Chapter Three

He hated the house. Absolutely hated it. It brought back memories from his childhood he'd much rather forget but, it would seem, he would be stuck there for a fair while longer.

Sirius paced back and forth at the front door to number 12 Grimmuald Place. He was waiting for the return of the Phoenix Order members who were currently on a mission dealing with muggles who had it in their minds to try and make themselves into wizards. When Dumbledore had come over briefly to explain the situation, he had been quite certain that such a thing could not be done and everyone had agreed most ardently. The idea was more than ridiculous it was hilarious beyond tears. Still it was worrying that these same muggles had managed to capture a wizard and hold him, it was enough to get Dumbledore to send out 4 order members to check if it were really true. Sometimes even the truth potion could not be trusted if they were being set up by someone else entirely where they could not the full story.

A loud 'pop' echoed through the house as Arthur, Snape and Remus apparated on the door step. Panic fluttered through his mind as he couldn't find Kingsley, had something happened?

"Where's Kingsley, what happened?" He asked in a rush before he fully took in the scene before him.
Arthur was at the front, carrying a small black briefcase, crisp silver buckles clasping the case closed. It was odd to see Arthur with something new and expensive looking. But it was the young women Snape was cradling in his arms that took his full attention. She was obviously unconscious as no one in their right mind would let themselves be carried around by that man, and she looked awfully pale.
Snape immediately moved to the couch where he deposited the girl and finally turned to meet Sirius's icy stare.

"I thought it was a wizard that had been taken, not a witch." He looked at them with a quizzical gaze.

"Obviously it would appear they have captured her as well." Snape replied snidely.

"Now's not the time." Remus cut in before it became a heated argument and Snape, turning his back to Sirius kneeled down, pulled out his wand and muttered a spell, moving his wand down the girl's body.

Deciding Sirius would get nowhere talking to Snape he turned to Arthur. "What do you have there? What happened?" He asked again.

Before Arthur could answer there was another loud "pop" and Kingsley stood behind them, Dumbledore at his side.

"Good you're all here, now we can discuss the important matters at hand." He managed to say this lightly but Sirius saw the weight and worries behind his eyes. And so they replayed those evenings' events.

They had observed the house, finding it too quite had gone inside to find all the muggles already gone and haven taking the machine with them. But that was all they had managed to take. They'd left behind a fair few experiments, which Arthur had shrunk and put into the briefcase he'd found and was now carrying around. Kingsley had taken the dead wizard to St. Mungo's where testing could be done to see what had been then death of him and reported to Dumbledore the task was done while Snape had grabbed the witch they'd found in the other room. Remus had cleaned up all other trace of the muggles and the house was now completely empty.

"And you think they'll try this again?" Sirius asked shaking his head.

"I have reason to believe so." Dumbledore replied gravely.

There was a moments silence before Snape finally righted himself. "The girl appears to be fine, but I am not a licensed healer."

"I hope you wouldn't mind Sirius, if she stayed here for a few days, at least until she awakens and can tell us her side of the story?" Dumbledore looked at Sirius who gave his hearty consent.

"I'll make a bed up."

Her mind came to her slowly, in bits and pieces. At first she was frightened, new smells, new sounds and feelings but she began to feel calm, a peace she hadn't felt for far too long. It took her a moment to realize what was wrong.

Snapping her eyes open she looked about the room. It was dismal and dark. The curtains looked like they hadn't been pulled open in many years and the room was mostly bare except for a small wooden desk, the closest, a trunk at the foot of her bed and a lone empty picture behind her, rank with age. It seemed odd to her, to paint a portrait picture and not have a subject standing in the middle. She stared at it for the longest time, as if knowing the answer to a question but unable to bring it to the surface. She felt she knew there was something missing until she realized SHE didn't know anything, someone else did.

She pushed the sheets from her bed and standing upright, made her way to the door. As graceful as a dance, she placed her hands on the door, palm towards, and pressed her ear to the wood. She could hear light murmurs downstairs, the rattle of cups and the scraps of chairs. And she felt something too. Something she remembered feeling before... before. Suddenly it clicked, it was the energy she'd felt on Serenity. The only difference was that it didn't have the same mix of bio energy and machine energy. It was pure, untainted, flowing like liquid, and she felt it from the occupants down the stairs. She could feel it around herself as well, but it wasn't like theirs. It clung to her pores, forced down her throat giving it an awful metallic taste. This was the energy she had felt the first time. It was inside her.

More disturbingly she could feel the remnants of who the energy had come from, like he stood with her, clinging to her for life. He pressed into her mind, suppressing all the feelings she couldn't, all the feelings she hadn't been able to hold back for three and a half years. For the first time since she had gone to the academy she felt whole.

Breaking from her unbounded joy she wanted to shout, to yell and leap at her new-found freedom. She wanted to thank these people for their help.

River threw open the door and flew downstairs, her fingers reaching for the closed doorknob as their voices became understandable.

As they spoke their words changed. Though they said everything would be fine, it was like they whispered to her the truth, that everything would not be fine. They had to find a group of people and they didn't know if they could. They were embarrassed that muggles could outsmart them because they were wizards!

Her hand wavered. Was this what she had been feeling? The energy came from them because they were wizards?

The door she had been standing behind was suddenly flung open and she came into view of the four people she had been listening to. Surprise flittered across their faces before the women Molly, she knew her name the moment she wondered, stood and rushed to her side.

"My dear girl, what are you doing out of bed?" Her voice was sweet and laced with affection.

"I awoke." River replied.

"I'm so sorry dear, were we talking too loud?" Molly ushered her to a chair and River sat uncomfortably, feeling everyone's eyes. "Can I get you anything?"

She shook her head and looked into whom she knew as Remus's eyes. "They didn't see you." She told him. He looked at her puzzled so she elaborated. "The other werewolves pack."

Remus's stance changed immediately, his shoulders tensed and he pulled back. "I'm not sure I understand what...,"

"Greyback, he didn't see you. You were worried." River cut in before he finished.

There was a deathly silence that hung in the air, Remus continued to stare at her, unable to find anything to say so Sirius jumped in.

"Who are you?"

"River, my name is River Tam." She answered, her gaze still transfixed to Remus.

"Do you remember what happened?" Arthur asked as Molly set a glass of water down beside River.

She finally broke the gaze, turning to Arthur. "They took me. I was on Serenity and they took me."

Arthur scrunched up her eyes in confusion. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"I was somewhere, and then I wasn't."

"You were taken, yes, you were captured by muggles." Sirius was getting a little irritated. "Do you know who took you, or why?"

River shook her head. She remembered very little which was odd.

Remus took his leave and headed for another room for find some peace and quiet, Sirius followed him as Arthur and Molly continued to ask River questions but it clearly looked like her mind was on another planet.

"Remus?" Sirius knew his friend too well, something was bothering him.

"It's nothing." He tried to squash it before Sirius could delve deeper.

"Remus."

A pause.

"Greyback. I was thinking about Greyback when she came in." Remus gave in.

"What she said before?" Sirius tried to fit the pieces together.

"Yesterday, before we went to the muggle building, I was trying to talk to another werewolf. He had just joined Greyback's pack and I was trying to talk him out of it but he wouldn't listen. The next thing I knew the rest of his pack showed up and I had moments to get out. Ever since then all I keep wondering about was if he saw me." Remus ran his fingers through his knotted hair, breathing out a sigh.

"Did she...?" Sirius didn't need to finish the question.

"No, she didn't say a spell, she doesn't even have a wand." He shook his head. "Add to the fact that she's most likely been drugged for days, maybe weeks. She couldn't have known."

Remus threw his hands up. "It's probably nothing."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Sirius nodded but both were not convinced.