Winton Granger watched his wife and daughter open their gifts. They seemed perfectly happy and content – thoughts of vengeful wizards clearly banished from their minds. He wasn't nearly so complacent.

He'd watched the spectacle at Gringotts with a sense of unreality and horror. When first introduced to the wizarding world he had been enthralled and quite charmed – even if some of the occupants were intimidating. The possibility of being in danger from wizards at that time had seemed remote. Now, after watching his daughter apologize to Lucius Malfoy in such a seemingly demeaning way and knowing that if she had not done so, that Lucius would have been free to challenge him to a duel … and possibly kill him had shattered his image of a happy, carefree world of magic.

He shifted in irritation and managed to smile at Hermione who was waving a bookshe'd recieved about kneazles from Ginny Weasley. He'd struggled with the whole humiliation of having Lucius Malfoy glance at him dismissively during that wretched scene – obviously viewing him as no threat whatsoever. It had hit him hard that in the wizarding world his daughter was his protector, not the other way around.

Madeline had sensed his thoughts and spoken to him – reminding him that to try and separate Hermione from the magical world against her will would be disastrous – and if they tried to make her chose between the two worlds she would eventually resent them. He sighed and tried to force the feeling of utter uselessness away.

He glanced at the cat that was staring at him with its too-knowing eyes. Even the cat wasn't quite 'normal'.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Sirius finally picked up the last article of climbing gear he thought he would need. He'd resorted to the muggle stores. He'd accio'd some pound notes out of some muggle's pockets and fumbled during payment a bit – he blamed it on 'leaving his glasses at home and not seeing the notes clearly'.

A charming smile and a slightly batty look in his eyes completed the picture of a harmless nut case. He apparated with the bundle to his cave and looked at the small calendar stuck to the wall. It was Christmas and he'd not gotten Harry anything. Of course he wasn't sure how he would manage to get a present to his godson … or if Harry would even accept it.

He'd read the latest articles in the Prophet – there had been an ongoing debate in the editor's column about how 'The Boy Who Lived' had nearly been killed during Quidditch, and whether children should be playing such a dangerous game. Of course most protested that of course they should – there were injuries, yes, but there had only been two fatalities in the centuries it had been played at the school. There had been more deaths than that in the Care of Magical Creatures classes over the centuries. The debate dragged on over almost three pages and bewildered Sirius. There were people who didn't like Quidditch? … impossible.

This, of course, took him back mentally to schooldays with James. He remembered how much James had loved flying … and how much Snape had resented it. Bloody git probably won't replace the broom that had been destroyed – forcing poor Harry to use a ratty old school broom – or quit the team altogether.

Sirius frowned – Snivellus would even have the support of at least part of wizarding society. Sirius apparated back to DiagonAllry and wandered to Gringotts, trying to look inconspicuous. The goblins, of course only cared that a drop of blood proved he was Sirius Black, and therefore entitled to enter the vault belonging to him.

The goblin identifying Sirius frowned and thought hard as he took Sirius to his vault. He could not bar the wizard … but Heather Black was now executor of the Black family … they could notify her of his entry into a Black vault even if the wizard had a right to be there.

Sirius went straight to the Quidditch supply store with a goblin ghosting behind him. He pulled a ski – type cap down over his head, and a scarf wound around his neck covering the lower part of his face. The Quidditch store was about to close – they'd only opened briefly with one unlucky staff member on Christmas to catch desperate last minute shoppers.

Sirius looked around and spied the very latest in fast brooms – the Firebolts. The store only had one; a promotional model to show customers what would be available 'soon'. The astonished clerk sold the model at double the price – he'd thought jacking the price would put the wizard off. The clerk figured the owner wouldn't mind having to send for another, considering how much the man had paid.

Sirius raced to the Owl Post Office with a mystified goblin trailing him. Sirius rented the fastest looking large owl he could find, paying for extra spells to make the owl even faster and placed a feather-lite charm on the package. He whispered the destination to the irritated owl and watched it leave with satisfaction.

The goblin went back and reported to the group of supervisors who were debating whether to interfere in any way with wizards. However the news that Harry Potter … and therefore Tom Riddle, not to mention Lucius Malfoy were involved - they decided that a brief letter to Heather Black – the acting executor of the Ancient Noble House of Black - was not too much to ask.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Lucius and Severus had already left to 'do their time' as Hogwarts guardians and Remus was not expected until the next day when the household heard of the girls disappearing in a chase after a unicorn foal.

This left Rosmerta, Petunia and Tom to find the girls along with Dudley. Harry and Draco were to stay – Harry was walking better, but a lengthy distance was still difficult. Draco would have to help him call Hugo or Yuan or recall Lucius and Severus if they could not find the girls quickly.

"I'll send my bear patronus with a message if we need you to send for more help." Dudley said. Tom nodded - he would send his own cheetah to Yuan for dragonriders, as well, if necessary.

The four were now entering the woods and they needed to persuade a reluctant Seti to assist them.

"We need you to find the girls, Seti … Beth and Tori … they're lost." Dudley asked him in desperate tones.

Seti looked at him in shock. Find the girls? Was he mad? Yes, he'd gone after Draco … but that was different – it hadn't involved being cold or wet. He yowled unhappily at Dudley while Rosmerta and Tom clenched their wands and tried to remember that hexing the cat wouldn't make it do what they wished.

"Please, Seti …" Petunia asked. Seti was their best bet to find them quickly and with the growing cold and falling snow – they needed to find them. The dragons couldn't see well through the thick cover of trees and the wind and snow were making the tracking charms next to useless.

Seti looked at Petunia in irritation. Blasted woman was going to weep on him, he could just tell. He turned and minced down the trail, shaking his paws every few steps. Still, he thought, the sooner he found those awful children, the sooner he could get back to that wonderful fireplace.

He quickly set off at a trot, as soon as he thought of that, his humans jogging to keep up with him. The trail was soon quite cold and Seti sat on his haunches in irritation. He would need help with this, though he was reluctant to call in favors and perhaps end up owing a favor or two. He drew on his admittedly limited amount of magic and called once more.

Tom stared at the cat, Seti was calling again. This was quite different though, and had a distinctly earth magical feel to it. Magical cats, being creatures of the ground, of course would have earth magic and the cat was apparently calling on another with the same type of magic.

The cat's ears twitched in aggravation. Yes, those he was calling were hibernating at present, but it was rude to so ignore him – he simply would not have it. He was a temple cat! A few more imperious and rather impatient calls and finally several Dryads peeked out from the surrounding trees to glare sleepily at the demanding cat.

He meowed a question at them and they looked at each other quizzically. Dryads were not particularly motherly, but they were a part of earth magic and that was most definitely a motherly magic. Lost children were disturbing to it. They had no wish to disturb the magic that fed them, especially during winter. They whispered their question to the trees and a slight breeze blew up, carrying their request through the forest.

Air magic was willing to cooperate with trees – they played together often and sometimes fought as well, but the air was willing to assist with this. Not much time passed before a whispering zephyr returned. The waiting witches and wizards could almost make out words, but they could not quite understand them.

Seti twitched his ears, pretending to not be impatiently waiting for the Dryads answer. At last the Dryads turned to them with slightly mocking smiles. They all pointed the same direction, one softly whispering. "The unicorns have them."

Seti bounded forward once again, now knowing what - and where he was seeking. He darted down a trail and they soon entered a small clearing. An angry snort halted Seti. A rather large and irritated male unicorn rolled an eye and laced back his ears. Seti's fur puffed out in furious response to this and he leaped for the relative safety of Dudley's arms.

The witches could see the girls curled up at the side of a unicorn mare that was lying down. The mare's troublemaking foal was curled up beside the girls, head resting in Beth's lap. The girls were napping happily, surrounded by bemused unicorns. Young and totally innocent females tended to charm them, and they were happy to protect the obviously lost girls.

The unicorns now faced the 'rescuers' with a jaundiced eye. Two were males – one of them might be young and untainted – but he was carrying a feline, and they hated felines with a passion. Cats were born with shadows already on them – understanding both black and white, living in the grey areas with no regrets. The innate purity of the unicorns abhorred this.

The other male made the unicorns stamp in agitation – very little of him was not shadowed or dark – or at least had been dark in the recent past. The women pushed forward, Rosmerta whispering that they had the best chance of passing through the protective herd.

Petunia shook off the awe she was feeling – Tori needed her. Rosmerta had seen unicorns before but her own awe was only slightly less than Petunia's. They walked slowly forward and the unicorns parted before them, reluctant to be touched. The women were not dark, but they were also not maidens. The foal scrambled up, and the mare rose as well, awakening the girls.

The sleepy girls were lifted up into the women's arms, and carried away followed by Dudley who had Seti glaring balefully over his shoulder at those bloody stuck-up unicorns. Tom left slowly with a lot of long looks at the beautiful beasts. Unicorns had always fled his presence. They still did not allow him to approach, but at least they had not run at the very sight of him.

Dudley's bear arrived ahead of them, growling out the news that the troublemaking girls were found. Healer Randall was firecalled by Harry and he flooed to Dragonsrest just as the rescue party reached the front door. Hot bathes and a few potions soon fixed them both up. The adventurers were soon asleep in Beth's bed, Christmas kittens curled up beside them.

Harry, Draco and Dudley also settled into bed. The harried adults downed some spiked tea before firecalling Severus and Lucius to give them a somewhat edited account of the girl's adventure before getting rest as well.

Once the humans were upstairs Seti gleefully edged a crystal unicorn off a shelf to smash to the floor before settling into a smug sleep as well.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Remus arrived to Dragonsrest early the next morning, to find only Tom and Harry were awake - sitting at the dining room table and listening to the row between Seti and Tinker.

"You should not be breaking mistress 'merta's things … you's a bad kitty." Tinker ranted. "I's not fetching you any salmon!"

Seti hissed in aggravation. He'd rescued the brats … he deserved the treat.

"I is knowing you found the young mistresses … but you should not be smashing the unicorn." Tinker retorted crossly, uncertain as to whether one balanced the other out.

Seti yowled his fury … spitting some rather feline swear words at the elf who responded with an offended squawk. "I's a good elf! You can't talks to me that way!"

Tom snickered, but Harry had heard enough. "Let him have the salmon, Tinker, he'll give us no rest until he has it, and I'm sure we can replace the unicorn."

"What was that all about?" Remus asked with a laugh. Tom explained the rescue mission and the unicorn herd's snubbing of the outraged Mau cat, and the subsequent demise of the crystal unicorn.

The rest of the sleepy household made their way downstairs and ate, and then the Spinners End family left for home. Rosmerta sighed and got ready to go to the pub. Beth pleaded to be allowed to go with her, and since it was likely to be a slow day she agreed. Beth followed Rosmerta into the floo, dragging the kneazle kitten with her. This left Tom and Harry to entertain Remus.

Harry and Remus happily gossiped about the students they both knew, smirked and snickered over the Hufflepuff House's – and therefore the twins – latest pranks and predicting who their next targets would be.

Tom mostly sat back and listened. He was quite relieved that the werewolf had turned around and was now supportive of Harry and Severus' father / son relationship. Lunch arrived and they were just finishing up when a post owl arrived, hooting loudly for them to get the large package off him. Remus complied with a laugh and read the label on the package that was obviously a broom.

"Well, someone has sent you another broom … but you already got a new Shooting Star – the number nine, if I recall." Remus smiled. Severus had muttered loudly about how much the broom had been, as Lucius had talked the company into selling them the first models of this updated version of the Shooting Star to be given to Draco and Harry as Christmas gifts - they were considered the very best chaser brooms.

Remus and Harry lay the broom on the dining room table and Harry unwrapped it, curious as to who would send him a broom. They gaped in astonishment at the sight of one of the brooms considered to be the fastest in the world – the Firebolt.

Tom went to the front door while they stared reverently – there was furious pounding and shouting. Jennifer 'the Juggernaut' Lovelace was there, and Heather Black and Oliver Wood could be seen running frantically toward the house close behind her. Jennifer's flaming red curls were spilling wildly around and she stared past Tom with somewhat wild eyes.

"Don't let Harry touch it!" She shouted, racing to the table when she caught sight of the Firebolt. "It's likely cursed – Sirius Black sent it." Jennifer was used to shouting over stadiums full of people and across an entire Quidditch pitch. Yvane grumbled that likely everyone on the Dragon Reserve had heard the young woman. Nonetheless Harry pulled back from the broom in dismay.

Heather panted up to the door, mentally conceding that although she worked outside constantly with the unicorns, Jennifer was in better running shape than her. Perhaps she needed to ask for her cousin's workout schedule. She wordlessly handed the warning letter from the goblins to Tom, knowing it would explain everything.

Tom went to the floo and called Hugo, who came over immediately – with a couple of visiting great – grandchildren in tow. They chattered happily with Harry and Remus and asked for Jennifer's autograph while Tom and Hugo inspected the Firebolt.

Heather Black flooed to Hogwarts with Oliver – they had visited her home for boxing day together 'to introduce Oliver to her mother'. It had been a lucky break that she had been there, along with Jennifer, when the letter had arrived. She found Severus and Lucius in the Great Hall and told them what had happened.

Severus flooed to Dragonsrest, just as Hugo was leaving to take the Firebolt to the ministry. "I can't find any curses on it … but I'd rather have some friends check it as well." Hugo said.

"He doesn't have to actually curse it you know …." Severus retorted. At everyone's questioning look, he rolled his eyes. "… you can dismantle, or tamper with the braking system … make the stabilizers for turning not work right … disable the spells making hovering possible … the things you can fiddle with to make a broom dangerous are endless, and on a very fast racing broom like this one – any of them could easily be fatal" He smirked as Hugo looked at the broom with more concern.

"We might need the company that made the broom look at it as well …" Tom sighed.

There was a mournful groan from Harry, and Jennifer patted his shoulder in total sympathy. "It is a marvelous broom, Harry. But only if it doesn't kill you, you know." Harry nodded in unhappy resignation.

"I know …" Harry sighed, almost in pain at seeing the broom leave with Hugo. "… but it's a Firebolt …"

Severus rolled his eyes. "Harry – the Firebolt is fast – but I'm willing to bet your Osprey form is almost as fast. Have you shown Remus … or Miss Lovelace your Osprey form?"

Harry brightened at the thought of showing off in front of his Quidditch idol and started dragging the pair out to the yard. Severus flooed back to Hogwarts, satisfied that Harry was safe from Black's latest attempt on his life.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Voldemort hovered around the Crouch residence. He had taken to residing in an abandoned barn much of the time, going out once a week to find a wandering witch or wizard to kill and feed from. Feeding from humans felt much better than from animals or from Nagini's venom. He felt as if he was resuming a more human form that way.

Crouch Senior had arrived for the holidays – about the same time Voldemort had finally tracked down the residence. He had seen the house-elf – and one of his more favored Death Eaters – Barty Crouch Jr.

He merely needed to wait for the elder wizard to leave again and he would be able to garner a helper in his plans.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Sirius snarled unhappily, pulling himself back up out of the crevice. He knew this led into the Chamber – he was sure of it. Finding his way into the Chamber however … he kept going into dead ends, or ending in areas too small to squeeze through. He would get tantalizing glimpses of a cavern that he was sure was part of the Chamber, but not be able to get through. He just needed to find the right part.

The children had been back in school for weeks and he was not even in the Chamber yet. He threw the rope down another shaft and wriggled through, hoping this one would go all the way through. Something had to go right for him soon … the broom he'd sent had been confiscated – the Prophet had been full of how he'd tried to kill Harry by sending a Firebolt that likely was tampered with or cursed.

Somehow it had never occurred to him that Harry wouldn't get right on the broom. James would never have let Snivellus – or anyone else – keep him from something like the fastest broom in the world. Old Sniv must have a tighter hold on poor Harry than he'd thought.

Sirius' legs were suddenly kicking out over thin air and he almost slid over the edge of a long drop. He managed to cling to the rope and look down, but the light didn't go very far and he couldn't tell where the drop ended. He cast a ball of light downward and it finally ended in a small cavern with a passage at one end – his heart lifted – the passage looked man-made.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Harry knocked on his dad's office door, clutching a map in his hands, the twins both trying to hide behind him – rather unsuccessfully. He'd been thrilled to find something made by the marauders – and therefore his father, but less thrilled to realize they could have used this months ago to try and trap Sirius Black.

"Enter." Severus barked. It was halfway through March and he was still grading appallingly bad essays, in his opinion.

Harry sighed and went in, trailed by the twins who looked like they were facing execution. Harry handed over the map, explaining how it was used and that the twins had given it to him to help with the hunt.

"It didn't occur to us until recently that you could use it to protect Harry." Fred said earnestly. "We only use it now and then, ourselves, anymore. So we just didn't think of it." George nodded emphatically and prayed that if Snape killed them that the end would be quick.

Severus narrowed his eyes and them and gave them one of his best glares. The twins paled and quivered, but no further confessions occurred, so Severus figured they were in earnest. The twins tended to own up to things easily enough when caught, taking their well-earned punishments in stride. If they said they just hadn't thought of the map as something needed to hunt Sirius, they likely meant it.

Severus nodded, "I have a stack of cauldrons needing to be cleaned." At the twin's look of dismay he relented. "It's a short stack, and you can use the magical cleaner – but do them now." Fred and George scurried off before Snape could change his mind.

Severus waved Harry to come with him and they walked to Remus' office together, while Severus continued to examine the map. He reluctantly admitted it was a brilliant piece of work. They showed it to Lupin. He recognized it of course. Lucius was brought in and the three decided to take turns watching the map for signs of Black.

"Can I have it when you're done?" Harry asked a bit desperately. The adults turned to him in surprise. Severus suddenly remembered - the map was made by James ... Harry of course would want it.

Severus nodded, "Of course, Harry, once we have Black in custody and you are safe …" Remus looked at Severus in surprise, Remus hadn't expected him to give over the map. "… like the cloak, I expect you to not use it to cause trouble."

Harry nodded in relief, surprising Remus yet again. He reminded himself that Harry was not James, James lived to break rules. Harry broke rules when necessity demanded it.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Sirius peeked up yet another shaft leading from the labyrinth and shot a ball of light up it, hoping it was the way out. It had been weeks, now. Thank Merlin he'd pack all his food supplies. The book had made it sound so easy … but it had taken a week for him to find his way to the chamber with the presumed head of Salazar and pool of water. He'd thought he was home, free, then.

Sirius sighed; he was rotten at figuring out mazes. Several times he'd had to morph back into Padfoot and track his own scent back to the chamber. He had finally thought to mark the passages with a paint charm and had made a crude map, hoping to at least know where he'd already been. He'd studied the book describing the chamber and Harry's adventure – but he'd found no cave-in. They must have cleared it.

Sirius had found a couple of shed basilisk skins that the teachers had missed and his heart had skipped a beat or two … it was just so big. He had renewed respect for Harry and this Tom that had killed the snake … but then, Tom was a Gryffindor, maybe he could help Sirius draw Harry out from that Slytherin nest he was in.

Sirius watched the ball of light go up yet another tunnel and he gasped in delight. This one didn't end in a small rocky crevice or a barred over end – they had all been obvious air vents. This one continued up and had what looked like a hatch. But how to get up the slick stones?

He looked closely at the walls, shining as bright a light as he could with the grudgingly cooperative wand. At last he could make out a recessed ladder and tapped it with the wand, demanding that it come out. There was a lot of creaking and groaning as the ladder emerged from the side. Sirius grabbed the ladder and drew himself up rung by rung, holding the lit wand between his teeth.

At the top he was faced with the challenge of getting the hatch to open. He tried every unlocking and opening spell he could think of. He was about to go back down and think of more when he grabbed an iron bar for balance and it pulled down – almost dumping him down the tunnel. It had apparently been a lever to open the hatch; Sirius smirked triumphantly as the hatch opened. He crawled out to find himself in the second floor girl's bathroom.

Sirius cast a tempus spell, it was about four in the morning – he should have time before the castle really awakened. He would get his hands on that rat, exonerate himself and get Harry back. He grinned happily and looked at the list of passwords he had. He'd overheard some first years complaining about the mad knight that was their door guardian, now. Luckily he cycled the passwords, so it was always one of about eight different words. Sirius had grabbed the list gleefully. No more shouting and threatening fat ladies.

He left his pack in the bathroom and crept along the corridor carefully. There were a few people about – mostly the Auror trainees that were trying to protect the students from him. He still managed to get to the tower unseen, but it was now almost five – he looked out the window and saw with a pang that it was a full moon.

Sirius stood in front of the knight in the portrait and rattled off the list of passwords and was let in with a jaunty salute by the knight. He crept up the stairs to the boy's dorm, carefully. He could hear some early bird in the showers already. It was still dark, for Merlin's sake – what were they thinking?

He found the third years, and pulled out his knife – Wormtail would not get away this time. He silently entered the room, looking around – the only light was from the small fire in the heater in the center of the room. He found Ron's bed and looked for the rat's cage – he had to be there, somewhere.

Seti yawned and stretched. Dudley was already in the shower. He was not usually such and early riser, but many of the students were complaining of cabin fever. Spring could not come soon enough, they felt. He heard someone re-enter the room and lazily looked over, expecting to find Dudley coming in.

He tensed at the sight of the man coming in, obviously searching for something – he remembered Black. Seti cringed a bit at the knife the man held – the killer was in earnest, this time. Seti stalked behind Black and leaped to the top of a dresser and then higher into a mantle. To his horror, he heard the shower stop – Dudley would be entering soon.

The killer gave a bark of triumph as he opened the rat's cage, confusing Seti. Yes, Seti wanted the rat dead, too, but why was Black after him? The rat squealed loudly as Black grabbed him, pulling him out of the cage. This woke Ron, who froze with horror and then started yelling. Dudley could then be heard running back to the dorm.

Seti could wait no longer and stuck, leaping onto Black's shoulders and reintroducing Black to the Mau cat's best war cry. The rat was dropped and immediately scurried out the dorm and down to the common room, where he was set upon by the Burmese and kneazle cats, who chased him on out the door.

Black shouted and grabbed at the cat, dancing around in agitation. Dean and Seamus joined the fray, yelling and shooting off hexes. Seamus sent a jelly-legs that missed Black by inches, but struck Ron squarely, dropping him to the floor. Black pulled the cat off and threw him at the nearest wall, stunning Seti. Dudley cried out in horror and clutched the cat to his chest.

Dean sent a diffindo at Black, hitting him in the chest, and then pulled the covers over his head, horrified at having drawn Black's attention, sure that he would be the killer's next victim. But Black was only interested in the fact that Peter had escaped. With the cat off him he popped into his dog form and ran swiftly into the hallway, following the scent of the rat.

Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z~Z

Severus took the Wolfsbane potion to Remus just before supper, just as he did before each full moon. With his assistants taking care of the first and second year classes, Severus had time to make large batches of the potion – sending vats full of it to the werewolf community. He was teaching a couple of werewolves how to brew it themselves, hoping to be relieved of the duty sometime in the future.

Severus watched him down the steaming goblet with a grimace and fight back some gagging.

"Wow, that was a particularly vile batch, Severus." Remus said with an apology in his voice. He was reluctant to complain about wolfsbane he was getting for free while teaching.

"You were hoping for muscle relaxant to be incorporated, to ease the transformation – the seaweed that had to be added to neutralize the poison that combination would create unfortunately makes the taste a bit worse – though I hadn't expected that would be possible." Severus answered, smothering an unsympathetic smirk.

Remus rolled his eyes, but nodded. Severus was trying to improve the formulation, but the going was rather slow. The formula was already very complicated – changing it even slightly was hazardous. "I'll let you know of any changes I feel." Remus said quietly, earning a nod from Severus.

"I'm glad the weather is breaking a little." Remus added. "I can go out to the shrieking shack again. Being locked up in my office every full moon the last three months was really suffocating."

Severus just nodded in response as he left. He didn't mind being a bit more friendly – or perhaps he was merely less hostile – but chummy conversations, especially during the full moon were beyond him. He was inevitably reminded that Lupin had a werewolf carefully hidden beneath the surface.

Severus went to his office after supper, keeping an eye on the map after Lucius dropped it off. There had been no activity from Black so far, though Lucius had once laughingly said he'd thought he'd seen Peter Pettigrew's name once.

"There's more than one Peter in every House in Hogwarts, and there is a Robin Pettigrew in Ravenclaw. With the names overlapping each other many times – it's hard to tell who you are seeing at times." Severus had answered.

Remus and Severus usually took turns on night shifts with the map. It was agreed that nights were the most likely time for Black to make another attempt. Remus had been too kind to target miscreants with the map – Severus had no such compunction, though he avoided busting Hufflepuffs – especially the twins – who were obviously on missions to prank deserving targets.

Severus downed a pepper-up about three AM and strolled along the gallery overlooking the grounds – a faint light came from the distant shack – now that he kept his mind during the change, Remus liked to have a lantern with him. Lucius had offered to show him a charm for a book to turn pages by itself so he could read while he waited for the moon to set. In spite of the mocking tone Remus had cheerfully thanked him and asked for the incantation, which totally spoiled the joke for Lucius.

Severus chuckled at the memory. Not everyone appreciated a Slytherin's caustic and sarcastic form of humor. Minerva always ground her teeth when Lucius or Severus had a go at Lupin. Lupin, though, always laughed or tossed back a remark that would ruin their joke. Severus suspected that Lucius and his own efforts were actually amusing to Lupin. Albus would watch with a bemused look, but seemed to finally be getting used to it all.

He wound his way down toward to Great Hall. The students were becoming restless – the weather had been poor enough that going outside was unpleasant. Cabin fever was rampant and even Harry and Draco – who lived to sleep in whenever possible, were getting up extremely early.

The Aurors and Auror apprentices were starting to make an appearance, as well as early bird students. Severus reluctantly took a seat at the head table, with a yawning Tom, who was downing some tea that Severus suspected was spiked with pepper-up.

"Joining Dora in a few minutes – she's got an early patrol …" Tom said uncomfortably – feeling the need to explain the use of a potion so early in the day.

Severus smirked and dumped a pepper-up in his own coffee, making Tom laugh.

Draco and Harry dragged out of bed, still feeling tired, but unable to sleep any longer even if it was still very early and they knew it was still dark outside. They dragged up toward the Great Hall and heard a loud commotion. They could see Pavarti's Burmese and Ginny's kneazle chasing a rat.

Draco huffed – Ron's rat was in trouble again. They went forward to rescue it when they saw it was being cornered when to their shock Scabbers popped into a small, scruffy man and ran out the front door.

"What the hell…?" Harry muttered and raced by the baffled felines with Draco hot on his heels.

The raced close behind the scruffy man and out onto the grounds when a large black dog raced by them. He'd almost caught the man when he popped back into a rat and scurried into a crevice in the wall by the gates. The dog morphed into a rather ragged looking man that they realized was Sirius Black.

Black promptly threw a tantrum, screaming that Peter had better show himself, immediately. Black threw hexes and curses at the wall, trying to force the rat out. Draco started to edge away, while Harry pulled out his wand, gathering his magic to fling a very highly powered incarcerous at Black.

Remus had scented the nearby Black in his werewolf form – he could smell black clearly … and someone else familiar … Peter? But how could that be? He had hesitated only a moment and decided to risk meeting the Aurors and their apprentices. The sun would rise soon. He hoped he wouldn't get caught out on the grounds in only his rather thin skin after transforming back. He raced toward the scents, hearing shouts and spells.

Severus glanced over at the map as he downed the last of his coffee and choked. He could see a set of footprints labeled Sirius Black seemingly chasing after the names Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, out onto the castle grounds, headed for the gates. Severus leaped over the tables while drawing his wand, making the few people there gape in astonishment at seeing the cool, controlled Professor Snape do that.

Tom grabbed the map and sucked in a horrified breath, following Severus to the front doors. The corridor was rapidly filling with hysterical Gryffindors who were shouting that Black had attacked the dorms, wildly claiming that there had been horrible injuries and even … maybe … a death.

Tom grimly sent his patronus to Dora while Severus shouted at the students to get in the Great Hall or back to the dorms, and then raced to the doors. Tom drew his wand and followed. They could see Draco and Harry confronting Black – shouting at each other. Harry flinging accusations and Black ranting about Peter Pettigrew. Remus was between them, trying to edge Harry away from Black and snarling whenever Black tried to get closer.

Severus briefly thought that he'd never have believed he would be relieved to see Remus in his werewolf form at any time in his life.

Tom saw Dora racing toward them from the other side of the greenhouses. Her eyes flew open wide at the sight of the face – off between Harry and Black. Black suddenly seemed to notice he was quickly being surrounded and started running for the gates. Severus cursed, he was too far away to intercept him.

Dora, however simply wasn't going to let Black slip by her. He'd gotten away one too many times. She quickly popped into her cheetah form and charged after him. All the watching wizards could see was a spotted blur with fiercely intent yellow eyes. She downed him just feet away from the gates, and clamped her jaws around his throat – the threat implicit in her eyes. One false move and she could crush his throat. He would drown in his own blood before anyone could heal him – if they even cared to try.

Sirius held very still until Severus finally reached their side, followed by a triumphant Harry, Draco and Tom … and a hostile werewolf.

Severus grabbed the wand Sirius was holding and leveled his own square between Sirius' eyes. "Miss Dora, drop that thing immediately … Merlin only knows where it's been." Severus sneered hatefully at his old enemy and cast stupefy and incarcerous.

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