Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

"Maybe we don´t want it, then," said Harry.

The merveelas looked indignant. "Hrrmph," the leftmost one said, and pointed at the stairs. "Those will take you back to the castle," she said, sniffing haughtily. "And good luck to you both — you´ll need it."

With that, she disappeared beneath the water, swiftly followed by her companion. With a disquieted glance back, Hermione took Harryś hand, and together they ascended the stairs, which vanished upward into darkness.

* * * * *

"Okay, but about how many of you are there?" Lupin asked, reaching absently for a Hippogriff Crunchie, then shuddering and putting it down. "I mean, how many in the Snake Lordś army in total? It would really help with strategy planning to have an idea of the numbers."

"Well," the chief of the werewolves (whose name had turned out to be Peter Whitstone, and who in his normal life was an accountant who currently lived in Ipswich and who had been bitten by a werewolf when he was sixteen) replied, munching a jellybean, "thereś us werewolves, and then thereś about two hundred dementors, the veelas, maybe a hundred trolls, a few banshees, the Gentlemen, some Oggrings and some Skolks."

"Oggrings?" Lupin was astonished. "Skolks? But they don´t exist!

They´re mythical!"

Peter looked at him in surprise. "They are not."

The DADA teacher in Lupin was extremely interested. The resistance fighter in him was mildly horrified. "Oggrings are shape-changers," he said, thoughtfully. "I haven´t heard of a Skolk since…"

"They´re living skeletons," said a pretty female werewolf on his right who had introduced herself earlier as Isabel. "They´re very hard to kill."

Most of the werewolves had taken a passing interest in Lupin after his arrival and semi-adoption by Pete, and had come up to say hello and snag a jellybean. Isabel was the only one besides Pete who had stayed. The others were now engaged in an involved game of hackeysack in the corner. Lupin couldn´t believe how harmless they all seemed. So this is the vicious pack of beasts I´ve stayed away from all my life. I am deeply ashamed.

"Thereś no such thing," snapped Lupin.

"You seem tense, my friend. I think itś time," Pete announced, "for a little relaxation."

Lupin raised an eyebrow. "Relaxation? All we do is relax."

But Pete and Isabel were not to be dissuaded. The pretty werewolf girl clapped her hands. "Fetch pipes, fetch drums, fetch musical instruments made from the shoulder blades of a pig and the stomach-lining of a water-vole, we´re going to get down to some really bad sounds!"

The other werewolves scurried to do her bidding. Lupin, who was familiar with werewolf rock from the Time-Warlock series Sirius had ordered for his last birthday, and knew it involved a lot of howling noises, and so moaned and held his head. "Look, we have work to do, we have — "

The door opened then, and Sirius came through it, followed by a very pale, very thin Fleur Delacour in a long white dress. Lupin was so shocked that for a moment he barely reacted. Then he saw Pete get to his feet, reaching for the wand he had tossed at Lupin when he first came in, and he reached out and caught it out of Peteś hand. "Let me," he said roughly, and walked quickly over to where Sirius and Fleur were standing. Blocking the pair of them from the view of the rest of the room, he muttered "Fleur, catch this," and tossed the wand towards them. Fleur caught it out of the air, and Lupin stepped back. "They pass," he called over his shoulder, and saw Pete, who hadn´t really been paying attention, nod and wave.

Lupin turned back to Sirius, reached out, and clasped his hand hard.

"You´re all right? And Harry?"

Sirius filled him in quickly on the events of the day, while Lupin stared in amazement. He looked over briefly at Fleur when her part in events was mentioned, but she was staring firmly away, her eyes filled with tears. He decided not to ask her anything.

"So we´re going to meet them outside," said Sirius finally. "I just came back to fetch you. Although it looks like you´re doing all right for yourself. And I think that werewolf over there fancies you."

Lupin was taken aback. "What? Pete?"

Sirius grinned. "No, the pretty one in the blue."

Lupin rolled his eyes. "And even in the midst of a truly bleak situation, you´re trying to find me a date. Touching, it is."

Sirius grinned again; Fleur scowled. Then she said, "It might not be so easy as you think."

"To get Lupin a date?" said Sirius. "Being a bit hard on the poor man, aren´t you? Heś not that unappealing."

"No, to get out of the castle," said Fleur, flushing a little across the tops of her ivory-pale cheekbones. "There are very few exits and those are 'eavily guarded. What we need is a map."

"We?" said Sirius lightly, trying not to give the word too much emphasis.

Fleur looked down. "I would like to come with you, if you would 'ave me."

"Of course you can; we can use your assistance in getting out of the castle," said Lupin, touched by how unhappy she seemed. There was also a slight gnawing anxiety at his heart when he remembered talking to her about her desire to get her hands on a source of power. Perhaps if he´d been a bit more helpful, she wouldn´t have taken it quite so far. But that line of thought was profitless… "We have maps here," he added quickly, gesturing back towards the table where Pete and Isabel were standing, looking at some sort of chart.

"How do you know that the other werewolves won´t turn on us?"

Sirius hissed in a whisper as they made their way back towards the table. "Aren´t they in thrall to the Dark Lord?"

"I put Will-Strengthening Potion in the Every Flavour Beans," said Lupin, under his breath. "They don´t know it yet."

Sirius grinned. Lupin was visited with a sudden idea. He looked over quickly at his friend. "Have you still got those Zonkoś Pencils, Sirius?"

"Only one." Sirius produced it from his pocket and handed it to Lupin. It was odd to have one of those pencils back in his grasp after twenty years. He remembered the feel of it, the sense that magic was flowing out of it as he traced it over the map of Hogwarts that Peter had torn out of a copy of Hogwarts: A History. The first Marauderś Map. Now he bent the soft nub of the pencil to the map of Slytherinś castle, although at Fleurś suggestion, he traced only the ground floor where the exits were. He felt the pencil spark with energy in his hand as he followed the lines that indicated corridors, doors, stairways and exits, and watched the tiny dots that testified to the location of the castleś occupants spring into existence and movement. It was only when he had traced the gardens and the walls that surrounded them that he noticed something strange.

"Sirius," he said, beckoning his friend over, "look at this."

Sirius looked over his shoulder, started, and swore. Lupin didn´t blame him. Outside the walls of the castle were a veritable heaving mass of dots, indicating hundreds, perhaps a thousand, people gathered outside the walls. And if that wasn´t odd enough, there were three dots gathered towards the front of the mass that bore the names Virginia Weasley, Draco Malfoy, and… Benjamin Gryffindor.

"What the…?" Sirius muttered, but Fleur at that moment interrupted him by quickly crossing the room, and yanking aside one of the heavy velvet draperies covering the windows. The werewolves yelped indignantly as bright silvery moonlight speared into the room, but Fleur ignored them, gesturing wildly for Lupin and Sirius to join her. They hurried across the room to the window, and Lupin held the heavy drapery aside as he peered out into the gardens.

And nearly fell over. Beyond the walls, he could see a heaving mass of figures milling about — dozens, hundreds — the moonlight gleaming off bright armor and silvery weapons and brightly-colored pennants that held their own light as they snapped in the breeze, each adorned with a dark red flag bearing a golden lion. Gryffindor.