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Chapter 40

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The 7 Prophecies of Merlin

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IV

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The Fourth Prophecy

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Oh, how the mighty had fallen. Once upon a time he was both respected and feared. He was known for his great and terrible deeds, his might, and his mind. Now, Salazar Slytherin was reduced to being merely another mediocre teacher at the great school he had helped found.

He sighed as he dipped his quill into the ink pot for what felt like the millionth time in the last hour. Thoughts racing, he tried unsuccessfully to focus on simply grading the papers before him. "They're all the same!" He exclaimed suddenly, throwing down his quill and standing up. Yes, something had to change. This was not what he wanted for his school. There was no... challenge, no spark.

From the time classes had started, Salazar had become aware of the strictly dictated schedule, the need for detailed class lessons and written tests. And for a while it was a nice change of pace, as it was easy to predict what was going to happen on any given day and time. But it was getting ridiculous. How were the students supposed to learn how to be real, productive members of society if they weren't given the space to make mistakes or discoveries?

Striding abruptly to the door, where he stopped only for the briefest of moments to grab his favorite hat, he vowed that he would restore his creation to her former glory. But first, his lady love needed to be brought into his plans. She was the sitting headmistress after all.

This thought caused old Sal to chuckle, "She has no idea what's coming." He shook his head as the door swung open before him, "I almost pity her, standing between me and my aspirations." Nodding to the familiar faces in the paintings he passed, Salazar Slytherin headed towards the headmistresses office with a spring in his step and a smile on his face.

————

At Grimmauld Place, Sirius found himself lying in bed well past the time he normally would have on any other day. As it was the weekend, he figured he could get away with it. It wasn't like he had any pressing plans scheduled.

Running a hand through his bedraggled hair, he ruminated over the events of the past week. Finding out Camelot was real was... amazing, overshadowed only by actually being in Camelot on a daily basis. Now that was just surreal.

As a small child, Sirius had fancied himself the perfect candidate to be a knight of the round table. He was just, and noble. Kind hearted. And then life happened. The harpy he called "mother" tried to groom him into a perfect pureblood, and he was so busy evading her ministrations, that —before he even realized it was happening —he had grown up. Knights and damsels forgotten, left somewhere on the wayside of his wayward childhood.

Yet, here he was. Camelot was real. The knights, the table. All of it. The story was a bit different this time around, but it was there! And he, Sirius Orion Black, had sat at the very bloody round table, even been named a knight in a way. Now the only question that remained was why, as all of his dreams seemed to be coming true, did he feel so empty inside? "I must be broken or something." He sighed to the empty room.

Current position becoming uncomfortable, the eldest Black sibling turned to lay on his other side. However, in doing so he may have misjudged his placement on the bed, as he suddenly found himself falling. It was only when he ceased to complete the fall that he suspected anything less than ordinary was at play. It was at that point that he came to a startling realization, and swore loudly.

Holding his hands to his face, Sirius hoped no one would be around when he got to wherever it was he was going. "I should really wear pants to bed." He mused aloud, before relaxing into the sensation of moving through the air. Being stuck in the veil had taught him much about this particular scenario. Namely that you don't have to like the feeling of free falling endlessly, but you have little power to stop it. Belatedly, Sirius was hoping that there was a damsel at the other end of this ordeal. He smirked in amusement as he drifted off into a state of half slumber.

————

Meanwhile in Camelot

—

"I have to admit," Lilly Potter declared, excitedly flitting around the laboratory, "we are bloody brilliant!" She beamed, turning to face her curly haired companion. "Did you ever imagine this scenario? In your wildest dreams, even?"

The brunette smirked and raised an eyebrow haughtily. "I am Hermione Granger. Of course I did!" She winked before dissolving into giggles. "It's absolutely surreal, you're right! I thought using a time turner was the most amazing thing I'd achieve, at one point. Then, you know, the war destroyed them and I thought maybe I could make a passable replica. At best."

Lilly tapped the watch on her wrist, as she stared at it in admiration. "But this... is truly something! Backwards in time, slowing time forwards, pausing it. It's like something out of a science fiction movie!"

"I just can't puzzle out why we can't manipulate them to move forwards in time yet." Hermione sighed dejectedly, her million watt smile dimming slightly. She paced from one end of the room to another, deep in thought, murmuring, "Why can't we go forward in time?"

A loud barking chuckle interrupted her diatribe. "The future doesn't exist, Granger." A voice full of amusement announced. Malfoy, Hermione discovered, was standing at the top of the staircase, happily munching on an apple. He smirked, shooting a wink her way, "I can finally say I figured out something that the Great Hermione Granger didn't know!"

Hermione flares at her former nemesis. Just when she thought he wasn't so bad, he had to go and open his big ferrety mouth and make her reconsider. "Explain" she demanded.

Nodding, Malfoy descended the steps slowly, while attempting to do just so. "Okay, Granger, can you eat a sandwich before it's made?"

"No?" Lilly answered the question, clearly puzzled.

Malfoy looked towards her, "Why?"

The redhead rolled her eyes, thinking on how asinine this conversation was. "It hasn't been made yet. If you are it before it was made you'd just be eating the ingredients, not the sandwich."

"Correct!" Malfoy announced, clapping heartily. "Time, I figure, I'd like a sandwich. We have all the ingredients around us for the next bit to be made... but we cannot experience them as 'the future' until the future is made, at which point it becomes the present. Just like you can't swim in a swimming pool before it's filled up, although the water and the pool itself currently exist. It's just not possible."

"I suppose even magic has its limits,"Lilly sighed while looking questioningly at

Hermione, who was standing there with a quizzical look on her face. The three wizards stood in silence until Hermione shrugged and walked briskly to the other side of the room.

The brunette tinkered with a half-made time turning watch, until she suddenly stilled and declared, "I don't think I can accept that explanation."

Amusement caused Draco Malfoy's eyes to crinkle, as he gasped out a laugh. "Because you can't accept failure? Oh, okay, I'll bite. Tell me why I'm wrong."

"You're not, in theory." Hermione said after a beat, rolling her eyes as the distasteful words left her mouth. "It is entirely possible that we can not go forward into yet unmade deaths of time. However— the turners wont move forward through time that has already been experienced either." She stood and steepled her fingers, "Using your sandwich as an example. You can eat a sandwich before making it, if it's already been made when you get it."

"So moving forward should theoretically be possible, if you're going back to somewhere— or somewhen you've already been." Draco mused, copying her pose and steepling his own fingers. "You'd need... a place marker of some type, like a tether. But how to achieve that is a bit beyond me."

Lilly gasped, looking excited, "Like a portkey! Something that can be set to a specific location."

"Brilliant!" Draco chortled, obviously impressed. "I think you ladies can handle it from here." He stated smugly, before walking from the room once more, leaving a pair of confounded witches in his wake.

Hermione shook her head, waves cascading around her, "A helpful Malfoy. The world must be ending!" She mused, causing the other woman to laugh as well. "Back to the drawing board, I suppose. You up to the task?"

"I'm deeply insulted you even have to ask." Lilly responded, mock pouting. She waved a hand, gesturing for Hermione to follow her to the workstation she had set up. "You know, James is rather good with portkeys." Lilly mused, shuffling through a stack of books she had laid out earlier that morning.

Hermione shot the other witch a knowing look, "Missing him on his day off, eh?" She asked, raising her eyebrows as if daring Lily to deny the charge.

Laughing, Lilly rolled her eyes. "I suppose that may also be true, but he did some work on them in his Auror days. Hated them so much he began toying around with the spell work. Judging by the fact he stopped complaining, I'd say he either figured out a way to fix it— or he got used to it. But knowing James... he doesn't really get used to things that bug him."

"Reminds me of another Potter male!" Hermione commented wryly, "Summon your wayward lover madam. But no funny business!" She declared, with as much of a straight face as she could manage.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Lilly smirked, conjuring her patronus and firing off a message for her husband. "Wayward lover!" She giggled, playfully smacking Hermione in the arm. Hermione shrugged, and began reading the text Lilly had spread before her.

Portkeys, in and of themselves, weren't that terribly complicated to create. It was the integration of the time mechanism, and linking it to a specific time and space that would be the difficult part. Hermione ran through all the scenarios in her head.

They could, she thought, link it to the watch, and have it activate when the dial is triggered. But it may have to be reset every time. Inconvenient, but she supposed it was doable. Alternately, they could put the sand in the tethering object— somehow. "This is so much harder than charming them to go backwards!" She pouted aloud.

Lilly made a muffled sound of agreement, while jotting notes on a piece of paper. Lost in her own thoughts on the subject, the red headed witch barely even registered her husband barging into the room.

"Sirius is gone!" James shouted, appearing out of breath. This snapped both witches into paying attention. James took a deep breath before explaining, "Moony and I had double checked he was at Grimmauld before we set to rigging a prank. It was supposed to go off when he got out of bed, but it didn't. And he's not there."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "How do you know your prank just didn't work? Surely Sirius knows to expect these things by now." She reasoned.

James nodded, seeing where she was coming from. "Well, we thought of that... until we noticed he left his pants behind. Oh, and our patroni don't go anywhere when we try to send a message to him. That's the more worrying of the two."

That fact send a shiver of dread down Hermione's spine. "But that only happens if..." she shook her head, "well, he could be somewhere that magic doesn't work, or doesn't know how to get to."

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation!" Lilly said sternly, looking between her friend and her husband. "Maybe he just has a new lady friend, who happens to have a secret magic deadening love dungeon?" She cracked a smile, attempting to lighten the mood.

Unfortunately, James didn't see the humor in the current situation, and fixed his loving wife with a glare. "Something feels wrong." He insisted, looking between the two females to gauge if they were taking him seriously or not.

Hermione slowly set down the watch she had been fiddling with. If the rarely solemn marauder was this somber, then the situation surrounding Sirius must be, well, serious. She sighed, deciding that their current project would have to wait. Pulling her wand, Hermione sent a message to Regulus and Kreacher to come as soon as they were able. If anyone could locate Sirius, it would be them.

Relieved, James relaxed his stance minutely. "Thank you." He whispered, collapsing into a chair, wand in hand, and proceeding to cast one unsuccessful patronus after another. Lilly simply watched in silence, as her husband looked more and more dejected.

About 15 and a half patroni later, Regulus strode into the room, a worried expression marring his aristocratic face. "What's wrong?" He asked hurriedly, searching Hermione for signs that she was hurt, or emotionally distraught in any way. Finding nothing, his look settled into one of confusion. "You're okay, right love?"

Hermione nodded, as James flung himself from the chair in a blur of motion. "Sirius is missing!" He yelled, crashing into a very surprised Kreacher who had picked just that moment to appear from thin air in the middle of the lab. Quickly, Kreacher snapped his fingers, stopping them both from falling to the ground in a heaping tangle of limbs and other such bits.

Regulus wasn't sure how to react first. Laughing at the scene before him, was high on the list, but his concern for his brother was right up there with it. Instead he settled for the pureblood way of handling emotions. Raising an eyebrow delicately, he simply drawled, "explain." At which point James, still suspended in mid air, repeated the story he had relayed to Hermione and Lilly moments before.

Before James could even finish speaking, Regulus had his wand out, conforming what James claimed was indeed the truth. Kreacher quickly righted James, before testing out a few theories of his own.

Several tense moments passed in silence before Kreacher, gritting his teeth, reappeared. "He's alive..." the elf began haltingly. "But trying to manifest myself to wherever he is felt like getting rug burn while rolling in a barrel of sandpaper filled with glass."

Regulus raised his eyebrows at the explanation given, while the ever impatient James flung himself to his knees shrieking, "What does it mean?!". A question that Kreacher only responded to with a shrug of his shoulders and an unintelligible grunt.

"But he's alive?" Hermione questioned, and upon a brief nod from the elf in question, shook her head up and down slowly. "Well, that's a start." She breathed, "Could you try again later just to see if there's been a change?"

Just as Kreacher was about to bemoan the certainty of pain in his near future,Lilly gasped and cut in, "In the meantime— we could try to warn him, couldn't we?" She dangled a watch from her hand, swinging it gently in the air. Without waiting for a response, she turned the dial, disapperating as she did so.

"I do so love that witch when she gets like that!" James sighed dreamily, drawing his wand to follow his wife into his best friends room. Chuckling to himself at how awkwardly dirty that thought sounded in his head, he disappeared.

Hermione, left alone with the grumpy elf, and Regulus, stared at the later with a sudden feeling of dejavu. She rolled her eyes and threw up her hands, exclaiming, "this has Merlin written all over it, doesn't it?"

Suddenly slack jawed, Regulus nodded slowly. "We could alert Kingsley, and ask that he confirm our suspicion if another of the prophecy orbs begins to act strange." He suggested, "at least that way we would have a chance of knowing if we're on the right path here." His witch nodded her agreement, and Regulus set off to see the minister. Some things were best discussed in private, after all.

Kreacher slunk off at some point between Hermione's revelation, and Regulus' departure, hoping against hope that he wasn't called upon to maim himself again that day. However, Hermione was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice this fact until she noticed that the room was entirely too quiet. She wondered what was taking Lily and James so long to return.

————

An hour earlier, Sirius' Room, Grimmauld Place

A devious looking Lilly Potter appeared in the darkened room. She opened her mouth to yell something undoubtedly brilliant, that would cause Sirius to bolt upright when she reappeared, but never got the chance to utter a word. James had grabbed a hold of her from behind, at the exact second she let go of the dial, and was thus transported along with her.

He had been trying, unsuccessfully to get her attention since they arrived in the past, but up until this moment had not directly interfered. With a soft pop he apparated them outside the door of Sirius' room and proceeded to throw up a silencing spell around them. "Pants!" He yelled, helpfully, as soon as he was sure it was safe. Lilly cocked a brow, unsure of what the problem was.

James cringed, "Lilly, Sirius left his pants behind. Merlin! He. Is. Not. Wearing. Pants!" He exploded, eyes wide and face reddening. "Do you really want to experience that side of Sirius?!"

Horrified, Lilly swallowed air trying to form a response. "I-I-I... didn't think about that." She admitted haltingly, "I was so caught up in potentially getting revenge for all the years of pranking, while warning him that I—" suddenly, a commotion could be heard on the other side of the door, cutting off Lilly's monologue.

Together, they rushed into the room, only to find themselves alone. "Bloody hell." James sighed, "He's gone."

"See, James, I wouldn't have had time to experience Sirius." Lilly joked, battling the worry gnawing at her stomach. "On the bright side, at least we know he was unharmed when he left."

James looked affronted, "He was kidnapped, Lilly, kidnapped!" Lilly just rolled her eyes, as she began casting diagnostic spells to see what could have happened to their friend.

"Nothing remotely dark." The readhead announced moments later, "In fact, I'm not coming up with anything other than the ripples from our arrival..."

James squinted confusedly at his wife in the dim room. "You mean to tell me that he was, what, portkeyed away or something?" He asked incredulously, trudging over to slump onto the bed. "For what—by who— I just... I mean, what do we do now?"

Head into his hands, he collapsed into himself in defeat. Lilly, watched wordlessly, never having seen her husband quite like this. That was saying something, as they'd weathered a war together. Quietly, she crept to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And now, she breathed, we fight."

"Fight what?," James sighed, "There's nothing here. We failed. With no more answers to speak of!"

Lilly chuckled at his petulant expression, "We fight fire with Fire." She said, "We had an idea, of using the turners with some type of portkey like anchor. That's why we needed your big head this morning. To try and puzzle that out. If we can achieve that goal, then we could potentially catch Sirius well before this whole ordeal. At which point we could return to our present time, and he would have the option of figuring out what he wants to do from there."

Hopeful, James looked up, "Okay, then we need to get back to the lab. I'll have this figured out in no time Lillyflower. Also, I'm ignoring the comment about my big head. It's perfectly normal sized, and you love it." Holding out his hand, he apparated them back to Camelot as she rolled her eyes at his final comment.

Had they stuck around a single moment longer, they would have broken the only rule of time turner use. But as it was, the sleepy form of James Potter came barreling around the corner, oblivious to the fact that his future self had already experienced the horror of finding his best mate had disappeared.

————

Once back in Camelot, James and Lilly scoured the library for books that may help them in anchoring a portkey with a time turner. As it had never been done before, they didn't expect to find an instruction manual, which they did not, so their stack was limited to mostly theory on anchoring spells, the workings of the floo network, apparition, and the like. Anything that could prove useful, while they waited for their current selves to depart for the past.

Surprisingly, the tomes they had selected had given them enough information to formulate a couple different plans, and thus by the time they were safe to return to the lab, James was confident that they had the answer to their current predicament in their sights. "Let's do this!" He exclaimed, popping from the room. A grinning Lilly rolled her eyes, grinning fondly, before following her husband.

————

When Lilly reappeared, the lab was eerily silent. She panicked, for a brief moment, until in the far corner of the room she spotted signs of life.

Hermione, biting her lip as she often did, was staring with no small amount of fascination, as James waved his wand fluidly through the air in a series of intricate maneuvers. As the objects in front of him began to glow, James began to mutter lowly, causing Lilly to hurry up and join in on the fun.

The chant, which is what the muttering was actually supposed to be, was in some form of old Gaelic. Lilting, and guttural, their words sounded most dangerous. And yet, with Lilly's saccharine sweet tone, it soon transformed into something more like a lovers empassioned arguement. Which, by all accounts, was pretty close to the truth. The words were all but demanding the universe to go against its own rules and tether a moment in time to a very real, very singular point in space. To marry them, so to speak.

As the words flew more rapidly, the glowing increased. By the time they'd reached a fever pitch, James and Lilly were almost screaming, and nearly blinded by the unbelievable brightness before them. Hermione could do nothing but stare, open mouthed in amazement, as her friends breathed rapidly, trying to keep up with their own frenzied tempo. Until, suddenly, the light seemed to explode and the chant ended with one last scream.

The silence that followed nearly echoed. As Hermione stood blinking, James and Lilly shuffled to their feet. Having somehow being thrown to the floor in the madness. As concerned as she was, the curly haired witch could not keep herself from asking, "So, uh, a bit late to ask this, but— what exactly was that?"

Grinning tiredly, James pinned her with a serious look, "Sirius' salvation, I hope." He reached out, cradling the object in his hands. Holding it out for Hermione's inspection, he held his breath as she studied it intently.

The curly haired witch gasped, eyeing her best friends father with disbelief. "The arch?" She questioned sharply, "You want the thing that held Sirius captive in time to be his saving grace?"

"It's not the real one!" James chuckled, "But I think it has a certain amount of poetic justice to it. Plus, I wanted the object to be large enough to be a good tether— it's shrunken now, of course. That being said, it also had to be functional." He searched the room, eyes flitting from here to there in pursuit of the perfect spot for his creation. "There!" He breathed, pointing, "we put it at the base of the stairs, like it was supposed to be part of the architecture. Lilly could tie it in real nice, I'm sure."

Hermione looked incredulous, "And if someone or something other than Sirius is able to use it, what then? Just let them peruse all of what we do here?"

"Let me." Lilly whispered, placing a hand on James' arm, before turning to Hermione and steeling herself for the reaction she knew would come before the understanding kicked in. "That won't, or rather can't happen. James has set a fail safe. I didn't like it at first, but I do see the necessity in it now. It's both passcode and blood activated."

Hermione turned white, as the blood rushed from her face. She appeared to be counting down from a hundred, but may have been going over eviscerating spells... you never could really be sure with that one. "I see." She grit out through her teeth.

"Anyone could activate a passcode, and do exactly as you said. We don't want people traipsing about the lab. Also, to make sure the right person is using the portwatch, watchport, turnport— whatever we will be calling it— it had to be something that couldn't be faked. Thus... blood." James explained, shrugging, "Give your standard, self selected passcode, and the turner activates a blood test. If the test matches, you're sent through to the portal."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "And if it doesn't?," she queried, glancing sideways at her red headed friend.

"We were thinking of some sort of holding cell." Lilly answered quickly, "One that Bill has warded to high heaven."

Sighing tiredly, Hermione rubbed her eyes "It has merit," she admitted, "but does it work?" Toying with the watch on her wrist, she wondered who would be the lucky test subject. And what that would entail.

"Care to find out?" James grinned, smirking. "We need to calibrate the turner to the passcode and blood test, if you want to try it personally."

"Your idea, you get to be the guinea pig, Potter." Hermione chuckled darkly, causing James to pale and gulp. He nodded tensely, muttering to the watch handed to him by his wife. A brief flinch, and it was over. Silently, he turned the dial a fraction of a turn, hearing the pair wish him "good luck"on his journey as he departed.

Arriving in the same space mere minutes before, he watched himself have the conversation with Hermione. Thankfully he had managed to place himself somewhere in the room that was not noticeable to their former selves. Turning the dial a fraction of a turn forward, he muttered his selected passcode and felt himself hurling through. Time and space.

It wasn't quite like apparating, there was no squeezing feeling, no blankness. He could actually see things happening around him, just incredibly slowly and kind of blurred. His body drug him, albeit in a kind of floating manner, to the arch. And there he stopped, with an almost reverberating feeling in his body. As if he had been a rubber band, stretched too thin before being snapped. "I think it works." He murmured, before everything went black.

——————

Back in the mind numbing sea of blackness, Sirius was snoozing peacefully. Until, suddenly, he wasn't. Jolting awake, he became aware of his change in circumstances just as the floor of a dark room, briefly as it was filled with a strange flashing light, came up to meet him. He landed with an oof. "Bloody hell," Sirius wheezed, trying to regain his composure, "What a way to wake up."

He searched in vain for something to cover himself with, more than conscious of his current state of nakedness. Sooner than he would have liked, however, that became the least of his worries. A shuffling sound made him aware that he was not alone in this place. A shuffling sound that was growing closer.

Resignedly, he steeled himself for confrontation. And yet, the source of the shuffling passed him by. The strange flash of lights illuminated the room once more, and in its faint glow, Sirius saw the outline of a pile of clothing. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sirius scrambled to it, grabbing the first thing that didn't feel lacy or dress like and thrusting it over his head.

As he did so, something came rolling out of the pile. In the next glow of the lights, Sirius saw it appeared to be a crystal orb, and it was headed right for him. He barely had time to breathe in a gasp of shock when it barreled into his bare foot. "Bloody..." and then he was sucked into it.

————

Once the world had stopped spinning, Sirius Black found himself in a familiar room. He had been there before, surrounded by the same stone facade at Emery's castle, only on a much less somber day. One that he participated in willingly, and with honor. As such, seeing the young, dark haired, blue eyed wizard before him, Sirius began yelling immediately.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" He raged, "Kidnapping? Really? Who do you think you are, Merlin?!" He pointed a finger menacingly at the man, and found himself even more enraged at the lack of reaction he received.

The man stood there, blue eyes twinkling in a very Dumbledoresque manner, as Sirius continued to rage unintelligibly. Folding his arms idly, the man appeared to be waiting for something, and when Sirius had finally ran out of breath and stopped speaking with a huff and a pronounced stomp, the man opened his mouth. "If you are quite finished," he began, with a wink, "welcome, sir knight, I'm sorry for the circumstances you are about to find yourself in, but I'm afraid it cannot be helped. For the greater good, it is a thing of necessity."

He appeared to have a somber thought, but shrugged it off before continuing. "In any fight there must be sacrifices, as I'm sure you are aware. This is no exception. It saddens me that one of my loves own progeny must pay the price for my mis..." the man's words trailed off suddenly, as his eyes clouded over. With a changed voice he began again.

"From Merlin's mouth,

Flows both truth and lies.

To find the former you must defy

The odds, the plan, or time itself.

The later even he can't tell.

Oh, firstborn son of those dark as night.

The second best despite birthright.

Your battle is fraught with trials a plenty,

Both friends and foes may fall.

Just when you think the burden too heavy,

An ally will come to call.

All alone, though surrounded,

The lightest of the Blacks.

They seek to take you from the fight,

As with your power they would never last.

Do not despair, ye pure of heart,

Lost as it may be.

Alone is not your destined status.

Wait for her, you will see.

A side quest,

Found through bending time.

A broken branch repaired.

A heart of ice,

Melts at the touch,

Of one who once despaired.

And through the branch,

The tree of vines,

Once tangled,

Comes undone.

Once bridges burned

Have been repaired,

The future can be won."

Merlin, gasping, shook his head as if to clear it. "What was I saying? Oh, yes. Morgana will be angry when she finds out what I have done. But rest assured, sir knight, I won't harm you. I just need you out of the way. Forgive me?" He asked, looking quite contrite.

As this was not an interactive conversation, Sirius didn't bother to answer. He was too busy trying to process both Merlin's concerning words, and those of the prophecy he had just been delivered. "Hermione got a kingdom, the twins got a castle, Harry... well, I'm not sure what exactly what his prophecy means yet, but I'm sure it was more than 'you're lonely, fight and you'll find a damsel in distress'." He groaned and sank to the floor as the scene from the prophecy faded around him. Once more in the darkened room, Sirius scooted into a corner where he could safely monitor anyone who may be coming through the doorway.

———

In the lab, Regulus and James were arguing about who should get to play the hero this time. Regulus believed it was his job, as Sirius' brother, to deliver the means for Sirius to save himself from whatever situation he had gotten himself into. James, as Sirius' best mate and brother in every way but blood, felt like the duty should fall to him. Plus, as James was so quick to point out, it was his wondrous work that made all of this possible in the first place.

They were so caught up in their posturing that they didn't notice Kreacher had popped into the room, promptly rolling his eyes, before doing what they should have been doing in the first place: rescuing Sirius. Of course, the elf had had help in this little mission. The impatient girls had explained the whole process to him downstairs before sending him to end the proverbial test of wills between their two wizards.

Ritual complete, Kreacher headed to the past to warn Sirius and deliver the instructions to activate the portal key, as they were calling it. A task that the elf found quite easy, as he had written the instructions down on a charmed piece of paper Bill and Hermione had developed precisely for such sensitive information. All he had to do was place a drop of blood on the key, and hope Sirius recalled how to read a parchment. Shaking his head at the idiocy that constantly surrounded him, Kreacher woke a sleeping Sirius and tried, in vain, to express all the needed information before he was spirited away. An event that happened so quickly the elf could do nothing but gasp before the eldest Black sibling disappeared before his eyes, the scroll of parchment affixed to a string around his neck.

Wearily, he activated the passcode on his portal key and returned to the present. The feeling of snapping back to the correct time eliciting a sharp intake of breath that finally managed to get the attention of the quarreling wizards he had left behind only moments ago.

They stared at him in shock, eyes moving from him to the key in his hands in quick succession before they exchanged heated glares then promptly burst into laughter.

"Well played Kreacher." Regulus laughed heartily, "Alright?"

Kreacher nodded and shrugged, "didn't have much time, and Sirius is a fairly heavy sleeper. I did manage to place the key and instructions to use it around his neck before he was spirited away. Now let's just hope he realizes something is there."

Slumping to the floor, James buried his head in his hands. "He will... eventually." He lamented, "but we may be here a while." The other two men nodded solemnly as silence filled the space.

—————

Hunched amongst the darkness, Sirius thought over plans for escape. The fact that he was wandless didn't leave him many options other than leaving the room and hoping there was an exit conveniently waiting out of sight of anyone that happened to be here. The fact that Merlin had been apologetic in the prophecy he had just witnessed made him believe that he wouldn't be quite so lucky. This was Merlin after all— the Merlin!

He scratched his chest thoughtlessly, trying to rid himself of the annoying tickling feeling he'd been trying to ignore since the prophecy had spat him back out, only to have his had brush up against an unexpected obstacle. "Weird," Sirius mused in a whisper, "I don't remember having any jewelry on."

Briefly, he pondered the chances of the new necklace he was sporting being some unexpected result of the prophecy. Maybe something containing a grand estate or some legacy of awesomeness. Hopes that had risen were dashed upon further inspection of the trinket. It was a miniature scroll, written in a familiar hand. "Kreacher..." He sighed halfway between content and anxious at what this might mean.

The scroll, when unrolled, proved to be far more than he could have hoped for. Thanking every lucky object he had ever even heard of, Sirius stood with a purpose, and proclaimed "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good!". This was said a bit louder than it probably should have been, considering the tremendous rush of footsteps that immediately followed the outburst. Before anyone could come into sight, however, Sirius was -simply- gone.

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