Harry read Sirius's letter, which told them where to meet him in Hogsmeade, at two-oh-clock on Saturday, and asked them to bring food and Astra. Harry then put it in his pocket, conflicted about his excitement to see Sirius and his fear of Sirius getting caught.

When Heather excused herself to go to the bathroom, Harry passed the note to Ron.

Ron read it, and then passed it to Hermione. "He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" he asked.

"It looks like it, doesn't it, doesn't it?" said Hermione, passing the note to Astra.

"I can't believe him," said Harry," said Harry. "If he's caught …"

"Made it so far, though, hasn't he?" said Ron. "And it's not like the place is swarming with Dementors anymore."

"He seems strangely unconcerned about people getting caught," Hermione said. "He even wants us to sneak a first year into Hogsmead."

"My mother wouldn't want me to go anyway?" Astra said.

"You're going to ask your mother's permission to sneak out?" Ron said, in shock.

"I meant to meet," she paused, realizing that she shouldn't say his name in public, "that guy she hates."

Harry had to suppress a laugh, with the way she referred to Sirius.

"Why would you need her permission for that?" Ron asked. "Does she even know you're friends with us?"

"Yeah," Astra said.

"Really, then why did you not want to use Hedwig because she might be reconised as Harry's?"

"My dad doesn't know. He doesn't need another reason to hate me."

"Well, just don't tell your mother," Ron said.

"You don't have to," Harry said, as Heather came back, ""but he did ask for you to come."

Astra, Starbeam, Hermione, Crookshanks, Ron, and Harry showed up in the kitchens. The four humans had one bag each. "Is it alright if we each fill up a bag of food?" Harry asked.

"Yes sir," said Dobby.

They filled up their bags with bread, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, a bottle of milk, and some cooked meat.

They all thanked the house-elves, closed up their bags so people couldn't see what was in them. Astra covered herself and and Starbeam with Harry's invisibility cloak (She didn't want to use hers because she didn't was only supposed to use it on full moon nights, and she didn't want to add to the list of bad things she was doing.), and they were off

When they reached their destination, they saw the big black dog, with a newspaper in his mouth. He greeted them by wagging his tail and sniffing Harry, Hermione and Ron's bags. He soon took off, and they followed him.

They followed Sirius up a frustratingly steep mountain, into a cave.

There was a Hippogriff, at the end of the cave. Harry, Ron and Hermione bowed low to him. Astra looked at the Hippogriff in fear. She hoped that this wasn't the hippogriff who had apparently attacked her brother for no reason, was sentenced to death, and then went missing, but she suspect it was.

Astra took off the cloak, set her bag down with everyone else's, and then noticed that Hermione was now petting the Hippogriff.

Sirius turned into his human form. He smiled at everyone, and then he looked toward Astra. "You must be Astra," he said.

Astra nodded.

"It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," she said, nervously.

Harry crouched down and opened up a bag.

"Thanks!" Sirius said. He sat down, grabbed a chicken drumstick, and bit into it. "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmead, I'd draw attention to myself."

"What are you doing here, Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather, and possibly also to my only Gryffindor relative," Sirius said, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very dog-like way. "Don't worry about me. I'm pretending to be a lovable stray."

He was still grinning, but he saw that everyone else was anxious. "I want to be on the spot." He looked at Harry. "Your last letter … well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."

He nodded at the yellowing daily prophets on the cave floor, and Ron picked them up and unfolded them.

Astra and Harry continued to stare at Sirius. "What if they catch you?" Harry asked. "What if you're seen?"

"You guys and Dumbledore are the only ones round here who know I'm an animagus," said Sirius, shrugging and continuing to devour his chicken leg."

Ron nudged Harry, and passed him the two daily prophets. Astra glanced over his shoulder, and saw the headline Mystery Illness of Bartemius Crouch, the second, Ministry Witch Still Missing - Ministry of Magic Now Personally Involved.

Harry looked down at one of the articles. "They're making it sound like he's dying," said Harry. "But he can't be ill if he managed to get up here …"

"My brother's Crouch's personal assistant," Ron said. "He said Crouch has been suffering from overwork, and finding out about his son's escape, which he says he had nothing to do with, on top of that didn't help."

"Mind you, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close. The night my name came out of the Goblet …"

"Getting his comeuppance for sacking Winky, isn't he?" said Hermione, colding. She was storking Buckbeak, who was now chewing up Sirius's chicken bones. "I bet he wishes he hadn't done it now - bet he feels the difference now she's not there to look after him."

"True," Astra said, looking nervously at Hermione, "but he could always just ask her to come back to him and work for him again. She'd love that. If he can't find her he can just buy a new house elf."

Ron looked at Astra. "Not everyone can afford to just buy a new house-elf."

Sirius looked interested. "Crouch sacked his house-elf?"

"Yeah, at the Quidditch World Cup," said Harry, who then started telling him all about the Dark Mark, and Winky.

When Harry finished, Sirius was on his feet again, pacing back and forth. "Let me get this straight, you first saw the elf at the top box. She was saving Crouch a seat, right?"

"Right," said Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"But Crouch doesn't turn up for the match?"

"No," said Harry. "I think he said he'd been too busy."

Sirius paced around the cave, in silence. Then he said, "Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the top box?"

"Erm …" Harry thought hard. "No," he said, finally. "I didn't need to use it before we got into the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was there were my Omnioculars." He stared at Sirius. "Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand?"

"It's possible," said Sirius.

"Winky didn't steal the wand!" said Hermione.

"No one said she did," said Astra.

"The elf wasn't the only one in the box," said Sirius, his brow furrowed as he continued to pace. "Who else was sitting behind you?"

"Loads of people," said Harry. "Some Bulgarian ministers … Cornelius Fudge, the Malfoy's …."

"The Malfoy's!" said Ron suddenly, so loudly that his voice echoed all the way around the cave, and Buckbeak tossed his head nervously. "I bet it was Lucious Malfoy!"

Astra cringed, while Starbeam rubbed up against her legs.

"No offense, Astra. I'm sure you had nothing to do with it."

Astra sat down, so Starbeam could crawl into her lap. Ron and Hermione each sat down on either side of her. Harry and Sirius soon sat down too.

Eventually, Sirius continued the conversation. "Anyone else?" he asked.

"No one," said Harry.

"Yes, there was, there was Ludo Bagman," Hermione reminded him.

"Oh, yeah …"

"I don't know anything about Bagman, except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," said Sirius. "What's he like?"

"He's OK," said Harry. "He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament."

"Does he now?" said Sirius, frowning more deeply. "I wonder why he'd do that?"

"Says he's taken a liking to me," said Harry.

"Hmm," said Sirius, looking thoughtful.

"We saw him in the forest, just before the Dark Mark appeared," Hermione told Sirius. She looked toward Ron and Harry. "Remember?"

"Yeah, but he didn't stay in the forest, did he?" said Ron. "The moment we told him about the riot, he went off to the camp-site."

"Come off it," said Ron, incredulously. "Are you saying you reckon Ludo Bagman conjured the Dark Mark?"

"It's more likely he did it than Winky," said Hermione.

"When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered, what did Crouch do?"

"Went to look in the bushes," said Harry, "but there wasn't anyone else there."

"Of course," Sirius muttered, "of course he'd want to put it on anyone but his own elf … and then he sacked her?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "He sacked her, just because she didn't stay in the tent and let herself get trampled -"

"Hermione, will you give it a rest with the elf!" said Ron.

But Sirius shook his head and said, "She's got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."

"I agree with Hermione, but at the same time, people can treat their inferiors however rottenly they want too," Astra said. "It's horrible, but that's the way it is."

"Where did you get that from, your horrible parents?" Ron asked.

Astra looked at Ron in horror. "How dare you say that," she yelled. "I have the best mother in the world!"

"I'm sorry," Ron said. "I shouldn't have said that."

There was a moment of silence.

"I noticed you didn't defend your father," Sirius said.

Astra looked down, unsure of how to respond to that.

"Astra once claimed her father hates her," Ron said.

"My parents both hated me," Sirius said, "but at least I have friends, and I was never a death eater or a pure-blood supremacist like my parents."

"My mother was never a death eater, and she's not a pure-blood supremacist anymore."

"She's not," Sirius exclaimed, "that's surprising."

"Why is it surprising?" Astra asked, angerly. "She's a great person."

"Astra," Hermione said, "it's sweet that you defend your mother, but maybe you guys should drop this."

There was a moment of silence again. "Could this have anything to do with Barty Crouch Jr.?" Harry asked.

"He wouldn't be helping his son. Ever since he got arrested, he's hated the boy," Sirius said. He paused, and looked at Ron. "You say your brother's Crouch's personal assistant? Any chance you could ask him if he's seen Crouch lately?"

"I can try," said Ron, doubtfully. "Better not make it sound like I reckon Crouch is up to anything dudgy though. Percy loves Crouch."

"And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads of Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," said Sirius, gesturing to the second Daily Prophet.

"Bagman told me they hadn't," said Harry.

"Yes, he's quoted in the article in there," said Sirius. "Blustering on about how Bertha's memory is. Well, maybe she's changed since I knew her, but the Bertha I knew wasn't forgetful at all - quite the reverse. She was a bit dim, but she had an excellent memory for gossip. I can see her being a bit of a liability at the ministry of magic … maybe that's why Bagman didn't bother to look for her for so long …"

"Maybe's she's not interested in gossip anymore. People can change a lot," Astra said.

Sirius sighed. "Maybe. I don't know. What's the time?" he asked.

"It's half past three," Hermione said.

"You'd better get back to school," Sirius said. "Now, listen … he looked particularly hard at Harry - "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts - unless it's like another field trip day or something - it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"No one's tried to attack me so far, except for a dragon and a couple of Grindylows."

But Sirius scowled at him. "I don't care …. I'll breathe freely when this tournament's over, and that's not until June."