There was about half an hour to spare by the time Sirius and Snape arrived at the address in Muggington. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, painting the sky a deep, bloody red as they climbed the long driveway towards the house. It loomed on the brow of the hill, a dark, malevolent shadow hunched among wizened old trees and scraggy shrubbery.

They walked as far as the gatehouse before moving along the wall towards a small copse that stood just west of what would have been the front lawn, had there been something more than stones and weeds growing there. From there, they could see the pathway leading to the house while still remaining hidden from view amid the undergrowth.

Snape sat down on the trunk of a collapsed tree, panting after the climb, while Sirius set up wards to protect them around the perimeter of the copse.

'So, how does this antidote to the poison you're going to take work?' asked Sirius, sitting down beside him.

'You should already know the answer, Black.'

'Clearly I don't, or I wouldn't have asked.'

Snape's lip curled in a superior smile. 'Potion-making was not your strongest subject, was it? Perhaps you and Potter spent too much time fooling about, inventing jinxes and curses instead of applying yourself more to your studies. If you had, you would know the answer to that question and you would not have to display your ignorance so shamefully.'

'Oh, get down off that high horse of yours,' said Sirius, kicking at stones in the dirt. 'Lexicon of potion-making you may be, but we both know I could hex you into next week if I wanted to, so quit being so damn superior before I give in to temptation.'

'Typical. You cannot debate a point rationally like any other civilised wizard, you have to resort to threats of violence. Twelve years in Azkaban haven't influenced your arrogance a great deal, I see.'

'And just what the hell would you know about that?' He slid off the log, anxious to get as far away as he could from Snape lest the temptation to break his already crooked nose be too great to resist. 'You have no idea what it was like in there. Or even worse, what it was like to be innocent and in there. But you didn't care about that, did you? I doubt you even looked at the so-called evidence against me. No, too ready to believe the worst without even bothering to listen to what I had to say. What did you care if I had my soul sucked out in revenge for a boyish prank that happened over twenty years ago? My God…I can't believe Ariadne is related to you.'

'I don't classify what happened as a boyish prank, Black. Not when someone's life was at risk.'

'I never said I was proud of it, but at least I'm man enough to admit I made a mistake. For Merlin's sake, everyone thinks they're immortal at that age. I never even thought about you dying. I just wanted Remus to give you a bloody good fright. Teach you a lesson.'

'And that would have been a very good lesson which resulted in the death of the pupil.'

'Look,' Sirius spat, furious now, 'if you're determined to carry this idiotic, childish grudge around with you for the rest of your life, then so be it. Nothing I could ever say is going to change anything so why do you even bother arguing with me about it?'

'I…' he began, but then he seemed to lose his train of thought. He blinked and looked away at some point beyond the trees. 'I don't know,' he murmured, 'because no, there isn't anything you could say.'

'And the fact that I'm trying to save your life now doesn't count for anything, does it? What reason will you find for hating me then?'

'I'm sure I'll think of something.'

Sirius folded his arms across his chest and turned his back on Snape, trying desperately to control the urge to send every curse he had ever learned flying across the glen towards him.

'And to think I actually felt sorry for you,' he murmured to himself through clenched teeth. 'Stubborn, arrogant - '

'What?'

Sirius resolutely ignored him.

'I asked you a question, Black. What did you just say?'

'What difference does it make? I didn't think anything I said could possibly cut through all that greasy hair of yours to penetrate your thick skull.'

'You said you felt sorry for me,' he said, ignoring the insult. 'Why?'

'Ah,' Sirius said, turning to face him, 'so you do listen after all, do you? Selective hearing, eh, Severus? Wonderful thing to possess.'

'Answer me!' he yelled, rising from the log and grabbing Sirius by the lapels of his cloak.

Caught unaware by Snape's sudden and unexpected explosion of anger, Sirius stumbled backwards against the trunk of a tree, Snape's venom filled eyes mere inches from his.

'Get your hands off me right now,' Sirius growled, 'I'm warning you.'

Snape seemed to recover himself, blinking as though he were waking from a trance. He released Sirius and stepped back, reaching out blindly for the support of the fallen log as he sat back down. His breathing seemed laboured and beads of perspiration had popped out along his pale brow.

Sirius straightened out his cloak before sitting back down beside Snape.

'You know, don't you?' asked Snape.

Sirius closed his eyes, covering his face with his hand. 'Yeah. It's not really that I feel sorry for you...I shouldn't have said that. I just…understand.'

Snape nodded dully.

'Don't blame Ariadne. It wasn't her fault. We were arguing...about you. She defended you, told me to lay off you, I asked why I should and it sort of came out.'

He shook his head as though trying to dispel a memory. 'I don't blame her. In any case, it doesn't matter now.'

'I'm very sorry about Medea. Sincerely.'

'Yes, so am I. It seems as though the Dark Lord has caused us both suffering…in our own ways.'

'I suppose you could put it that way,' said Sirius, his eyes dropping back to the stones at his feet. He teased them from the compacted earth with the tip of his boot before kicking them across the ground.

'It…couldn't have been…easy for you,' said Snape, 'being innocent…being in a place like that.'

'No.' Sirius kicked away one last stone, then sighed and folded his arms across his chest. 'But that part of my life is over. I have Ariadne back and a chance to be with Harry. That's all that matters to me now.'

Snape looked over at him, taking in his cleaner image as well as the sunken, slightly tired look Azkaban had stained him with. Nevertheless, his eyes had a brightness about them now that hadn't been there that night at the Shack. He didn't seem frightened or anxious anymore, the terror of the Dementors now little more than a painful memory. Something else had replaced the ghosts that had haunted him then and even Snape was forced to acknowledge it.

'You love her very much, don't you?'

'Yes,' said Sirius. 'I always have.'

'And you are doing all this for her?'

'For her and Harry, yes. Although I didn't really st - '

'Start it,' Snape interrupted. 'Yes I know. Ari always did let her heart rule her head.'

'That's not a failing, Severus. I think many of the problems between the two of you started because you always saw her strengths as weaknesses.'

'Maybe,' Snape admitted quietly, 'but my primary concern was always to protect her. As, indeed, was my parents'. They had their reasons for objecting to your…elopement. I'm sure you understand them now…in light of…everything.'

'Yes, perhaps I do,' Sirius sighed. 'One of the things I had time to think about in Azkaban was my behaviour back then. I know now that I should have tried harder to get her to reconcile her differences with you, but the truth of it is that she felt stifled and inadequate at home - she was desperate to break away. In the end, she even broke away from me. Not even I could keep her away from doing what she really wanted to do. I let her go because I love her. It's only by chance that we ever even met up again. But she did miss you. She often talked about you…her regrets that things had turned out the way they had.

'I suppose a lot of time has passed since then. We were just kids. Thought we knew everything there was to know. We're all different people now. I'm glad that you're both speaking again. It really did upset her to believe that she might have lost you. I want you to know that I never tried to keep her away from you, Severus. Never. I would never have wanted to see her hurt the way she has been, and I know that I'm just as responsible for that as anyone.'

Snape nodded thoughtfully. 'Perhaps. But I cannot deny that my own problems at that time blinded me to hers. She loves you a great deal as well. I am glad that she has found happiness again. I've come to understand what a rare thing that is. I cannot resent her for it, or try to keep her from it any longer. Twelve years apart is, I think, enough of a test for anyone. I don't think that you desire or need my blessing, Black, but you have it nonetheless.'

For quite possibly the first time in his life, Sirius was completely lost for words. Snape couldn't have surprised him more if he'd transfigured himself into a teapot. No one could know how big a leap he had just taken as Sirius did, except maybe Ariadne herself. He respected Snape more in that moment than he believed he ever had or ever would again.

'Thank you,' he managed to stutter as he extended his hand in - not quite friendship - but acknowledgement of a truce. Snape accepted the proffered handshake gracefully and even gave a faint flicker of a smile.

'Well then,' said Snape, 'time is against us. Perhaps we should get on.'

'Yeah, there's - ' Sirius glanced up at the silver stars beginning to shine in the inky-blue sky, ' - ten minutes before the meeting. Is that enough?'

'More than sufficient,' he replied, uncorking the phial of poison. A light lilac tendril of smoke curled upward from it, carrying a vague scent of lavender with it as it dissipated away. He switched the bottle to his left hand and reached into the folds of his robes for another identical phial containing a gold liquid. He looked at it for a moment before handing it to Sirius. 'This is the antidote. Please don't drop or lose it.'

'You have so much faith in me, don't you?'

'Be quiet now and listen. Two drops will be sufficient - there is a dropper inside the phial. No more or that will act like a poison too. No less, or I will not wake at all. Do you understand?'

'Two drops or you're dead. Yes, I understand.'

'Good. The Death Eaters never normally concern themselves with disposal of remains afterwards. They leave the clean-ups to house elves, if the killings take place on their own grounds. So as soon as it becomes safe to do so, you should administer the antidote. Within one hour.'

'I understand. Within one hour, two drops, otherwise it's lights out permanently. You have your wand?'

'I have. And you have the sphere Professor Dumbledore gave you?'

Sirius tapped the pocket of his robes. 'Yes, right here.'

'Good. Then I suppose we had better get this thing over. Good luck, Black.'

'Yeah...to you, too.'

Snape seemed a little anxious as he looked down at the phial, still emanating purplish fumes. He sighed, bracing himself, put the phial to his lips and drank the entire contents. He grimaced at the last drop as though he'd just swallowed some particularly strong Firewhisky and threw the phial to the ground. Almost instantly, he began to groan and doubled up, clutching at his stomach. Sirius felt as though his own stomach had just dropped down into his feet.

'Are you alright? Is the pain supposed to be this bad?'

Speech was obviously beyond him now, but Snape managed to nod his head as he groped out to the log beside him for support as the potion took its effect. His dark eyes seemed to roll back in his head until they were almost completely white, like frosted marbles in his pale face as he lay down across the tree, sucked in a few more painful, rattling breaths then slowly, he closed his eyes. His body relaxed as the potion did its work and he slumped from the log onto the stony, moss-covered soil.

Sirius had never seen anyone die in front of him like this, and he dearly hoped that he would never have to again. He shivered as he knelt down beside Snape to check his pulse and breathing. Both were absent. Already, his normally pallid complexion was whitening to the colour of day-old newspaper.

'I really hope you and Ari knew what you were doing,' Sirius muttered to himself as a knot of tension tightened in his stomach. He suddenly felt very alone. He hoped that the aurors Dumbledore had promised him weren't too far away.

He glanced up at the stars again - five minutes late. But that wasn't a problem - it would be more in line with his story anyway. 'Mobilicorpus,' he said, waving his wand over Snape's body. Instantly it floated upright, Snape's head lolling lifelessly on his shoulders.

Sirius left the copse to move back along the path to the house, Snape bobbing along after him like a kite attached to invisible strings. It probably would have been an amusing sight if Sirius hadn't felt as though he'd just swallowed the entire contents of a slop-bucket. The blackness around him grew ever more impenetrable while dull, greyish clouds skittered across the waning moon. Even the stars seemed to feel a certain foreboding and felt no inclination to fight against the mists beginning to drown them as they slowly began to wink out as though a Dementor was approaching, moving stealthily and silently on the night air, touching life and destroying it as it passed.

He closed his eyes and pushed away the image and the feelings that accompanied it. His hands were beginning to shake, his mouth was dry, his stomach felt as though a clawed fist was gripped around it and he wished more than anything that he was back in the cottage with Ariadne and Buckbeak. Even though Snape was with him, even though he knew (hoped) that the Ministry aurors were out there somewhere in the darkness, he felt terribly, desperately alone in the preternatural silence.

The house was in a far worse condition than it had appeared to be from a distance. Most of the windows were broken, moss slicked the steps and veranda, and weeds sprouted from the numerous cracks in the stonework. The wooden doors at the entrance were already partially open and from somewhere beyond leaked the gentle, warm glow of candlelight. Sirius pushed straight through the doors, not wanting to delay the inevitable any longer to give his growing reservations the chance to win over his sensibilities.

Inside the entrance hall, it soon became apparent that the broken windows had been enchanted to keep out the rain just as the church had been. Candles were floating in mid air throughout the hall leading into one of the downstairs rooms off to the right of the broken staircase.

In what appeared to have been, at one time, the study, a fire was burning in the grate. And there they were - the Death Eaters arranged on comfortable chairs in a semi-circular formation around the fire. Lucius Malfoy stood beside the mantle whispering in what seemed to be a somewhat harried manner to Jacob Goyle. They all stopped when they noticed Sirius standing there, watching them.

'Ah, Black…so good of you to decide to grace us with your presence,' Malfoy said, motioning for Goyle to sit back down. 'I was under the impression that you requested the meeting be set for ten, not ten past.'

'You do know, Malfoy, that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, don't you?'

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. 'You would know all about that, I am sure.'

The other Death Eaters chuckled as Malfoy glanced at them, as though they were sharing a joke between themselves. Sirius dearly wished that their laughter hadn't sent such a shiver of foreboding along the length of his spine.

'Now,' Malfoy continued, strolling across the room towards Sirius, his silver-topped cane tapping rhythmically on the floor, 'we are here for a very specific reason tonight. Where is he?'

Sirius moved his wand in a motion as though he were cracking a whip and slowly, Snape's body drifted in from the porchway, moved slowly across the floor and came to rest about a yard or so from Malfoy.

A dull murmur went around the room and a few of the Death Eaters even began to rise from the chairs, but Malfoy waved them quiet.

'He is - '

'Dead,' said Sirius.

Instead of anger, shock or even disappointment drifting over Malfoy's thin, angular face, he smiled. A slow, creeping smile, like blood seeping from a terminal wound.

'Really? And just how did that happen?'

'I overestimated his trust in me. He consented to come here because he believed his sister to be in danger and - '

'And where is Ariadne?'

A very uncomfortable feeling was prickling along Sirius' spine and settling in the pit of his stomach; a bead of perspiration ran over the small of his back.

'We both thought it best that she make herself scarce for a while otherwise there was a risk that someone might have seen her and told Snape that she wasn't in danger at all - for my lie to be believable, he would have to think she was being held by you.'

'That didn't really answer my question now, did it?'

'It was an answer, Malfoy. Whether or not it suited you is your problem.'

'Mmm,' Malfoy smiled. 'Am I to understand that your…lover,' he spat the word as though it were the worst blasphemy he had ever heard in his life, 'will not be attending this meeting?'

Sirius' eyes narrowed in the surge of anger that welled up inside him. 'I've answered you once. Don't make me answer again. I've brought what you wanted, I've done as you asked. I'm not about to waste the entire night explaining how I did it. Snape thought he would try to put one over on me and I was quicker than him. I would do exactly the same to any other idiot who would dare to think that they can get the better of me.'

'And it didn't matter to you that the Dark Lord wanted him questioned first? You didn't think to stun him or otherwise incapacitate him?'

'I'm sure that you would be thinking reasonably too if your life was in danger. I did what I had to do.'

'Yes,' Malfoy drawled, his lip curling in a sick mockery of a smile. He raised his hand and Jacob Goyle rose from his chair and walked towards a linking door to what must have been the dining room. 'And now I must do what I have to.'

Almost on instinct, Sirius slipped his hand beneath his robes to grasp the silver sphere that Dumbledore had given him. He didn't squeeze it just yet, but he felt better to have it in his hand.

When Goyle re-emerged he was dragging with him a young girl. She must have been about fifteen, perhaps sixteen years old - she certainly appeared to be about the same age as Harry, but then Sirius knew that he wasn't the best person to judge. Her long black hair was a stark constrast to her skin, which was as white as milk, although her cheeks were rosy from her struggle with Goyle who was grasping her by the collar of her black leather jacket. Sirius didn't recognise the name of what he was assuming to be a band emblazoned on her t-shirt, and he didn't think he had ever seen a witch wearing jeans that were that tight. As she yelled and kicked at Goyle, demanding to be let go, Sirius couldn't help but notice her thick, dark eye makeup, the silver stud piercing her tongue, the matching silver bars sticking through her ears, an amethyst stud glinting in her nose and a small ring through her lower lip. He wondered if she might have mistaken her face for a pin cushion.

'You bloody arsehole, let me go!' she was screaming now, hitting out at every part of Goyle's anatomy that she could reach. 'I swear to God, I'm going to break your bloody nose if you don't let me go right now!'

Goyle was a huge, strong man, but even he was sweating with the effort of trying to restrain the girl.

Malfoy was laughing as he met them halfway and grabbed the girl's chin, twisting her face upwards to make her look at him.

'Yes, I see it now. So much like your father. And your mother…in more ways than one,' he added with a cruel, knowing laugh that the girl brought to an abrupt end by kicking her desert-booted foot into Malfoy's shin. The smile instantly vanished to be replaced with a sneer as he raised his arm and hit her hard across the face with the back of his hand.

The girl's head snapped to one side with the blow, but she quickly turned back to Malfoy and spat at him. 'You try that again when your goon isn't holding me back, you bloody coward.'

Malfoy began to chuckle again as he wiped his cheek. 'My, my…quite the feisty one, aren't we? It's a wonder he managed to hide you from us for as long as he did.' He pulled his wand out from the end of his walking cane and pointed it straight at the girl. 'Crucio.'

A jet of light shot from the tip of his wand and engulfed the girl. She screamed as she collapsed to the floor, writhing in agony, her eyes screwed tightly closed, her fists balled against the side of her face and her knees drawn up to her chest. Her pitchy, whining screams were unbearable to listen to as Malfoy kept his wand pointed at her, still grinning as though he were a proud parent watching their child in a Christmas play. The other Death Eaters had sat up a little in their armchairs and were watching the scene with equal mixes of excitement and pleasure.

Sirius couldn't believe or understand anything about the display he had just witnessed. Previously frozen by horror as he'd watched Malfoy hit her, he quickly realised that he was the only one in the room who could stop this girl's suffering. His cover be damned; he wasn't about to allow torture to continue. He brought his wand to bear on Malfoy, Snape dropping like a lead weight to the floor as the enchantments holding him steady were broken.

'Stop it, Malfoy!' Sirius screamed. 'What the hell is wrong with you?!'

Malfoy's wand flicked upward to the ceiling and the girl's screams stopped. Instead, she just lay on the floor, twitching and shivering convulsively, her cheeks glistening with tears.

'You sick, twisted, vile excuse for a human being,' said Sirius, shaking with fury. 'A child? Is this how you get your kicks these days? You afraid to try that with an adult because they can fight back?'

But Malfoy just continued to smile infuriatingly as he turned to the other Death Eaters. 'He thinks this is just a Muggle child. He presumed to challenge me, thinking that he knows everything, but actually knows nothing.'

A low hum of laughter emanated from the other Death Eaters and their eyes all seemed to be trained on Sirius as thought they were waiting with barely contained glee for his next ignorant pronouncement.

Sirius somehow knew that he was no longer in control; he doubted he ever had been. He squeezed the silver sphere and felt it begin to quietly vibrate and grow warm in his hand, even through the leather gloves. He kept his wand arm extended straight out in front of him, the wand tip flicking back and forth between Goyle and Malfoy.

'Wake him up, Sirius.'

'I don't know what the hell you're talking about,' Sirius replied, his cold fury lending his voice new strength to be able to carry the lie.

'Snape isn't dead. You and I both know that.'

Sirius turned to Snape's lifeless body, pointed his wand at him and said, 'Avada Kedavra.' A jet of green light shot from the end of his wand and hit Snape in the chest. He didn't move. Sirius turned back to Malfoy. 'Satisfied?'

'You have to mean the curse,' he replied, pointed his own wand at Snape and said, 'Crucio.'

Red light enveloped Snape and remained there for at least half a minute before Malfoy tired of waiting for a reaction and lifted the curse.

'Impressive,' he sneered. 'You don't have the skill necessary to produce this sort of effect, Black, so I can only presume that Dumbledore or Snape himself is responsible for it. One can only wonder, of course, if you would be so happy to plunge a dagger into his heart.'

'Are you suggesting that a Muggle weapon is somehow more effective than magic, Malfoy?'

Malfoy's smirk faded as his gaze flickered to meet those of the other Death Eaters. They stared back at him expectantly.

'Of course not,' Malfoy replied silkily. 'I am merely...disappointed. I had hoped that Snape would be able to enjoy the torture of his Squib daughter as he did his traitorous wife.'

Sirius felt as though he'd just been stabbed by a shard of ice straight through his stomach.

'His…his what?'

The girl had managed to get up onto all fours and was now getting shakily to her feet until Goyle helped her along by pulling her up sharply by her hair. She let out a sharp yelp, but the taste of the Cruciatus curse seemed to have made her reluctant to put up much of a fight again.

'Not pleasant, is it, Erytheia?' said Malfoy to the girl who was dragging the back of her hand across her running nose. 'Perhaps you will show some respect for your betters now.'

The girl said nothing, but she did meet Malfoy's eyes defiantly, her chin held high.

'This man's name is Sirius,' Malfoy told her. 'Sirius Black. He tells me that he has murdered your father, Erytheia. What is left of him, apparently, is that pile of black robes there.'

Erytheia's dark eyes rested briefly on Sirius before travelling down to Snape's prostrate body on the floor. It was difficult to tell who was actually laying there from where the girl was standing - Snape's long hair had fallen across his face.

Utterly dumbstruck, Sirius could do little more than gaze open mouthed as the girl pulled easily away from Goyle now and took the few hesitant steps to where Snape lay. She knelt down, leaned over Snape's body and pushed back his hair from his face.

She gasped, shuddered and fell backwards against the wall when Snape's face was revealed. She let out a heart-rending wail of agony as new tears were born in her eyes.

'Daddy,' she moaned, touching his face. 'No…no, you…you can't be… You wouldn't leave me…'

Suddenly, her gaze flew from Snape's face to Sirius', only now, instead of grief, hatred and anger flared in her huge, tear-filled eyes. She flew at Sirius with every ounce of strength she possessed and a scream that was almost primitive in its demand for blood.

Sirius managed to dodge her, but only just, and he whirled around to face her just as she was coming about to charge at him again.

'Wait!' he yelled, lowering his wand. 'You...you are Severus' daughter?'

'You killed him! You killed my father!' she screamed, tears now streaming down her face. 'You bastard, I'll kill you!'

'Erytheia, please,' Sirius tried again, 'listen to me - '

'What did he ever do to you? You sick bastards…he told me about you, about all of you… I'm going to kill you! Do you hear me? I'll kill you!' She flew for him again and he sidestepped her again, but he wasn't quite as quick as last time and her nails ripped painfully across the side of his face.

'Erytheia, listen to me!' Sirius said desperately, wondering how much longer it would be before the bloody aurors realised that he was in trouble. 'It's…it wasn't like that! If you'll just listen to me for a second - '

Malfoy was almost doubled over with laughter. The other Death Eaters, Narcissa included, were now gathering behind Malfoy.

Erytheia wiped her nose with the back of her hand before reaching into the inside pocket of her jacket. She pulled out something small and shiny, then pressed her finger against the side of it. A five inch blade shot out of the handle.

'He told me that there were people like you. That you'd try to hurt him. Or me. Or Nan and Grampa. That's why I started carrying this,' she said, her voice steadier now. 'Maybe I can't do magic, but I can still use this. I suppose wizards still bleed when you cut them, don't they?' She tried to lunge at Sirius again, but he was far too quick and far too experienced for her to ever be able to cause him any real damage.

'Erytheia, please. I don't want to have to use magic against you, but I will if you don't calm down and listen to me.'

She lunged at him again, her fringe now plastered to her forehead with perspiration, her cheeks glowing with the exertion. Tears were bursting in her eyes again, but they were born from from frustration and anger now as well as grief.

'Impedimenta!' Sirius yelled at her. A burst of light shot from the end of his wand and knocked her off her feet, sending her flying back against the wall. The knife skittered across the floor. She hit the wall harder than Sirius had intended and she looked stunned as she slid to the floor, her eyes rolling back in her head.

The Death Eaters roared with laughter, Narcissa in particular seemed to be enjoying herself. She was wiping tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes.

Sirius rushed to Erytheia's side and crouched down beside her. She was sitting against the wall where she'd fallen, her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around her folded legs.

'Erytheia, I'm sorry,' he whispered, too low for the others to hear. 'Are you alright?'

'Get away from me,' she spat, glaring at Sirius with the deepest loathing in her shimmering eyes. 'You killed my father, you…you filth…you low-life bastard…with your stupid bloody magic…thinking you're so invincible…didn't even have the guts to do it with your hands. You coward. You filthy, disgusting coward.'

'Please,' he kept trying, lowering his voice even further, very aware of the Death Eaters watching him, 'listen to me! He's not dead. It's magic, Erytheia. I'm trying to help your father. I'm trying to help you. Please believe me. I can't do this on my own.'

'That's enough, Black,' Malfoy said, stepping forward with his wand raised. 'I'm bored with you all now. Is Snape is dead, then we may as well send his daughter to meet him. But not before we have a little fun.'

Sirius ignored him, keeping his back to him as he smiled reassuringly at Erytheia. He couldn't say anything more without giving himself away, but he hoped that he had said enough.

Her gaze flickered over Malfoy briefly before returning to Sirius. She just stared at him, probably trying to work out which one of them she hated the most. Sirius understood that she couldn't respond to him even if she was beginning to believe him because she was facing Malfoy, but he was sure he did see something changing slightly in her eyes. Or was it just a desperate hope...?

'I completely agree,' said Sirius, 'though I do have a problem now.'

'Is that so? And just what is the nature of this problem, Black?'

'You have undermined my abilities, Malfoy. Snape's daughter believes I'm a coward for using magic to do a man's job. I'm going to prove to her that a coward is the very last thing that Sirius Black is. I don't need magic. And the Death Eaters no longer need you now that the Dark Lord has me. I'm going to kill you, Malfoy. And I'm going to do it with my bare hands. Give your wand to Narcissa. Unless you are a coward?'

Uncertainty tainted the edge from Malfoy's smile as he glanced across at his wife. She nodded. He turned back to Sirius.

'Very well, Black. You are welcome to try.'

He handed his wand to Narcissa and started to untie the tassel holding his cloak around his shoulders.

Sirius knew that he would be able to use Malfoy's supreme arrogance and pride against him eventually. While Malfoy's back was turned to them, Sirius removed his own cloak and gloves and tossed them on the floor beside Erytheia. Pretending to be taking his time undoing the buttons on his cuffs, rolling back his sleeves and unbuttoning his collar, he lowered his voice to a whisper again and with his lips barely moving, spoke to her.

'In the pocket, Erytheia. The phial. Two drops on his lips. Don't let them see you. Understand?'

She closed her eyes slowly and opened them again. Yes. 'That's my girl,' he said. He smiled warmly and winked at her before turning back to Malfoy, who seemed to be ready now too.

'If one of you interferes with this,' said Malfoy, addressing the Death Eaters, 'I will kill that person and their entire family. Is that clear?'

The group around them nodded, murmuring a low chorus of assent.

Sirius approached Malfoy and extended his hand. 'To the death, Malfoy.'

He accepted the handshake, his eyes never wavering from Sirius' as he smiled. 'To the death.'