Author's Note: This is an update to the most recent chapter after a reread to fix some mistakes. I am planning to continue this story to the end. I will be adding the ending chapters then rewriting the story, since I no longer just want to toss the story.

Chapter 36

"No!"

Bill put down the translation he was studying to look up at the single utterance of denial. In the spacious library only Bill's brother, Charlie, and the vampire, Irvan, occupied the various tables. Scraps of papers and many aged, dusty volumes opened to potentially useful passages. The curse-breaker watched Charlie search the room for the origin, but Irvan was oblivious to the sound, staring at that book with a look of intense concentration.

The brothers shared a look and since the sound did repeat they returned their research. The translated pages from the Apocalyptic Text held shocking materials, enough that Bill spent much of his time in dazed amazement. The passages Irvan had translated read like the worse gruesome torture manual. It was the history of the creation and testing of the first Imperio spells. He knew that Charlie was reading Snape's letter to Dumbledore and looking for a way to counter the potion.

But he was suppose to be dealing with the curse. And he was startled at watching the development of an Unforgivable. The journals of the wizard, the madman, who spent his life cursing multitudes of people in attempts to find so called cure to victims of vampire control. There were tests against vampires, but the most horrendous were the atrocities against the humans when the wizard could not capture a vampire. Bill had seen the results some of the worst ancient curses and he was blown away with the task of finding a counter to what should be deemed worse than an Unforgivable.

Where he found flaws they were corrected later on in the process. This wizard knew what he was doing.

But outside there was some kind of large disturbance, which even caused Irvan to look up. Yet he didn't seem to be interested in anything outside the closed doors. Charlie on the other hand wanted to know who was on the other side of the barrier. The dragon trainer tossed the pages of the letter down onto the table and rose. Bill let his attention wander, he had after all been at this all morning and afternoon.

The swing of the hard oak door let loose an all out brawl. On one end of the hall were the twins. And the other had Ron, Harry, and Ginny. All of them had their wands out and were firing off harmless spells in a mock battle. What was missing were the adults who were suppose to watching them.

"Are you going to stop them?" Bill asked?

"Are you? It'd be more fun than this. But where is everyone else?" Charlie asked as he closed the door against wayward hexes.

"You mean no one is there?"

"None. Did they tell you anything? Snape would be in the labs. But what about mom and dad? Sirius and Dumbledore?"

This time Bill stood and went to the door, where the wand war had moved further down the hall. "Dare we set out to find them? Do you even known where they are? Maybe they've learned something else." There was a silence growing between them as they tried to decided where they could do the most good.

"They are in Severus's labs." Both turned as Irvan spoke at last. They had not fully expected him to even take part of their conversation. Bill and Charlie shared a look as if deciding whether they should stay or go. "You have not shown that you can be of help. You might as well prove your uselessness with the rest of them."

Charlie shrugged and moved back to the doors and exited into the hall. Bill jumped out of his desk and joined his brother in the hall. "Do you know where Snape's labs are?"

"This way. Snape had to let me in to them so I could make that potion for work the other day. He wasn't too happy about that." They quieted as they approached the lab door, from the muffled noise emitting from behind it did not sound like a peaceful discussion.

The sudden sound of breaking glass covered the Weasley boys' entrance into the fray. Sirius had seemed to have thrown a beaker of some kind of green liquid. "You can't expect me to drink that from a man who is just trying to save his miserable skin."

"Apparently you have yet to understand that I had saved your miserable life. If it weren't for me, the Dark Lord would have killed you."

"Severus," Dumbledore interrupted the greasy potions master, but Snape still retained his smirk of superiority even as he fell silent. "Sirius, this potion is going to return your memories and begin to break the hold of the curse. Please, just take the potion." To Bill, it sounded as though the Headmaster had already had this argument with the animagus. On one side of the room was the Azkaban escapee and on the other, dangerously close to the green smear on the wall, was Snape. Dumbledore took a position in the middle.

Sirius Black grimaced. None of the other occupants took much notice of Bill or Charlie, all waiting for the animagus to make a decision. Snape scooped out a new goblet and heavily set it on a table. Then stepped away. Dumbledore took the potion and handed it to Sirius. Black took it, turned to the Weasley brothers, raised the goblet, saying, "Cheers."

"Wait." Snape's halfhearted command caught everyone's attention.

Dumbledore turned expectantly. But it was the sudden appearance Irvan changed the attention. "That potion cannot be used." The vampire directed his ire against Severus. "Lamprey's scales cannot be used in this potion."

"There are no ill effects by using Lamprey's scales. They are a key ingredient in breaking down the memory barrier."

"But in this case, the Lamprey's scales will combine with the Goldfief from the original potion, interacting with the patient's memories, forcing him to relieve every moment of those memories instead of just removing the barrier."

"Sirius?" the Headmaster sharply asked the man.

"Too late." The goblet dropped to the floor with a clatter. Followed shortly after by the unconscious body of Sirius Black.

"What is happening to him?" Dumbledore demanded in his soft command.

Heedless of the tone, or perhaps because of it, Irvan rounded on the Headmaster of Hogwarts and repeated. "He is reliving every moment he lost from that potion, starting from the first moment the potion was suppose to block out. Not to mention a constant and low level amount of pain overwhelming his nervous system."

"Why didn't you know about this before?" The question was directed to Snape, but it was Irvan, again, who answered.

"Because he did not have the necessary sources to compare. Nor did he tell me what he was doing. Nor what he was using. And I just came by that piece of information just now, cross referencing with the list of ingredients Severus used in his original potion. Now all you can do is keep him from harming himself."

"For how long?"

"How long was the potion suppose to black out?"

"The week he was captive and the three days before he was captured." Severus answered coldly, just now understanding the complications.

"Then he must remain here for ten days." The finality of Dumbledore's statement drew everyone's attention. Snape's most of all, who scowled and swiftly retreated from the labs. "I'll have to speak with him," the Headmaster said to himself. "Bill, Charlie, would you please take Sirius to his rooms. I'll inform Harry and Remus myself. Irvan, you'll have to speak with Severus also."

"Considering the fact that I am inclined to agree with him, I see no purpose."

...

The new year was depressing and not even the Weasleys could cheer him up. When Harry wasn't antagonizing about Sirius he complained to Evan who he conveniently forgot at times was Irvan. So when the new term began, it was a relief for all of them. Snape still had Sirius in his house, but Irvan could travel between Hogwarts and Ciara Aloysius.

A few days into the term and Sirius was back at Hogwarts, more subdued and confined to some rooms near Remus. It was near impossible to visit his godfather and that just left Harry to sulk even more. Hermione had to learn of the eventful Christmas holidays from Ron, Ginny and the twins. From the four of them, he got the gist of what had occurred. She was not happy with not being there to join in the adventure.

Sirius Black was seldom seen even by Remus. Deep in the back of Dumbledore's mind the seed of concern took root. Deep enough where he needed to change the course of Sirius's musings.

"He has his memories now. Shouldn't the curse be broken now?"

"It is not that simple." The vampire stood by the window. It was only the two of them in Dumbledore's office. The Headmaster had not planned it that way. Irvan had come to him concerned about Severus's life should Voldemort learn of his involvement in removing the affects of the potion. "He has his memories, yes. But Voldemort still has his hold on him. The curse has not been interrupted."

"Then how is this curse going to be removed."

"Why should I care? Sirius is not my problem. I've had enough of Harry's complaints."

"Complaints about what exactly?"

"Have you not been listening or watching. The boy is sulking just as much as Sirius. It would help matters if you got Sirius out of Hogwarts. Perhaps then he could get beyond blaming Severus."

"I cannot. Not until I know he will not cause trouble."

"Good luck with that. He is a seat of trouble right now."

"But you have no solutions."

"I'm not suppose to. That's Severus's and your job." Irvan dismissed the accusation with a wave of his hand.

"Then you can talk Severus into assisting in developing a solution. Bill and Charlie are struggling with the translations you provided."

"Then let them struggle. I have already told you my fears. Severus is bound for controversy for his involvement. And not only with Voldemort, but the longer you let Sirius sulk and contrive revenge the more of a chance he will expose himself to exact it."

"So you have said. But there isn't much we can do until Sirius no longer is subject to this curse."

"It might be easier to discover a means of breaking the curse if the curse played itself out." With those words an idea started to form in his mind. Calling the vampire to listen, he concocted a possibility. It was risky, but still a possibility. If everything went well then he could deprive the Dark Lord of a potential weapon without harming their side. The difficulty was timing everything to the benefit of their side and providing Voldemort with a lure strong enough to invoke the curse.