Chapter 26: Void

Ariadne felt Sirius's skin grow cold and the rise and fall of his chest gradually cease. She checked the pulse in his wrist and found that that had stopped too, though her own had accelerated. Holding Sirius's lifeless body in her arms was producing a slew of emotional reactions Ariadne hadn't anticipated. Rationally, she knew that he wasn't really dying and that he would be fine once the effects of the potion wore off. She was also confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that her potion was exactingly and perfectly brewed and would cause him no harm.

Then why did she feel her heart sink and settle into her stomach like a block of lead as she gazed over his closed eyes and touched his stiff, icy hands?

Ariadne didn't have much time to ponder her feelings, however, because she felt the thin tip of a wand pressing against her throat. Florian bent down to whisper into her ear. "Yaxley and Clarice have a message they would like me to pass on to you. You are to consider yourself very lucky to have escaped the Forbidden Forest unharmed. What happened to your friend Potter is just a small taste of the suffering you will all face if you attempt to interfere with us again. If you have even a fraction of the intelligence of your cousin, you will not cross Yaxley and his followers again."

He jabbed his wand a bit more firmly into her windpipe. "Tell the blood traitor." He released her and turned away.

Naturally, Ariadne wasn't going to let anyone threaten her and get away without consequences. "Expelliarmus!" Florian's wand flew out of his hand, hit the dungeon wall and clattered to the floor. He lunged for it and grabbed it in time to block her next spell. They traded curses with Florian still crouching on the floor. But his less-than-advantageous position gave Ariadne an edge. She hit him in his wand arm and he dropped his wand again, wincing in pain. Ariadne advanced on him with her wand pointed. "You can take a message back to Yaxley and your backstabbing girlfriend. You're not messing with ordinary Hogwarts kids. I just created a potion that would convince a fully-qualified witch or wizard that you're dead, and I'm capable of so much more. We're not intimidated by you." She was tempted to hex him again, but instead gestured with her wand that he should leave. Florian scrambled up and fled down the corridor.

Ariadne pocketed her wand and sat beside Sirius again to wait out the remainder of the half-hour that he would be, for all intents and purposes, dead. Snape lay on the floor in a similar state behind her. She supposed she could take up Florian's role and check his vital signs to ensure that his Draught of Living Death had worked as intended, but she doubted that he would trust her word. Besides, she had little desire to touch Snape's cold, pale body, whereas the sight of Sirius's seemed to have trapped her in place. She didn't want to turn her back on him for even a moment. Despite the absence of color in his cheeks, he somehow still looked handsome, with his shaggy black hair fanned out gracefully on the floor and his sharp cheekbones like carved marble. Ariadne had always been unable to get past his arrogant attitude to see the attractiveness everyone talked about, but since getting to know Sirius properly, she could no longer deny her attraction to him, even to herself. She thought about his easy carelessness when discussing advanced magic, his flushed, disheveled face at the end of their duel, the way his voice would get husky and low when he asked her to trust him. Or the proximity of his face when she coached him on dueling, and the intensity of his gaze that night in these very same dungeons…

Lost in her thoughts, Ariadne barely noticed when Sirius began stirring and signs of life returned to his body. She grabbed the flask of Regenerating Serum in her pocket, which would help speed up his recovery. She gently elevated his head onto her lap so he would be able to drink. His eyes fluttered and he murmured, barely audible, "You're almost criminally beautiful, Morrigan."

"What?" Ariadne almost dropped the flask. Sirius just smiled at her hazily. Waking up from a deathlike coma could be confusing and people were known to say bizarre things in the recovery period. At least, that's what Ariadne told herself. She unstoppered the flask and held it up to his lips. "Drink this, it will help you regain sensation and movement faster."

Sirius took a few sips and soon was able to begin flexing his hands and sitting up straighter. Meanwhile, Ariadne remembered that an immobilized Severus Snape should be coming to life behind her. She walked over to his still-lifeless form. There was absolutely no way that Snape's Draught lasted longer than hers. She had analyzed and researched the working of this potion more thoroughly than she believed any Hogwarts student ever had. Sirius, now able to stand, had gotten up and followed her.

She bent down to feel his pulse. It was beating, and his skin was warm. "He's faking," she said with disgust. Sirius kicked him in the side. "Get up, git."

Snape woke with a massive scowl. "Where's Clarke? He's supposed to attest to the efficacy of my brew."

"Your little friend threatened me and then ran off when I beat him in a duel," Ariadne informed him.

"What?" Sirius seemed alarmed by this revelation. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ariadne, what happened? Are you okay?"

"Black, I'm fine. He's an even more pathetic duelist than he is Chaser."

"I should have been there to help you."

"You were flat on the floor in a self-induced magical coma."

Sirius tilted his head to acknowledge the validity of this point.

"Anyway, I'll tell you more about it later. Snape, our contest is void. Your 'impartial arbiter' tried to hex me and you've been pretending to be in a coma for who knows how long. I'd leave with whatever scrap of pride you have left."

Snape got up and scowled at her again. "I don't need to prove my superiority to a Gryffindor prefect who's only half-witch and a vagabond who's been kicked out of a wizarding family." He skulked away with his robes flapping behind him.

"Pleasant, that one," said Sirius, looking after Snape with distaste. "Now, what exactly happened while I was out?"

"Let's go somewhere else to talk it over. You should be getting some rest, as well, after what you just took."