasperatedly, staring at the unconscious form of Albus Dumbledore.
Somewhere in the Alps, Karl Kratanzki roared with anger. The entire operation was at risk of discovery, and all because that goat-worshiping git Abeforth couldn't do his job properly. Kratanzki paced nervously back and forth in his office in the Headquarters of The Torch, fearing the repercussions for his failure to choose a competent member of the organization to destroy the mirror.
"Do please calm down, Karl," said the portrait of Albus Dumbledore on the wall. "Rónaszék is at Hogwarts and is still, as far as I am aware, unconscious. Minerva always was particularly good at Stunning Spells, although his choice disguise may not have been very wise. I doubt he will wake of his own accord for quite some time."
"But Albus," Karl said, "you said yourself that the office door is wide open. Surely someone will discover—"
"What of Severus and Boislesang? Have you word of either?"
"NO!" Kratanzki shouted.
"Now, now, Karl. As frustrating as this situation is, shouting will solve nothing. Please lower your voice."
"Yes, of course," the Pole replied. Even in death, Albus Dumbledore had such an authoritative presence!
"I shall return to Hogwarts to check up on the situation," Dumbledore said, leaving his frame without waiting for the other man to reply.
Boislesang sat sulkily on the damp grass in the shadows at the base of the Astronomy Tower. He had been sent by Rónaszék to scare the girl into giving up the mirror, and had been thwarted by Harry Potter. He wasn't even entirely sure he had been scaring the right girl. He did know one thing, though: he was beginning to feel mutinous. Rónaszék had a way of making tasks seem simpler than they always turned out to be, and Boislesang was tired of being suckered into doing the ringleader's dirty work.
He had been hired by The Torch nearly three years ago, after the return of Lord Voldemort. He only took the post for protection. Voldemort had been seeking out the vampires to join his army, and Boislesang had known what the consequences of refusal would be. Now, however, he was contemplating leaving the group, though he was quite sure that would have more dire consequences than refusing to help Voldemort.
Boislesang sat in the shadows, trying to decide what to do next. He knew he could not return to Headquarters without the mirror, but he was not keen on reentering the castle. He had heard a rumor that Severus was also to be at the school tonight. Of course, it was only a rumor. Members of The Torch were only given information on a need-to-know basis; operations were executed with the utmost secrecy. He wondered what Snape could be doing at Hogwarts. Boislesang wondered how long the former professor would last within the walls of the school if his true identity were discovered. Between the Potter boy and the Headmistress, he doubted whether Snape would live more than five seconds.
Meanwhile, Sirius' head was spinning from his fall down McGonagall's revolving stone steps. Head throbbing painfully, he opened his eyes enough to see the stone gargoyle move back into place. Then, he felt the change coming on. He swore loudly and searched his pockets frantically. He found the flask in an inside pocket of his robes and tipped it into his mouth, only to find that it was completely empty.
"Damn it!" he yelled. He looked down angrily at his hands, the skin of which was bubbling and becoming paler. He felt his wais expanding and legs lengthening slightly and watched in horror as his hair grew into greasy black curtains in front of his eyes.
Severus Snape slammed his fists on the stone wall in anger.