{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this except for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern, and a few random Death Eaters who are all twisted figments of my imagination.}

Chapter 8

Dragon's Teeth

**"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."  Hamlet Act I, sc. v, line 100**

Sirius glared at the scrap of paper to his left then at the notes he had written down.  It made no sense, none at all.  He growled menacingly at it in hope that aggression would help solve his conundrums.  It didn't.  Slamming his fist onto the desk, he stood up and began to pace the room.

"Gods and all demons be damned to eternity, why the hell won't this thing work?  It seems so simple, but no, do you think it would be?  Of course not!"

From a desolate, warm corner, Wyvern purred reassuringly.  Sirius glanced down at the cat.  "Oh, you know all the answers, do you?  Think you're omnipotent, eh, cat?"

Wyvern cocked her head at him before deciding that her paw needed to be cleaned.  She gave it a single lick and rubbed her right ear.  Looking up at the tall man again, she stood and stretched, only to rub against his leg.  She squeaked stubbornly to him before disappearing through a small cat door that had been thoughtfully installed in the door.

"Damn cat."  On a whim, he followed her, though he did use the larger door instead of attempting to fit through one that was made for a creature less than a sixth of his size.

Wyvern was waiting for him outside the aperture.  She stalked down the hall, tail held high and swishing in every direction.  "So where are we going, cat?"

She answered him only with a flick of her tail.  Sirius shook his head.  Why was he doing this?  It made no sense, but anything made more sense than the riddle he was suppose to figure out.  He wondered if the cat actually had a direction that she wanted to go or if they were just going to wander through out the castle until he got bored and gave up.  The feline halted in front of the infirmary.

"That's what you want, isn't it, cat?  You wanted to see Andy.  They don't let you in here," he chuckled to himself.  "Alright, cat, let's go see Andy," he scooped up the creature in his arms and opened the door.

Andy was right where she had been for the past weeks.  The attack had been early July.  It was now mid-August.  There had been no changes with how she was doing.  Poppy said she was fine, but he refused to agree.  She would not be 'fine' until she was fully alive again.  Wyvern jumped from his arms onto Andy's bed.  The cat kneaded the light sheet that had been casually placed over the soulless body.

Sirius swallowed glumly as he looked down at his beloved.  Yes, in his mind, she was still 'his' despite anything she said.  He sat down in the chair beside the bed and took her hand in his own.  It was surprisingly warm.  That took a moment to process correctly.  Her hand was warm, alive.  He sprang back up, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Andy?  Andy?"

There was no verbal answer.

"Andy, are you alive?"

He felt a brief squeeze in his hand.

"You're back!"  He leaned down to kiss her on the lips.

Andy's eyes flashed open at the touch.  She still couldn't control any of her major muscles.  The hand squeeze had taken so much out of her.  She let her eyes close once again.  She was so tired…

Sirius noticed that Andy had gone back to sleep.  She lived!  She was not going to die on him.  She was going to survive and they would live happily ever after.  Yeah, right, but there was always the thought.  He sauntered up to Dumbledore's office with a wide grin on his face.  "Licorice Twists."  The gargoyle spun open.  The Head Master and Remus were hunched over the large desk going over plans for something.

"Ah, Sirius, have you found anything yet?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't, but that's not why I'm here.  It's about Andy."

"Oh?"

"I was just down in the infirmary because her cat wanted to see her."

Remus gave him a look that showed he didn't believe it was just the cat that wanted to see her.  "And?"

"I think she's back."

"Wonderful!  Are you certain?"

"No, sir, but her eyes are open and she was able to squeeze my hand.  She knew I was there."

"I shall notify Poppy.  It may take awhile for the soul to fully reconnect itself with the body after being away so long."  Dumbledore sent a quick Floo message down to Madame Pomfrey's rooms.  "There.  Poppy will begin treatment to get Andromeda back to normal.  Now what were you saying, Remus?"

"I've been thinking about the riddle.  The part that sticks with me is the stone dragon thing.  I did a bit of research on von Fleckingar and it seems that he comes from Romania, to be more exact a small town in the Transylvanian Alps."

"And Romania has dragons," Sirius added thoughtfully.

"So I think that might have something to do with it."

"You wish to go to the place where von Fleckingar was born to see if it has any connection with the riddle?"

"Yes, I feel it would be the best place to start.  It might offer some assistance."

"Very well, when do wish to leave?"

"As soon as possible."

A few hours later, Dumbledore had gotten them a port key to the outskirts of the small village in the Transylvanian Alps.  It was a tiny wizarding town with few inhabitants but a good vacation spot for those who like tall mountains and remote forests.

Sirius pushed a nearby branch away from his face.  "You would think they'd be able to clear the path between here and town, but no, of course not.  Where's the hospitality?"

"This isn't exactly a prime location, Padfoot, and we happen to be following a deserted logging trail."

"Damn," he cursed softly under his breath as the town came into view.  Everything was burnt to a charred crisp.  Ashes floated lazily in the eddies that wove through half standing buildings.  "Are you sure we're in the right place?"

Remus nodded numbly.  He knew what could have caused such mass destruction.  "Yes, we're in the right place."  He couldn't believe what he saw.  No full structures stood with out marks of fire and destruction.  Burn marks left nothing untouched.  A few blazes still smoldered in the ashes left behind.

"Remus, Remus, what happened?"

The werewolf blinked a few times to clear his vision, hoping that what he had seen was not really there.  Unfortunately, it still existed.  "What?"

"I asked if you knew what had happened."

There was a pause before he spoke.  "I think I do."

"Then what is it?"

"Dragons…" he whispered almost as if it were a dream.

"Dragons?"

Remus said nothing and continued to stare at the mass destruction.

"Dragons?" Sirius asked again in disbelief.  "They could something this…this terrible?"

The werewolf let his eyes close again.  It reminded him of the night James and Lily had been killed.  Small fires still burned in the remainders of Godric's Hollow.  Mediwitches carted the two bodies away, encased in stiff sheets.  James and Lily…so young, but having lived through so much more than they should have.  And baby Harry, shipped off to Lily's sister…It was a pity he couldn't be raised a wizard, but it was all for the best.  Poor lad would have enough to worry about when he would go to Hogwarts.  He stared at the ashes wishing it wasn't real and that he had imagined the entire thing.  It was just a bad dream, a horrible nightmare.  No, it was real…And it would never go away.

"Yes, Padfoot," he said heavily.  "They could and they did."

"But dragons don't usually attack people or settlements."

"I know that."

"Which means something is wrong with all of this."

Remus turned toward the other man.  Sirius was standing a few feet away, a handful of ashes drifting through his fingertips into the breeze.  "Sometimes, you never fail to amaze me."

"Something is wrong, isn't it?  It just doesn't feel right."

"I get the same feeling.  Dragons would not randomly attack an inhabited town with out reason."

"Unless there was a reason."

"What type of motive would provoke an attack, especially one of this dimension?"

"Illegal poaching, territorial disputes, food…"

"You weren't supposed to answer that.  It was a rhetorical question."

"Sorry," Sirius let the rest of the ash fall through his finger tips.  He wandered forward through the ruins hoping to find a semblance of life that could tell him what had happened and why.  There was nobody still alive.  No person had survived the attack and if they had, they disappeared not wanting to be reminded of what had happened.  He leaned down and picked up a small object on the ground.  It was a small child's toy, a rag doll with yarn hair and button eyes, one arm hanging loosely by only a few threads.  Her dress was torn and tattered with scorch marks running across the hem.  The child that it once belonged to was nowhere to be seen.  He assumed she had been killed.

Remus followed like a ghost behind his friend.  He still couldn't believe that any of this had happened.  Sirius had been right; this was not normal, especially for dragons.  Dragons were known to be solitary creatures at best.  The destruction here looked to be from more than one, if not a dozen or more.  It surprised him that so many could work together without murdering one another.  It was unnatural, for the sake of a better word. There was one person that he knew of that would have the power to control the great beasts.  It made him sick to think about it, but it had to be the truth.  How else could this have happened?  It had to be Lord Voldemort's doing, that was the logical way to explain it.  It just had to be.  No one else had the power to destroy villages at his whim.  No one else had the gall do cause mass destruction of innocent people.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius's comment brought Remus out of his reverie.  There werewolf blinked to refocus and saw immediately what Sirius had sworn at.  He added a few creative comments of his own to what his friend had stated.

"We were wrong, my friend.  Those aren't dragons, they're demons!"

A circle of ash covered cretins emerged from the forests surrounding the village.  They were lanky, dark as the night sky during the new moon, and emanated a sense of coldness and despair.  Spiked whips hung as tails, lashing back and forth like a cat's in readiness to strike.  Their hands were crooked claws, gleaming metallically in the sunlight.  Various horns stuck odd angles from misshapen skulls.

"Then what do we do now?"

"The only sane thing to do: RUN!"  Remus started off at full pace.  Once again, he had his curse to thank for giving him the physical finesse when he needed it.

"Where are we going?  We can't outrun them, you know."  Sirius was having a difficult time keeping up, even though after Azkaban he was still in good shape.

"This way," the werewolf veered off to another path.  "There should be a mining camp up here somewhere."

"How will that help us?"

"Places to hide until these things leave us alone."

Sirius glanced over his shoulder.  The dark creatures loped along behind them.  "They're still there."

Remus grabbed Sirius by the arm and pulled him into what looked to be a small cave hidden behind a fringe of weeds.  He motioned for silence as the demons drifted by.  Sirius was panting heavily like a dog.  Being an Animagus gave people characteristics akin to their animals.  Black was no exception to the rule.  He leaned against the cool rock, waiting for Remus to tell him it was all over and they could go home and he could see Andy again.  He breathed a sigh of relief as the last one passed the opening.

The last dark heap turned toward where the noise had come from.  It pointed a long, sinewy arm at the entrance.  Sparks flew from its fingertips toward where the two men crouched. 

"Run!" Remus hissed, leaping up from where he hid.  He dragged Sirius behind him, hoping the demons would not follow.  The curse missed the target it had been aimed at, instead hitting the ceiling above them.  A low rumbling roared in their ears.  Remus felt himself being thrown across the cavern. 'Funny,' he thought to himself.  'I don't remember ever learning to fly.'  He landed with a dull thud.

It took him a few moments to reorient himself.  The throw had been extremely solid and rocks did not make the best landing surface.  He mentally checked for any places in his body that felt more painful than the rest.  His mind stopped at his left knee, finding that it twinged when he shifted it.  The rest of his body turned out to be pretty much in one piece, save for the occasional bruises and scrapes, but nothing was major.  He pulled himself to his feet and surveyed what had happened.

The demon's curse had missed the men completely and had crashed into the rock ceiling above them.  Boulders came tumbling down like a granite waterfall.  The entrance was obviously blockaded against them with a gigantic pile of rocks and debris.  Another body lay a few feet away from where Remus stood.

"Sirius?" he whispered.  There was no reply.

{Author's Note:  That's another cliffie, is it not?  I'm being evil and malicious again!  Woo-hoo!

Frogboy:  Shao-lin Kemp Chi-Sao is more of a empty handed, non weapon oriented style.  We do a whole bunch of kicks and punches, with a lot of forms and combinations of moves as well.  We do some weapons techniques, though not many.  We do some grappling and sparring, though not as much as forms and combos.  I hope that explains something.  I'm glad someone is impressed with my writing.  To be completely honest, I'm not even sure what the poem refers to yet.  I only wrote it with some idea, but it can be twisted into many.

Lily Potter:  Welcome back!  I am currently attempting to teach myself Pachabel's Canon in D.  I have played some Mozart, but I really disliked the book I had with Mozart in it.  I honestly don't remember if I played any Chopin yet.  I tend to forget things easily.

Anna Black:  I'm planning to do something like that.  I'm obsessed with the Princess Bride, so naturally I will.  No, its not odd.  I was attempting to air play most of the pieces in the last book I got on the way home from the mall.  My boyfriend and I have snogged through a handful of movies so far, though not many, unfortunately.

Atheis Gainsborough:  Yes, she will eventually, maybe at Christmas.  I had been planning a reunion with Ben since the first story, so it had to happened somewhere.  This chapter should be a bit of explanation with Sirius and Remus.

Dy:  I've been playing 6 ½ years.  Right now, I gave up on a teacher and am teaching myself.  The site was http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/index.cfm.  It had some Chopin, but none had names, only numbers.

Sora G. Silverwind:  You were supposed to feel bad.  I'll check on the 'Andalucia' suite thing.  Now you've got me wondering what you're talking about.

VMorticia: Go ahead, hurt the pigeons!  Sounds like fun!  And I know I have problems, but thank you for reconfirming that fact.

Shasa Perino: Please do not kill me, I am actually enjoying life very much at the moment.  And yes, I am brilliant.  J

Iggie:  And another person calls me brilliant, once again!  Woo-hoo!  I'm glad this cheers you up and keeps you from getting too overly depressed.

Peace, Love, and Christmas Cookies, Nataly Ravenlock}