Blood Ties
Part 9
Rating, summary and such are same as before.
Note 1: Thank you Joahn for beta reading the story! Can't do it without you! ;p
Note 2: Thanks for all the reviews and stuff. I'll try updating it as soon as possible! Promise:)
"Sleeping bags?" Dawn narrowed her eyes as she halted at the doorway of the Great Hall with Willow and Draco next to her, her eyes staring at the lines of sleeping bags lying on the floor.
Willow frowned, scanning around the crowds of students from other houses, and found some similar confusion looks on their faces. Her eyes moved towards the other end of the hall where the Gryffindors were, and found most of them had this look - this unknown fear on their faces.
"May I have your attention please." Professor Dumbledore voice silenced the whispers in between the students. "The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle." He said. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here."
"What!" Draco shouted. "You want me to spend a night here with them!" He pointed at the groups of students from Gryffindor.
"Don't be such a baby, Malfoy." Dawn rolled her eyes.
"No one asked for your option, Rosier." Draco snorted.
The headmaster either didn't hear Draco comment or simply chose to ignore him. "I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I'm leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge." He continued. "Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately. Send word with one of the ghosts." He pointed at the portraits on the wall before making his way towards the exit.
"Everyone!" Percy shouted from behind the headmaster. "Come on now! Into your sleeping bags. No more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"
"Stupid Pushy Weasley." Dawn rumbled, and moved towards one of the sleeping bags.
Willow giggled. "Buffy uses the same nickname on Percy Weasley."
"Oh please." Dawn rolled her eyes. "Dummy Summers? I'm surprised she even understood the word 'pushy'." She looked around. "Do you know what's going on?"
"Don't know." Willow frowned. "But whatever it is, it is bad. Really bad."
"Do you think Black's still in the castle?" Hermione whispered, lying in the sleeping bag in between Buffy and Ron.
"Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be." Ron whispered back.
"It's very lucky he picked tonight though." Buffy plugged in. "Everyone was in the Great Hall for the feast. If he chose another night..."
"I reckon he'd lost track of time, being on the run." Ron said. "Didn't realize that it was Halloween. Otherwise he'd have burst in here."
"I wish he had." Xander snorted darkly. "I've been dying to meet him."
Buffy turned and looked at Xander who was lying at the other side. "Xander, you-"
"No more talking." Percy hissed, effectively silencing the gang.
Buffy narrowed her eyes at him as he moved away, and rumbled, "Pushy Weasley."
Harry shook his head slightly, before closing his eyes. "Good night, guys."
Couple of hours later, Harry opened his eyes when he heard light footsteps moving nearby. "Any sign of him?" He heard the headmaster asked.
"No." Another voice, who he recognized as Professor Giles answered. "I take there are no signs of him in other parts of the castle." Paused. "What should we do about the hole?" Harry quickly closed his eyes as he heard the footsteps getting closer.
"I've already found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole." Professor Dumbledore answered.
"Fat Lady?"
"She is still very distressed. Once she's calmed down, I'll have Mr. Filch restore her. In the mean time, Sir Cadogan will be guarding the portrait hole."
"I see." Professor Giles said. "I will search around the ground floor again. Just in case."
"Thank you."
Harry slowly opened one of his eyes, and found the headmaster had his back facing him, standing there. He quickly closed his eyes again when another set of footsteps approached. "Headmaster?" The young wizard frowned as he recognized the voice as Professor Snape. "The whole third floor has been searched. He is not there. Filch has done the dungeons. Nothing's there either."
"Very well." Professor Dumbledore said. "I didn't really expect Black to linger."
Harry could practically hear the potions master giving the headmaster one of his sharp nods. "Remarkable, don't you think? To enter the Hogwarts castle completely undetected."
"It is."
"Do you have any theory as to how he managed, Professor?"
"Many, Severus. Each of them as unlikely as the next."
"You may recall, prior the start of term that I had expressed concerns about your appointment towards Professor-"
"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Sirius Black to enter it." The headmaster cut him off. "And once I'm convinced that the castle is safe, I'm more than willing to send the students back to their houses."
"What about Potter? Should he be warned?"
"Perhaps." Harry listened as he felt himself being pulled towards the dreamland again. "But for now, let him sleep." Paused. "In dreams, we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let him swim into the deepest ocean, or climb over the highest cloud..."
Willow continued walking down the dark path. She couldn't remember how long she had been walking, or where she was going, but she knew the answer was on the other side of the endless road... had to be on the other side of the road.
"So close, yet so far away..."
The redhead stopped and turned around, and found her staring at herself - her own image in a full-length mirror. Mirror-Willow smiled, and Willow frowned when she noticed instead of green eyes, there were a pair of black eyes staring back at her. "What are you talking about?"
"You know." Mirror-Willow cocked her head. "You're me, after all."
"Still don't know what you're talking about." Willow turned away. "I need to go."
"The answer is not there. The answer is here." Willow slowly turned back towards the mirror. "Always has been."
"Where?"
Mirror-Willow smiled. She held up her figure and pointed at Willow. Willow blinked, her eyes staring at the figure tip - more specifically, the small wound on it. Blood oozed out from the small opening and dropped onto the floor. "Remember..."
"You're late for class!"
"CLASS!" Willow head shot up, hitting something extremely hard on the forehead, before landing back, and hitting something hard (again) on the back. "Oww..."
"Ouch!"
Willow turned around when she heard a familiar voice nearby. "D-Dawn?" She blinked, one hand rubbing her forehead and another rubbing the back of her head.
"Yeah. It's me." Dawn said, rubbing her forehead. "Remind me not to lean over you next time. Your head is like a rock!"
"Sorry." Willow said. Suddenly, she jumped up. "CLASS!"
"Calm down, will ya? You're not late. We still got like two hours before the first class. The headmaster said we can go back to our dorm now."
"W-what?" Willow blinked dumbly. "Oh." She looked around, and found herself standing in the middle of the Great Hall with a pile of sleeping bags around her. "Oh!" The memory of last night finally hit the redhead. "Right."
"You are such a dork, you know that?" Dawn smiled.
"You love me anyway." Willow smiled.
"Yeah yeah." Dawn waved her hand a little before taking the redhead's arm and started pulling her out of the hall. "C'mon. The sooner we leave, the sooner they clean up the place and start breakfast."
Willow followed her friend towards the exit, her mind half wondering about the dream she just had.
The students from third year Gryffindor and Slytherin were now sitting in the classroom, waiting for Professor Lupin's arrival for their Defense Against the Dark Art class. "Where's Hermione?" Buffy frowned and asked when she failed to locate her friend.
"Maybe she overslept?" Xander provided.
"And pull a Xander on us? Don't think so."
"What?" Xander pouted.
Harry giggled. Suddenly, the door at the back of the classroom swing opened. Harry turned, half excepting Professor Lupin to walk through the door, only to find that it was Professor Snape who was matching into the classroom.
The potions master held up his wand and pointed at the windows, magically closing all the curtains in the room, blocking any natural light from the window. "Turn to page 394." He called, standing at the front of the room.
The students stared at each other for a moment, before opening their text books. Professor Snape slowly made his way down the aisle, his dark eyes scanning around the classroom. "Excuse me sir." Harry asked softly when the professor walk passed him. "Where's Professor Lupin?"
"It's not really your concern, is it Potter? Let's just say your professor found himself incapable of teaching at the present time." The potions master said, raising an eyebrow at Harry. "Turn to page 394."
The professor pointed his wand towards Xander who was turning the pages of his textbook lazily, and instantly, the book flipped itself to page 394. "Werewolves?" Xander blinked at the words shouting out from the book.
"But sir!" Hermione protested.
Ron jumped a bit when he suddenly found Hermione sitting in between himself and Harry. The redhead immediately turned towards Xander who was sitting on the other side. "How did she get here?"
Hermione ignored Ron's confusion and continued. "We're not supposed to do werewolves yet! We're due to start hinkypunks-"
"Quiet." Professor Snape ordered, ignoring the young witch's protest.
"How did she do it?" Ron asked again, looking at Xander and turned towards Hermione and then back to Xander. "Did you see her come in?" Xander sent Ron a similar confused look that had also painted over Buffy's face.
"Now, which one of you can tell me about the difference between an Animagus and a werewolf?" Hermione's hand immediately shot into the air, so was Willow's. "Only two? How disappointing." He said, but didn't explain further.
"Please, sir." Hermione said. "Animagus is a wizard who can turn into an animal. A werewolf has no choice. When it is full moon it will transform and no longer remember who he is. Furthermore a werewolf would response to snouts of its own kind."
Draco let out a long wolf snout, and smirked. Everyone in the Slytherin house laughed.
"Thank you Mr. Malfoy." Professor Snape sent a glare at Draco before turning towards Hermione. "It's the second time you have spoken out of turn, Ms. Granger. Are you incapable of restricting yourself or do you take pride in being insufferable know-it-all?" Hermione's face immediately turned crimson.
"He's got a point, ya know?" Ron whispered to Xander.
"Five points from Gryffindor." Professor Snape narrowed his eyes at Ron before turning away. "You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on ways you recognize and kill werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment-" Every student in the room growled. "-and I want them by Monday morning."
"Monday morning?" Buffy's eyes widened.
"But sir!" Harry said. "There's a Quidditch match tomorrow!"
The potions master moved towards Harry and bent down, staring at him. "Then I suggest you to take extra care, Mr. Potter. Loss of limb will not be excused." He said in a low dangerous voice. "Page 394."
"Page 394." Buffy mocked as she made her way down towards the Great Hall with her friends. "Who does he think he is?"
"Our professor?" Xander asked, and received a glance from Buffy. "How are we going to finish the essay by Monday?"
"You pick up a quill and start writing?" Buffy snorted. "I hope Professor Lupin is coming back soon. I don't know how much I could take from Snappy. I mean, it's bad enough to have him for Potions-"
"Of course you'll have him for Potions. He is the only Potions professor in Hogwarts." Hermione pointed out.
Buffy rolled her eyes as she continued. "-plus a DADA class?"
"I'm sure he will come back in no time." Harry said, trying to ensure the blond witch.
"I hope so."