~*~ Ann's POV~*~

I sit in the back of the library and sigh. Ever since that damned prank the guys have been edgy around me. 'For good reason too. Hell, if you'd found out that one of them had a major problem with being sadistic, what would you do?' Huffing, I throw my quill at the window and watch the snow falling.

Voldemort was gaining power. The disappearances were starting to become more frequent now. There are whispers amongst the teachers and older kids, yet, we all still keep going on as if nothing is happening. There's a page devoted to missing people and to obituaries from those found dead. It's mainly the muggle-borns and squibs right now, the occasional blood traitor wanders in, but other than that, there's nothing about Voldemort. The only way I know it's him is because of the letters that Tessa, mother, and even Aunt Peggy send.

"HEY ANN!"

"Rowan, be quiet or else you'll get kicked out," I say before turning to face him, "What's going on pipsqueak?"

Rowan shrugs, "Nothing much. I'm trying to figure out what to get you for Christmas. Is there something in particular that you'd like?"

"I can think of a couple of things, but nothing that you would be able to help me with," I sigh.

"Problems with the guys?"

"Yep."

"Is it cause you beat up that sixth year."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, it did take both Remus and Sirius to pull you off of him."

"Yeah, but he was asking for it."

"I'm not saying anything against it, just a saying that maybe you freaked them out a little bit. After all, the guy was unconscious and had quite a few broken bones."

I frown, "One of those wasn't my fault."

"Really?" Rowan raises an eyebrow, "You broke his leg, causing him to fall over and break his arm trying to catch himself. How is that not your fault?"

Unable to figure a way out of it, I sigh and look at the table, "I don't know. I just couldn't help it."

"Hey, after all the crap you've been through, if you weren't the least bit sadistic, I'd be worried," Rowan smiles, "Come on, let's throw snowballs at people from the top of the west tower."

Chuckling, I pack up my bag and follow my brother, hoping that there will be plenty of people outside to drop snowballs onto.

~+~ Sirius's POV ~+~

Dodging the snowball, I glance up at the sky and mentally curse whoever is throwing them from the west tower. It's bad enough that my father sent a letter ordering that I return home for break this winter, but it's even worse that he sent it in an official letter. James said that it can't be too bad, since he didn't come to pick me up personally Remus just said to be careful, and Peter didn't know what to say. I kind of wish I could've talked with Ann, but ever since she beat that sixth year to a pulp, she's been a little weird to be around. I guess she just needs to deal with the fact that she has some…control issues…on her own.

I step into a carriage and take a seat. Staring at the snow, I'm lost in my thoughts until the carriage dips as another person climbs in.

"Is this seat taken, or am I allowed to be by the Great Sirius Black?" Regulus asks, a slight smile on his face.

Rolling my eyes, I motion for him to take the seat across from me, "You know why mother and father want us home for the holidays?"

Regulus shakes his head, "No, I can't think of anything."

Putting that to the side, I pick up a discussion with Regulus and soon find myself enjoying the ride home.

I feel an odd sort of numb fury building and glare at my father's retreating back. Never had they hit any of us, but now that line has been crossed and I'm through. Done with the comments, the looks, the being punished for just being me. I'm done.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I reach my bedroom and pull out my travel trunk. I won't be able to take many things with me, but luckily I have a lot still at Hogwarts.

"Sirius? What are you doing?"

I glance at Regulus in my mirror, "I'm leaving…and I hope you'll come with. I know mother and father are nicer to you, but they've gotten worse and I don't want you to stay here."

Regulus blinks, "You mean…you won't leave me?"

"Not unless I'm dragged away. Please come with me," I plead, hoping that he'll come.

Regulus nods and ducks into his room and starts to pack. Sighing with relief, I finish packing, shrink my case, and grab my broom. Regulus rolls his case to me and then goes to grab his broom. I shrink his case, add a featherlite charm to both and hand Reg's to him.

"Alright, we'll leave from the court yard. You have a cloak on?" I ask.

Reg nods and we slowly descend the stairs, trying not to alert our parents. When I start to open the door to the courtyard, the light in the hall is turned on. My head jerks to that direction and I see mother and father standing there.

"Damn, I knew it was too easy," I mutter.

"Going somewhere?" Mother asks.

"Yeah, we're going to play a mini game of Quidditch, want to play?" I ask.

Mother sneers, "Don't try to lie to me! You are running away and are dragging your brother along! You have beseeched this name and family for too long!"

Before I can respond, I feel something hit my chest and throw me back. My back hits the wall and I grit my teeth together. Looking up, I see that mother is preparing to send another spell at me, while father is setting up a curse to send at Regulus. Narrowing my eyes, I pull myself up and dodge mother's spell. I reach Rowan in time to push him out of the way, but not fast enough for me to get out of the way. The curse causes the feeling of an electric shock throughout my body, while my back feels like a branding iron has touched just below my left shoulder and is being held there.

"I thought you would do that. Still protecting your baby brother after all these years? Well, I hope you figure out what spell that was, because if you don't someone else will once they see the mark," Orion murmurs.

My eyes narrow, and I pull out my wand, "I'm done wasting my time with you two," I snarl, throwing a couple of spells at them, along with a spell for a smoke screen. Turning to Regulus, I tilt my head. He nods and tries to move, but finds his feet stuck.

"Damn it! What spell did they use?" Regulus mutters. He starts to undo his left foot while I work on his right. As we're working on the spell on his feet, I'm hit with a cutting curse, a bludgeoning hex, and a blasting spell. Landing on my back in the courtyard, I groan and give my head a light shake before deciding that's a bad idea. Only through sheer dumb luck of rolling over at the right time do I manage to avoid being hit by another bludgeoning hex.

Moving into a crouching position, I duck another spell, and charge forward, sending some hexes and curses back at them. Mother and father step back to go on the defensive while I run up to Regulus, and keep sending curses at our parents.

"Can you get your other foot unstuck?" I ask.

Regulus shakes his head, "No! I don't know what it is! I tried everything, including finite, but that didn't work either!"

"Ok, pull up the best shield you can Reg. I'll get your feet unstuck, but you have to keep us protected," I say.

Regulus nod, "O-ok. Just don't make me hex them."

I grin at him, "Course not! That's my job."

Getting back to work on undoing the spell, I listen to the cracking of Regulus's shield and try to speed things up, but that's when I'm hit with another curse. Flying out of the room again, I can feel the blood running down my lip and the couple of broken bones. Looking up, I keep dodging spells until I realize there's nothing I can do. Swallowing back tears, I grab my broom and take off at a run, spells hitting me and taking their damage.

"Sirius? Sirius! Don't leave me! Sirius!" Regulus calls.

Biting my lip, I jump over the small half wall and onto my broom, taking off toward the sky.

"Sirius, don't leave!"

Closing my eyes, I take off toward the stars.

"SIRIUS!"

Trying to ignore the yells that I know will never leave me.

~*~ Ann's POV ~*~

I take a sip of my hot chocolate and smile as the quarter moon lights up the castle ground. Rowan went inside about an hour ago, but it's thanks to him that my weekend has been great. For once, I wasn't thinking about something that dealt with violence, family, school, or Voldemort. That last one especially was becoming a problem. More and more of the newspaper is being taken up with information about his movements. And not all of them are obvious either. So, I really should thank Rowan for helping me relax for a few days.

Glancing up again, I see a shadow that is darker than the rest of the sky surrounding it. Frowning, I watch as it comes closer to the school. Is it some weird owl?

"What the hell?" I mutter after finally realizing that it's a person flying in on a broom. That's when I also notice that if they don't pull up, they're going to end up smashing into the tower and plummeting to the earth. Lighting my wand, I hold it above my head, a common signal meaning to pull up and land at that spot.

As they come closer, I finally recognize that it's a student. And once they're about fifty feet from the tower, I recognize the person as Sirius.

"Oh god, Merlin, and Morgana," I mutter. He lands in front of me in an odd sort of heap, letting out a yelp when his back hits the stone behind him. I place a warming spell on him and dry off his clothing, which I notice has several rips and tears in it, along with what looks like a burn mark on the left shoulder of his back.

"Sirius, what happened?" I ask, but he doesn't respond, "Sirius!"

"I ran away and left him. I can't believe I left Reg," Sirius rasps before looking up at me with wide red eyes.

I notice the tear marks that have frozen on his cheeks and how he's still turning pale, "Ok, I'm sorry that you had to leave Regulus behind, but what happened to you?"

He shakes his head, eyes far away and going farther as I watch them. Making up my mind, I pick him up as best I can. He's quite tall which makes it awkward. Normally, I would just use a spell, but I don't know how that would affect his health. When I feel the warm dampness in his cloak, my worry turns to slight panic and I take off at a run. Something happened. Something horrible happened.

Taking all the secrete passages I can, I end up at the Hospital wing quick enough. By this time, Sirius is more than a little limp and my panic is increasing. Luck is on my side in that the doors are open, and I run right into the wing.

Setting Sirius on a bed, I catch my breath enough to yell, "MADAM POMFREY!"

The matron comes running out within moments.

"Miss Grimwood! What is the fuss about? You're going to wake my patients!"

"If you don't hurry, you're going to lose a patient!" I snap. That's when she sees Sirius on the bed.

Right before Pomfrey even casts a diagnostic spell, Sirius lets out a scream of bloody murder. My eyes widen and I look over his body trying to figure out what's going on. Pomfrey casts a diagnostic spell, and various colors appear on his body. I see blue, green, yellow, purple, black, and a bit of orange on him. Having no idea what these colors mean, I turn to the nurse, my eyes wide. I may not know what they mean, but I know that having that many colors show up isn't a good thing.

"Orange is Crucio specifically, so what dark magic is the black referring to?" Pomfrey questions as she starts to work on the other problems, muttering to herself and flying around the room.

I feel my heart pounding at an insane rate. My mouth is dry and I can't help but worry about what is going on and if Sirius will even be alright. I can't help him with anything, and anything that I try would probably just hurt him.

That's when he lets out another scream and starts to thrash around. Finding a part of his body that doesn't have any colors on it, I try to hold him from moving too much.

"Madam Pomfrey, do something!" I shout.

"I don't know where the Cruciartus is coming from! Obviously none of us has a wand trained on him and the only thing I can think of is that someone placed a delay on the spell," Pomfrey says, using a few more spells to make the purple color go away.

"Too far for a delay. He wouldn't be here if this was caused by a delay. Could it be that it's being channeled through something?" I ask.

"That would take either dark magic or old magic. Stand back, I need to get him to levitate so I can work on his back."

Stepping back, I notice the burn mark on his shoulder again and when I see what is on his skin underneath I gasp.

"There! That would be a connection! It's a familiae mark. Usually only the old pureblood families use them, and even then it's only the really old and, typically, dark ones. That spell would work as a conduit," I say, "It could be removed, but it would take a hell of a lot of power. Like, Dumbledore sized power, to remove it, and even then you need permission from the person who placed the mark. Usually it's the Head of the family, but I bet that this one was placed by Orion."

"So we can't remove it?" Pomfrey asks as she places another numbing spell on Sirius, which reduces his screams. She finishes up with the rest of the injuries and turns to me.

I rack my brains for any other way to remove it, but shake my head in the negative, "No way to remove it, but I think I may be able to disconnect Orion from Sirius."

"How?" she asks.

"A bit of tricky magic," I say, pulling out my wand. Placing the tip on the mark on his shoulder, I close my eyes and push myself into the connection that Orion has with Sirius. In a moment, I can feel Orion's magical signature and give a light growl. Throwing some wild magic at it, I notice that the connection disappears almost instantly. Pulling out, I slump into a waiting chair and let out a breath. Sirius has stopped screaming, and Pomfrey sets him back on the bed, using a switching charm to place him in pajamas instead of his current clothing.

"So what was that?" she asks.

I shrug, "Honestly, I was going on instinct. I connected to that mark like it was a ward and then just hit the magical signature that wasn't Sirius's with a burst of wild magic."

"How did you know about the…familiae mark?" she asks.

"Because, last I knew, the Blacks and Grimwoods are two of the only families that use them anymore. They aren't always used to torture, but they are used to increase the power of the person it's placed on, and usually marks the heir of the family," I explain.

Pomfrey nods, "Alright, if you want to head up to your dorm Miss Grimwood, that would be recommended."

I bite my lip, "Can I stay down here? I promise not to make noise or disturb anyone. I just would feel better if I was here."

"He's probably not going to be awake for a while."

"I know. Please?"

Pomfrey pauses. And I think she sees something, or maybe she's just really tired, but she nods and locks the hospital wing doors and walks back to her quarters. I summon an unused blanket and settle down, knowing that I very nearly lost a friend tonight.

Hey everyone, thanks to everyone who has reviewed/alerted/favorited/read/(is there anything I'm forgetting?). I'd like a few more reviews to find out if you like where the story is going or not. Anyway, those of you who read Crystalline Glass will recognize that I'm going back into the darker aspect of things. I'm going to try and balance it out a little more. Also to those of you who read The Eternal Livingroom, I have finally figured out where to go from there, so there should be an update soon.