Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!
Once again, the chapter is shorter than usual, but with the end-of-semester exams upon me, I really have troubles with both time and inspiration to write something as big as the chapters of this story used to be even a couple of months ago... But fear not, once I'm done with those exams, both the quality and the quantity are more than likely to be back.

* Review response:
Naginator, Danget the critic, reven228, The Swordslinger, ChaosTheVoid, god of all, ElementalMaster16, nobother, Nanashi113, The Sinful, Auctor, Penny is wise, OverPowered, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Vukk, no, Gamp indeed was to marry Draconica.
Dericof Diname, plums, I've replied you via PM.
Peeves' best friend, magical fan18, Impstar, sorry. All out of mercy. All of that went to keep Amelia as good and living character in "Antifreeze fox" (I have a plot all up to the end of the latest fight with Novas, but no time to write it down)
Zorobak, 'cause I plotted it so.
Jeremyjet, it HAS purpose.

* Poll: Looks like Sirius WILL live in this story, but if you disagree with this, you still have a chance to get what you want. You still have 1 more chapters to decide the fate of the last male Black.

* Author's Note: Remus fans, can you find it in yourselves to forgive me?
Also, this chapter is more or less an interlude, before the final action of Harry's third year begins...

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter is not beta-read yet.

chapter 48: Black letter

Sirius Black, of course in his animagus from, exited the cave where he was living at the moment and headed down to the Hogsmeade village to steal something for breakfast and, maybe, a copy of the 'Daily Prophet' to stay in touch with what was going on in the wizarding world... But as soon as the only Azkaban escapee in history saw the rising sun, he stopped dead on his track: the sunrise was crimson.

'This night some blood was spilled.' Sirius thought as he watched the reddish sun appear above the horizon. While normally he could care less about omens like this, today, for some reason, he knew that it was true. And also he had a feeling that someone whom he knew well had perished... Some minutes later the grimm animagus finally tore his gaze from the rising sun and looked at the majestic castle of Hogwarts that he could see from there. 'I hope that Harry is alright and safe from that rat.' Shaking his head, Sirius assured himself that Peter wouldn't dare anything that went too far with Dumbledore around, so his godson was safe. And with this positive thought occupying his mind, he continued on his way down to the village to steal some food to last another day...

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Meanwhile, for the Hogwarts students this Sunday morning began like any other weekend day would... A little before nine in the morning Harry, along with his housemates that were already up by then went to the Great hall for some breakfast... Everything was more or less more or less like it always was, or it was so until the owl post arrived: among the multitude of various owls that flew into the Great hall one certain owl stood out. It was a regal eagle owl with Gringotts' coat of arms on its 'jacket', and this eagle owl was carrying a letter in a black envelope.

While Harry couldn't say that he knew all of the peculiar things about the magical society he now was a part of, he still knew quite a few of those, but he couldn't remember anything that could give him a hint to what the black color of the envelope meant... Elbowing Neville slightly to get the boy's attention, the young Potter nodded towards the Gringotts' messenger, which was now circling above the Slytherin table as it was looking for the recipient of its missive, silently asking his friend to tell him the meaning of the black envelope... After a second or two of looking at the Gringotts' eagle owl, the Longbottom heir finally gave his answer.

"Yes, Harry, these are very rare, so I'm not really surprised that you don't know what they mean. It the first time for me to see one too, but Gran explained their meaning to me before my first year. Gringotts sends black letters to the clients that are eleven or older, whose family member or someone they were contracted to has died recently." Neville explained. A couple of seconds later Harry nodded slowly, just as the eagle owl, having found the recipient of the letter it was carrying, landed in front of Draconica.

Having being raised in the pure-blood household, Draconica knew the meaning of a letter in a black envelope so, when an eagle owl carrying one landed in front of her, the blond witch got scared that something had happened to her family. Sure, her father was generally cold towards her, but he still was her father, and she never wished anything bad to happen to him. And had something happened to her dear mom... Draconica wasn't sure she'd be able to carry on...

Discretely looking down the Slytherin table, the blond witch was afraid to see that her brother got a similar letter, but there was none so she allowed herself a little sigh of a relief: if Basilius got no black letter, then her family was safe and sound. And if nothing had happened to her family, then there could only be one reason why she would be getting such letter... Carefully opening the letter, the blond witch read it, confirming her guess:

Dear miss Malfoy,

It is our sad duty to inform you that Frederick Maximilian Gamp, in marriage contract with whom you were in, was confirmed dead at 01:45 am on this Sunday, March 27, 1994. The Gringotts bank in my face offers you our deepest condolences for your loss.

We also are to inform you that due to the nature of the marriage contract you were in and as there are no known members of the Most Noble house Gamp still alive, the contract is considered null and void starting with the moment the death of Mr. Gamp was officially confirmed.

Also, in accordance with the treaty of 1467 we are to inform you that you should contact the Inheritance and Wills Department of the Gringotts bank at your earliest convenience for the private reading of the late Mr. Gamp's will.

Sincerely yours,

The head of the Contract Department of the Gringotts bank,

Bendblade III.

So, it looked like her contracted one had kicked the bucket, Draconica thought with a sigh. And knowing that man, it also happened while he was doing something both dark and more than likely illegal... And since the blond witch never really formed any emotional attachment to late Mr. Gamp, she just couldn't make herself care much about his death as a standalone event. Sure, she will be making an appearance of a mourning bride-to-be for the required thirteen weeks, but that was it...

The ramifications of the contract being broken this way, on the other hand, was something that she did care about. Sure, per the pure-blood traditions, she was safe from being married away for the next seven months, but after that... Her father will marry her away, and now that her reputation of an upstanding young lady was irreparably damaged by the fact that the previous man she was contracted to died, even if she herself really had absolutely nothing to do with that, her bride price was much lower now and so there was a chance that she'd be married away into some even less pleasant family line.

And this definitely was something that Draconica wanted to avoid. Especially when her freedom and her happiness were so close – maybe that was the first streaks of her teenage rebelliousness, but the blond witch wasn't about to let the future she herself wanted be destroyed by her lord without her putting up a fight. Still, at the moment there was little she could, but she had seven months to think of something, before the things will start going downhill... Shaking her head, she neatly folded the letter and put it into the inner pocket of her robes, before returning to her meal.

Of course, the arrival of the Gringotts owl carrying a letter in a black envelope didn't go unnoticed by other members of the house Slytherin, though most stopped thinking much about it when they saw that they weren't the recipients of the said black letter. The Greengrass sisters and Tracey, being 'Nica's friends, weren't among those 'most', though they too preferred studying their friend's reaction to the letter to offering their condolences right away. And this turned out to be a right decision as it didn't look like Draconica was upset much by the contents of that letter... Sure, the three witches still would offer her their condolences, but mostly because the pure-blood customs required them to. Is there any real point of doing so to someone, who didn't care much that death herself?

Harry, once he had learned the meaning of the black letters from Neville, too decided that he should offer 'Nica his condolences and his support too, should she require it. So, once he finished his meal, he left the Great hall, stopping just outside its massive doors and waited there for his Slytherin friend... He actually didn't have to wait for long as several minutes later Draconica emerged from the Great hall, accompanied by Daphne, Tracey and a little 'ball' of endless energy that was Astoria.

"Harry?" The Malfoy witch asked, cocking her head to the side slightly in a silent question if why he was there waiting for her. The rest of the girls kept silent, understanding that it was their friend who was the reason for the young Potter being there... Harry took a deep breath, while still trying to bring the words for what he wanted to say together, but, for some reason, his brain wasn't cooperating well at the moment, so he ad to settle for something most simple:

"My condolences." The green-eyed wizard said after several long moments of being silent.

"Thank you, Harry." Draconica replied politely with a nod, yet also in a way that told him that there was no real need for those... Harry, though, already understood this as he could see that the contents of that black letter didn't cause her to be in the low spirits much.

So, nodding to her something along the lines of 'be safe' to which 'Nica responded with a similar nod of her own, the young Potter was on his way back to the Gryffindor tower... He was already just a corridor away from where the entrance to the common room was, when a thought occurred to him: for some reason in the recent days Draconica was calling him by his first name more and more often, even when they were in public. And, if he was to be honest with himself, he liked this.

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Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a patient man – the positions of power he held in the magical world required him to be as patient as one can be – but he was still getting worried. Remus was supposed to send his report on the progress in searching for Sirius Black's trail with the owl post this morning, but the said report still hadn't arrived, even if it was late afternoon already.

Sure, while the timely delivered and accurate information was vital in many things, but it wasn't the lack of the information that was making the Hogwarts headmaster worried. No, the lack of the report itself was – as far as Dumbledore could remember, Remus never failed to turn his reports, be they some mere school essays or war-time intelligence of greatest importance, in in a timely fashion if he could help it... Something must have happened, and the ancient wizard hoped that the reason for this delay was as simple as the the man needing more time than usual to recover form his latest transformation.

But somewhere in the depths of Dumbledore's mind a dark thought existed, and this thought was telling the Hogwarts headmaster that the things weren't as perfect as he wanted them to be. Unfortunately, the keen eye for details, such as the arrival of the black letter this morning and the rather impassive reaction that Ms. Malfoy had to it, was in agreement with that thought. It looked like the young Mr. Gamp found an opponent he couldn't take on during his latest (and also his last one) werewolf hunt. And while Dumbledore was really hoping that his fears were baseless and Remus was alright, so far the evidence he had at his hands was only pointing towards the worst...

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The next morning started rather weirdly for Harry as he received a missive from Gringotts' Department of Inheritance and Wills. And this letter said that he was one of the major inheritors to some man named Remus Lupin whom he had never even heard of. Still, from how this missive was worded, the young lord Potter could see that it would be for the better if at very least his trusted representative would be there for the will reading – he just wasn't sure that he wanted to attend the will reading of the person he had never met in person...

After some thinking he decided that he could ask Violet to be at the will reading in his place, especially since she was by far better versed in the magical law than he was and could deal with pretty much any legal problems that could arise.

Meanwhile, at the professors' table Albus Dumbledore was doing his best to keep his kind and jolly grandfatherly mask on, while on the inside he felt really sad that his worst fears about Remus' fate turned into truth. If goblins said that someone was dead, then they true and that person indeed was no longer among the living... Sure, Remus died while doing his best to make the wizarding Britain a better and safer place, but the ancient wizard held no illusions about his student dying with a smile on his face. If anything, he was surprised that the werewolf didn't place some curse on him with his last breath for being sent on this mission... Still, Dumbledore reminded himself, he needed to do his best to keep the Hogwarts students from seeing him distraught like he truly was: it would be highly detrimental to their learning, and raising the new and better generation of witches and wizards was the most important mission of his life.

Beside Dumbledore, his long time colleague and his successor as the deputy and transfiguration professor, Minerva McGonnagal too was having a similar problem as Remus Lupin had been one of her favorite students, even if she always did her best not to play favorites. And she too knew that for the sake of her current students, she should keep her emotions bottled inside, but not being as gifted in the mind arts as Dumbledore was, she wasn't doing just as well...

Down the professors' table one Severus Snape too was deep in his thoughts. Sure, he didn't see eye to eye with Remus Lupin, but the now late werewolf still had a shred of the Potion Master's respect. For knowing when he needed to stop, even if he was too soft to make the other three Marauders listen to him, and for doing his best to succeed despite the hardships his status of a werewolf brought with it... And this death caused Severus to think of his own life: he was a survivor, he was a double agent, who really was working only for his own gain, but... was he not risking too much with acting like he did, now that the war that almost torn magical Britain to pieces had finished a decade ago? No, the Hogwarts Potions Master told himself as he shook his head. The Dark Lord will return one day, for he was not yet dead, and until Voldemort was either no more or the king of the world, the only thing that he could do was to continue playing this dangerous game he was by now so used to...

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Several miles away from the Hogwarts castle, in a cave that was hidden among the mountains that surrounded the Hogsmeade village, an eagle owl landing next to him had scared the death out of one Sirius Black. For the moment the only Azkaban escapee in history feared that he had been finally discovered, but seeing the Gringotts crest on the jacked the eagle owl had, he allowed himself to relax a bit: goblins, as long as he didn't brake any of the human-goblin treaties, didn't really care about his status among the other humans, so he was safe for now. Still, the very reason the goblins felt they needed to contact him made Sirius worry. But the grimm animagus still made himself open and read the letter the eagle owl brought to him...

And once he finished reading the letter, Sirius just crumpled it and threw in the darkest and deepest corner of the cave he was staying it. Everything to get it out of his sight and out of his mind for he just couldn't make himself believe that now he was the last true Marauder and that Mooney had died. Even if goblins were never wrong about things like this. No, it couldn't be happening, he tried to assure himself as tears began falling out of his eyes...

The regal eagle owl that Gringotts used to deliver this letter gave the pitiful human one last look before taking off and heading back to its owlry in London as its mission there was done.

That's all, folks!
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