With everyone gone, it was eerily quiet. Sirus had spent a lot of time in caves lately, but never in one of this size. It was clear that it wasn't natural, but he couldn't tell what kind of tools had been used to make it.

According to Amethyst, the purple woman he was starting to recognize as a kindred spirit, they were under the forbidden forest. They were outside the Hogwarts wards, although part of the cavern was inside them. Furthermore, there was enough earth and stone over his head to shield him from the senses of the dementors.

They'd left him his wand, a gesture of trust that meant more to him than he could say, even if it wasn't actually his own wand. He'd have to go out of the country to have a new wand made that was attuned to him. Ollivander wasn't likely to overlook the Ministry propaganda.

It was maddening not knowing what was happening up above. There was no proof that his accusations were true, but he hoped that Peter at least faced an inquiry. Hopefully Remus could at least bring up enough questions to get him held.

There was a pool near one wall, where luminescent water dripped from the wall and created a black expanse of water the size of his old room at Hogwarts. According to the boy Steven the water was fresh and good to drink.

The piles of junk scattered here and there had been carefully placed far away from the pool, leaving a gap of at least a hundred feet surrounding it. Most likely they didn't want any of the junk to contaminate the water, so it wouldn't hurt the boy.

Sirius approached the water, thirsty, and as he looked down into its depths he noticed a strange glow. Something seemed to be rising through the waters, glowing with a white glow.

It emerged from the water, and it took Sirius a moment to realize that it was a pearl. It was huge; at least two inches in diameter, and it was glowing with an inner light.

It floated slowly into the air and he took a step backward, reaching for his wand. He didn't want to offend his hosts, but he'd known Hagrid when he was younger, and what that man considered dangerous wasn't at all what the rest of the world did.

His hosts might be similar. He didn't really know them all that well, and while Harry's trust in them was encouraging, he really didn't know Harry. He couldn't simply assume that Harry would be a clone of his father, or even of his mother.

The light within the gem flared and grew into a white glowing silhouette. It flashed through a number of similar shapes before finally settling onto something new.

A woman floated in midair. She was slender and willowy, with pale, cream colored skin. Her features were sharp and clever and she was dressed like a ballerina.

Even in the Wizarding world, a floating ballerina emerging from a gemstone wasn't something one saw everyday.

The pearl was still there, on her forehead.

She simply floated for a long moment before opening her eyes.

They were unnaturally blue, eyes as blue as the sky on a perfect day. They were the kind of eyes a man could vanish into and never emerge from. The fact that her hair was peach pink and rose into a ridiculous style didn't matter in the least.

That it had been twelve years since he'd been around a human looking woman might play into his fascination, but Sirius had to admit that he'd always favored women with blue eyes.

The woman looked ecstatic for a moment, then she blinked. She was falling a moment later, but she spun in mid-air, flipping forwards seemingly in defiance of physics. She landed lightly at the edge of the water and before he could react, she'd pulled a spear from her forehead.

It touched his throat and he held himself carefully still.

"Where are Steven and the others?" she asked.

There was a look of panic on her face as she looked around and didn't see what she'd perhaps expected to see, or rather who.

"I'm not certain who you are talking about," Sirius said. "But this seems to be the residence of a purple woman and her green friend."

"Amethyst," Pearl breathed. She relaxed slightly. "If this is Amethyst's home, what are you doing here?"

"I'm her guest," Sirius replied. "I don't know how she brought me here, but she did so at the behest of my godson and his schoolmates."

"Schoolmates?" the woman asked. "I can't have been gone that long then."

She looked around for the first place, then sniffed. "I should have known this place was Amethyst's. She keeps it like this just to irritate me."

"If you don't mind," Sirus said carefully, "Perhaps you could lower the spear."

"Maybe you should lower your...stick..." the woman said. She sounded confused, as though she had no idea what a wand was. Considering that she's appeared in a blaze of magical light, she couldn't be a muggle.

Sirius carefully slipped his wand back into his pocket and the woman's spear vanished.

"I'd better go find Amethyst," she said. "And I can't just leave you here. I only have your word that you're supposed to be here. For all I know, you could be some kind of a thief."

"I'm no thief, madam," Sirius said. He bristled. Of course, considering that he'd been on the run, with his hair shaggy and wild he probably looked like much worse than a thief.

But if he allowed her to pull him to the surface he'd be captured, then Kissed.

"But I am in hiding. Your Amethyst has offered me sanctuary, and if you reveal my location, I will have m,y soul devoured."

The woman hesitated, then said. "Maybe you'd better tell me a little more."

"If I may, madam," Sirius said. He slowly pulled out his wand, then turning deliberately away from her, he conjured a table and two chairs. They were only temporary constructs, transfigured from detritus nearby, but they'd do.

He glanced back at the woman, who was looking at his wand with a little more respect. "We really do need to talk."

"I hope he's all right," Steven said. "We had to leave him for a long time."

"It couldn't be helped," Amethyst said. "Snape was watching all of us like hawks, me especially. I think he still resents the time I switched his usual hair tonic with that stuff the Weasely Twins made."

"That was pretty funny," Steven admitted. "His hair was pink for three days and it was magicked so it looked normal to him."

"He'd had it out for me since then," Amethyst sighed. "Dude can't take a joke."

"I think he wasn't treated very nice when he was my age," Steven said. "Maybe you should be a little nicer to him."

"If he didn't keep trying to get people's souls sucked out, I might consider it," Amethyst said.

"You think he's OK to be in there with Pearl and Ruby and Sapphire?"

"Dumbledore put the strongest spells on the pool he could think of, and he's got pretty big mojo from what people say," Amethyst said. "Besides, I had Peri put some other traps on it. If he tries to get in, we'll know about it."

"You've added more piles since the summer," Steven said. The piles of junk around him were an ever growing project of Amethyst's.

"I've gotta have something to do when I'm bored," she said. "Besides, I found this room in the castle that's got piles of stuff way bigger than this."

They were both silent for a moment. Neither wanted to admit that they were stalling. Telling Sirius Black that Peter Pettigrew had already spoken to Ministry officials, who had chosen to believe his version of the story wasn't something either one of them wanted to do.

They couldn't simply wait until Harry got back either. He and Hermione and Ron were being watched very carefully.

It might be quite some time before Harry could return here, although at least Dumbledore had managed to push forward the story that Black had been after Pettigrew and not Harry. Pettigrew had been escorted off the premises, and the Dementors had been recalled to Azkaban.

The sound of male laughter rang out, and Steven and Amethyst stared at each other. There had been rumors that Azkaban had driven Sirius Black crazy. Even if he was innocent that didn't mean that the rumors weren't true.

Laughing loudly to oneself wasn't a good sign.

They approached more cautiously, but as they rounded the last pile of junk, Steven stopped.

"Pearl! Pearl!"

Sirius Black and Pearl looked up from a table where to all appearances they seemed to be enjoying a spot of tea. Sirius was sipping his tea while Pearl seemed to be only smelling hers.

Pearl looked up and there was a look of profound relief on her face as she sprang to her feet.

Steven rushed up and hugged her tightly.

"I didn't know how long it had been," Pearl said. She hesitated, then rested her chin on the top of his head and closed her eyes. "I was worried that you might already be grown up."

"It's been three years," Steven said. "It felt like forever."

After a long moment, Pearl pulled away. "What's this I hear about you going to magic school?""

Stephen grinned up at her. "Let me show you what I've learned."