Part 44 – Groundbreaker

If she didn't know better, the girl would've thought that the muscular creature winding around her legs and hips was a snake. A massive furry snake, rumbling (or purring?) and rubbing against her without hesitation or malice.

She blinked, several times in fact before her sight cleared enough to see the small room… cell. A dim, claustrophobic cell, stone walls gouged and bloodied… not even a drain in the ground to siphon off the many layers of rancid gore.

Her fingers… they felt so small… yet so familiar gliding through the coarse silvery fur as the rumbling (purring?) beast made each pass, as he seemed to croon along to the gentle hum coming from her own throat. His drooling fangs and wicked claws inspired not one hint of fear because she knew… she knew the beast would sooner die than cause her harm… would slaughter anyone, everyone who posed any risk of danger. Their hearts sang together. And they weren't hurt or afraid.

She swayed. She stared into solemn amber eyes. She smiled and—ignoring the banging on the other side of the cell door, the frantic screams and spellfire—touched noses with the her brother and whispered, "Remy."

xxXxx

"She's not on the Map."

That revelation was not particularly worrisome; Mina disappeared from the Map all the time. She took jaunts into the Forbidden Forest, into Hogsmeade, Diagon, Camelot, and even into the muggle world. When Mina couldn't sleep, she needed to be entertained; when her friends and schoolwork couldn't provide adequate distraction, she ventured out to find it on her own.

Still. Sirius had a bad feeling.

"Probably nothing to worry about, as long as she's back by lunch," James announced, poking at his vegetarian atrocity of a breakfast, "I buy her skivving Charms, but she wouldn't miss Care voluntarily."

Remus, seeming equally morose, fidgeted in his seat and muttered, "Last I saw of her, she said she was going to the kitchens."

"That doesn't exactly rule out a spontaneous jail break," Mac remarked. She poked idly at her eggs before wrinkling her nose and pushing them away. "Though she usually tries to get me to go with her. Since the aurors left, she's rarely just taken off without a word to anyone."

Hence the mild worry from her friends. Which only intensified when Tia skipped over and pouted, "Where's Mina? She promised to help me with my Astronomy homework during breakfast."

His girlfriend sometimes wandered away on impulsive adventures, but she didn't do so at the cost of blowing off people she actually liked.

"Right," Sirius murmured, shoving away his half-eaten meal and leaning closer to Remus. The seat between them was so often occupied by their favorite little she-wolf, and it somehow felt wrong to encroach on that space. Nevertheless, Sirius whispered, "Cover for me in class. I'll take a walk to the Forest and see if I can pick up her trail."

Remus nodded, doing nothing to hide his concerned frown.

And he certainly wasn't the only one expressing visible apprehension, nor did he seem to be the only one who had figured out what Sirius (or rather Padfoot) intended to do. Sirius felt a bookbag nudge against his foot; James nearly always had his invisibility cloak on him, and their satchels were similar enough that no one would notice the two boys had swapped. (Wasn't even the first time they had exchanged bags like that, trading contraband back and forth right there in the Hall.)

With a murmured goodbye, Sirius stood and slung the thick strap across his chest. He tried not to leave in a hurry, tried not to draw attention or look like anything was wrong. But that bad feeling… well, he certainly didn't dawdle on his way to the loo.

xxXxx

"Remy, NO!" Her fingers twisted roughly into the threadbare cotton of her brother's shirt, and the girl wasted no time yanking him hard away from the oak he'd intended to climb. "Not that one!"

Her brother blinked at her as he turned, the rising sun golden at his back and gilding his messy hair, his small malnourished body, the loamy detritus scattered beneath their bare feet. "Why?"

She took a deep breath. The air was alive. So alive that she could practically taste the earth and the plants and animals. The girl pointed upward. "Those branches there, you see them? The high ones? They're all rotten inside. It's an easy climb, but they break when you put your weight on them. You fall…" Her eyes stung from more than just the haze of pollen. "Your head hits the ground really, really hard, a-a-and you don't… you don't get back up. Remy, please not that one-"

"I won't, Romy," replied her brother as he hugged her tightly. Their thin arms wrapped around each other in perfect symmetry, their little heads falling onto opposite shoulders. "I won't. Swear. It's a big forest. Lotta other trees."

The girl nodded and sniffled and… and felt so weary with relief that she almost couldn't stand. "Thanks," she muttered, "You always listen. You always believe me. Nobody else ever does."

Together, they found a pair of sharp rocks and used them to carve four large clumsy Xs into the massive oak trunk. North. South. East. West. Warning away their future selves in case they ever forgot the danger lurking up above.

xxXxx

"Dear Merlin, you are ridiculous. How do you manage to be so painfully obvious even while invisible?"

Sirius barely resisted the urge to groan aloud and shake his fists in the general direction of whichever deity was responsible for so swiftly fucking up his plans. "Now's not a good time, Reg," he said instead, hoping like hell his little brother would just leave him alone, preferably before he reached the edge of the woods; couldn't exactly shift to his unregistered Animagus form and sniff out his missing girlfriend with Regulus around.

Unfortunately, the slim Slytherin continued to follow; looked like he was keeping track of Sirius's steps by the way the grass bent beneath his transparent feet. "Yes, you're clearly in the middle of something just ever so vital," Regulus drawled, pointedly not tugging at his turtleneck, "However, I would appreciate an update on my situation. Is your girlfriend going to finally release me, or is she getting off on dragging this out for as long as humanly possible?"

Despite the fact that he could see Sirius's footsteps, Regulus had no way of knowing where the rest of him was or what it was doing; that was probably why Sirius found it so easy to slap his brother sharply across the back of his skull. "What my girlfriend does or doesn't get off to is none of your damn business," the taller teen hissed, savoring Reg's indignant pout, "And she still wants that list of marked Death Eaters before she removes the paint."

"I gave her-"

"You gave her the most obvious names," sighed Sirius, "The ones she already knew. Nice touch throwing Edgecombe in with them. Did you think a revelation like that would really sell it? Too bad Mina already knew about him, too. She also has a pretty good idea about just how many more people should be on the list, and she isn't going to be satisfied with less."

Regulus huffed and began smoothing down the hairs that Sirius's slap had mussed. He also continued to follow along, complaining, "This is absurd. There's nothing illegal about having a certain tattoo."

Sorely tempted to rip off the cloak just so that his glare could convey the proper amount of incredulous revulsion, Sirius growled, "She's not digging for gossip about who has the worst tramp stamp. People who are marked belong to a violent, fanatical cult that has already made several attempts to kidnap and/or murder her, not to mention the fact that they seem hell bent on subjugating the planet. I don't think there's much of a chance of success, considering the levels of incompetence displayed by the majority of the members, but since they've already proven more than willing to destroy anyone and everyone standing in their way, finding out who they are is just common fucking sense."

Sirius stopped in the shade of the woodland border, whirling on his brother and taking great satisfaction in jabbing the lad's unprotected chest. "Do you really not get it, Reg?" he spat, "You're pledging a fraternity of murderers, torturers, and rapists. Politics is one thing. The path you're set on is different entirely." With a defeated sigh, the invisible teen added, "I believe in my heart you're not that kind of person. Not the kind of person who thinks that genocide is a viable response to disagreement. And because I believe in you, Mina hasn't forked you straight over to the aurors. With the exception of her own brother, few else would enjoy the same courtesy. Maybe instead of bitching about the very small concession she wants for the trouble of compromising her morals, you should think about what your affiliation really means. And especially about what it's going to cost you."

Wide-eyed but as stoic as any proper Slytherin, Regulus said nothing.

"And don't bloody follow me," Sirius added, turning away in disgust and heartbreak before crashing into the Forest, "I actually do have important stuff to take care of."

xxXxx

She twisted and writhed and thrashed in the tangle of sheets, sobbing, choking, doing her best to escape the crushing sense of terror. Several moments passed in blind panic before the girl realized that she had not been tied up, that no one was strangling her, that she was not on fire. That the horrible images still lurking at the fringes of her consciousness were just dreams.

But no. Not just dreams. Her dreams were never just dreams.

"Romy? Are you-"

The sound of the bedroom door slamming open startled the girl and her brother and sent them both scurrying backwards until their bony spine hit the far wall. She whimpered, glancing helplessly at her brother; the frightened glance he returned begged for silence.

"Wha' the hell is the bloody racket?!" their mother slurred, her blurry, emaciated body blocking out most of the dim light coming from the hallway as she teetered precariously and clutched an empty liquor bottle, "I tol' you brats! I tol' you t' keep bloody QUIET! Can't you leave me 'lone for ONE BLOODY NIGHT?!"

The girl swallowed and, hoarsely, softly, murmured, "I-I had a bad dream."

"I don't CARE!" shrieked their mother. She hurled the bottle, which just barely missed the girl's face; unfortunately, the thick glass did collide with the wall behind her and exploded into a rain of razor-sharp shards, some of which bit into her soft skin and settled in her messy hair. The air grew thick with the familiar nauseating scent of firewhiskey residue. "Keep quiet, or you're gettin' Sleepin' Draught again, y'hear me, you little bastard?! I'll not have y'carryin' on at all hours!"

The girl nodded. She stayed very still, mostly to avoid being cut by the glass, but also to avoid attracting any more of her mother's anger. Stillness and silence: from an early age, the girl had learned that those two nonactions had the best (if any) chance at saving her from harm.

Sure enough, with just another handful of slurred vulgarities and threats of impending punishment, the woman finally slammed the door shut and stumbled in the direction of the living room. Both twins were mute a few moments longer, waiting and listening until the clumsy footsteps and half-coherent muttering faded to normal levels.

"Don't move," her brother warned. He wedged on the too-small shoes he nearly never wore and crunched across the dark room, not saying much as he picked away the glass with gentle yet fastidious care. They would have to wait until morning to change the sheets and sweep the floor, but the girl did swap out the long T-shirt she wore as a nightgown before leaping into the other bed.

Her brother joined a moment later, and the twins cuddled together in pile of skinny limbs. "It was a really bad dream, Remy," she whispered, shivering even though she wasn't cold, "I… I think I was dying."

"Shut up, Romy," her brother snarled in reply, even as his eyes filled with tears and his embrace tightened, "You weren't. You won't."

"I was burning. And I couldn't breathe. Mummy… she was choking me and yelling in a weird language. She said I was a demon, and I was burning, but I wasn't on fire, and it hurt, and I was tied up and scared, and I tried to call you, but you didn't come-"

"Well, then it can't be true," the boy argued fiercely, "Cuz I always come when you call, don't I?"

The girl sniffled. "Ya." She didn't mention how utterly alone she'd felt, how the comforting weight of her brother's presence seemed to have completely abandoned her in those horrific moments. How the emptiness was almost more unbearable than the actual pain.

With a resolute nod, he answered, "So just forget about it. I bet it was just a normal nightmare. Mine don't come true, so there's no reason yours have to. Besides, even if it was one of those dreams, you stop them from happening all the time." He paused briefly before adding, "We can try to run away again."

"What's the point?" the girl sighed, "We never get very far."

Her brother grumbled, "Doesn't mean we should stop trying. Especially if… if Mummy is about to get worse."

The girl didn't answer. Instead, she did her best to savor the safety and comfort that came from being so close to her twin. After all, if it was something she was going to lose, then she darn well wanted to memorize the feeling.

xxXxx

"Vhere is your sister?"

Usually not confronted with such hostility from his professors (or anyone, really; Mina's well-known madness was a fantastic deterrent for most of life's usual stressors), Remus Lupin blinked in confusion at his Defense instructor and responded, "No clue. She's been missing since last night."

Lazarov glared heated. If they hadn't been outside the Charms classroom, still dodging scurrying students rushing to lunch, the apparently ageless vampire might've said something a bit more scathing than, "Valk vith me."

Remus did. He took about two steps at her side before being swamped by a sudden dizzy spell. His knees weakened; his blood pounded in his ears; his vision blurred in and out and darkened several times as his knees buckled and his consciousness slipped away.

xxXxx

When the girl woke, in a different hospital room than the one where she'd been camped out with her brother all month, she immediately knew that something was wrong. Her chest ached, sore in a way that she could tell from experience had nothing to do with being punched, kicked, or otherwise struck. Although she had no idea what else could've caused the sensation. But aside from that, she just felt kind of… hollow.

And she couldn't find her brother.

She figured all that out before really getting a good look at her new surroundings, before realizing that she was not alone. "Who're you?" asked the girl. Then, deciding it wasn't actually important, she demanded, "Where's Remy?"

The slender old woman at her bedside had snowy white hair drawn up in a very tight bun. She had shrewd, deep-set hazel eyes and faint but copious wrinkles. She sat like someone had strapped a broom handle to her back. She wore the softest, blackest clothing that the girl had ever seen.

"I am your grandmother," said the woman, knuckles whitening as she clenched the pale hands resting in her lap, "Your father's mother. Your brother is recovering in another room… the healers thought it best-"

"They're stupid!" the girl insisted, for she knew without a doubt, "And they're liars! They thought Remy was gonna die, but he didn't! He was just fine! They don't know anything, and I want my brother NOW!"

Bony cheeks flushing and thin lips drawing tight, the woman glared for several long moments. Then, she crisply replied, "As I mentioned, your brother is recovering in another room, and unless you have miraculously gained a Mastery in Healing before the age of six, I do believe we shall be abiding by their decision to let him be for several hours yet. I thought perhaps we might use the time to get to know one another. We are family, after all."

The girl glared. Her chest hurt. Heck, everything hurt. She missed her brother. Nothing was making much sense, and all her waning energy was going toward trying not to panic. "I don't have a family!" she roared, kicking furiously at the sheets to free her spindly legs, "I just have Remy! All the rest of you useless morons can suck it!"

Reacting with a bewildered expression, her apparent grandmother scolded, "Why, you impudent little monster! I can see your horrid mother has not raised you with any hint of decorum! Well, we shall just see about that! As soon as you are removed-"

Despite the pain in her chest, the girl used the distraction of her grandmother's tirade as opportunity to reach back, grasp her very firm pillow, and swing the convenient bludgeon hard right into the old woman's face. The girl felt only the barest hint of remorse as she watched her spindly grandmother topple to the floor with a startled, outraged shriek.

Last she'd seen of her brother, he'd been writhing on the filthy floor of a locked cell, bones breaking in reverse as he screamed himself hoarse. No one would keep her away from him.

xxXxx

For as much as the Marauders treated the Forbidden Forest like their own personal playground, they all understood that it was an inherently dangerous place; between bloody great big giant spiders and carnivorous mushrooms, hazards lurked in every shadow. And those were just the ones they could expect to encounter on any average afternoon. Bigger, meaner, and deadlier entities definitely dwelled within.

So there was a rule: silence in the Forest is bad; sudden or even gradual silence should be treated like an imminent threat—like all the smaller creatures and typical beasties know something you don't and have wisely decided to cower in fear until it passes—and anyone roaming the woods needs to do his or her best to get the hell out as quickly as possible.

In all his years at Hogwarts, Sirius had before experienced only two of those silent spells, and, honestly, he'd been so unnerved by them that he'd taken hours both times just to stop shaking, the animal part of his brain whimpering and whining about just how lucky he'd been to escape the unseen menace.

Unfortunately, Padfoot had a trail to follow and couldn't enjoy the simple luxury of slinking home with his tail between his legs. The eerie, ear-splitting silence only made his search for Mina all the more urgent. Because she was out there, somewhere in those icy, soundless woods. Possibly alone. Maybe hurt. Maybe even face-to-face with a predator so deadly that other predators froze in terror at its very presence.

Ya. So. Screw the rule: Padfoot wasn't leaving without his girl.

The large black dog sniffed and snuffled his way through the dense trees, pausing occasionally when the fading scent trace (hours old already, but certainly better than nothing) veered or briefly vanished. Sometimes he was able to follow hoofprints in the snow, but time and intermittent flurries had erased most of the obvious evidence. He had no idea what Mina would've been doing this far out, especially because she was definitely Mina and not Sunny; as if her choosing to make such a trek in human rather than lupine form wasn't strange enough, she seemed to be in the company of at least two… maybe three or more centaurs. One of whom was Firenze. What the heck was she doing following a herd of centaurs so deep into the Forest? What the heck were centaurs doing bringing her along? Maybe if it were just Firenze that would make sense, but the rest weren't particularly known for their hospitality… and they weren't too fond of humans in general…

However, the cold trail still seemed to point inevitably at the centaur village. And as Padfoot approached, he got the odd sense that the silence originated in that direction. He grew more and more nervous as he slunk along the hard-packed dirt paths (where somehow the blankets of falling snow couldn't seem to stick) between the enormously tall, widely spaced, worryingly empty huts, through what appeared to be the village center and then had to keep going as the Mina's scent grew slightly more distinct.

Not in the village then, but not too far beyond it. A few more minutes down a well-worn track through the trees revealed a large clearing, the canopy cut back in an almost conical shape and the air noticeably at least ten degrees warmer. Though the sun currently shined overhead, Padfoot guessed that it must've been where centaurs did the majority of their stargazing.

And also, apparently, where they did their weird psycho rituals on unconscious, naked teenage girls.

xxXxx

Her downcast vision deciphered nothing but dingy kitchen tiles and sleek black wingtips. Clutching her brother's hand, the girl shouted, "We don't want to!"

"Why not, dear little Romy?" laughed Mr. Shiny Shoes. He squatted a bit and tapped her under the chin, clearing trying to get her to meet his eyes. But she really didn't like looking him in the eye (it gave her and her brother a bad headache); that day, however, she had a different reason for hiding her face. "I promise it'll be just for a few minutes. You won't have to be apart for long, and then we can have lunch."

Huffing, the girl resisted efforts to redirect her gaze. She focused on those very shiny shoes and let her matted sandy hair form a curtain between her and the rest of the world. "No," she insisted, "We're not hungry! Go away!"

The slim man sighed. For all that they didn't like him much, he always proved far more patient than their mother ever did; he was rather strangely kind as well, even when the twins refused to cooperate with his odd requests. "Romy," he murmured, "Is something the matter?"

Shaking her head, the girl remained silent and shuffled closer to her brother.

"Are you sure?" asked Mr. Shiny Shoes. His fingers clasped her chin again, slightly more forceful but still almost loving in comparison to how the girl was usually handled.

Though her eyes lifted from the floor, she was feeling quite stubborn and still refused to look at Mr. Shiny Shoes. Instead, she let her gaze slide to the right and focused on the frayed seam covering her brother's shoulder.

A soft gasp alerted the girl that the action had probably disrupted her protective hair curtain and exposed the livid purple bruise staining most of the left side of her face. (She made her brother promise not to heal it; she didn't want anyone to know their trick; their mother would surely find some way of stopping them from using it, and then they wouldn't be able to help each other anymore.) "Oh, Romy," said Mr. Shiny Shoes, his wand flicking back and forth in her periphery, "How did this happen?"

"I had a bad dream," the girl murmured, angry and terrified in equal measures, frustrated with her helplessness, "Mummy doesn't like me to talk about them." Especially not the wolf dream, which had become a quite frequent occurrence on the nights she actually managed (or was forced) to sleep.

Before the man could answer (like he usually did with sympathy and kindness but no actual help), she bellowed, "If you were really our friend, you wouldn't let her hurt us! And since you do, you're not our friend. So stop pretending!"

Her brother's hand squeezing rhythmically around her own helped calm the girl. But not by much. Barely enough not to respond with more hatred when Mr. Shiny Shoes waved off an expert healing spell and promised, "You'll understand when you're older."

xxXxx

"Holy fucking shit," whispered Sirius, hardly aware that he had shifted back to human form, let alone that he was speaking aloud in the presence of a lot of centaurs, all of whom were staring at where his unconscious, naked girlfriend had been laid out in the center of the clearing across an… an altar? "Holy fu-"

An enormous calloused hand quickly slapped across his mouth, and the young man kicked, punched, and bit as best he could, resisting being dragged away because that was Mina out there (her entire body eerily pale, painted all over with runes and other unknown symbols), and there was no way in goddamn hell she'd agreed to whatever the hell was going on. What the hell?!

"I am sorry." It was Firenze, and that was at least a slightly good sign. "I didn't know this would happen, but if you interrupt the ceremony before it is through, Mina may not recover. Please. Quiet. I will explain once she is out of danger."

Only because it was Firenze, who he trusted and Mina trusted, only because the four-legged bastard sounded so scared and genuine did Sirius keep his mouth shut. At least for the time being. Well, ok, that lasted all of ten seconds. "This is not acceptable!" the young man shouted, getting right in his much taller friend's face, "What the fuck do you people think you're doing?! Mina didn't actually agree to go along with… whatever the fuck is going on! I know her well enough to know that without a doubt! You can't just- What the fuck?!"

With a barely audible sigh, Firenze held one finger to his lips and used his other hand to gesture at the wand sticking out of Sirius's pocket. Only after the young man understood what was being asked of him and cast an appropriate privacy spell did the centaur begin to explain.

"My mother met Mina last year, when they were both helping Hagrid care for the unicorns, you remember?"

Though Sirius hadn't been present for said meeting and hadn't met the older centaur until she showed up to be the new Divination professor, he had been informed of those events and nodded. He also made an exasperated get on with it noise that had the rest of the tale coming at him in a rush.

"My mother recognized then that Mina had potential as a seer," Firenze sighed, "It's not really quite as rare an ability as your people believe. Many witches and wizards possess at least a rudimentary degree of… I don't know… Sensitivity? Oftentimes it has more to do with a particular magical energy that manifests in some cores but not others. At some moments but not others. You've probably had visions that you aren't even aware of. Dreams or… I think your term is déjà vu? Usually nothing significant. But Mina…"

He shook his head, peachy blonde braids tumbling back and forth as his long legs paced anxiously. "The reason that centaurs have such an easy time identifying strong seers is that their magic is most similar to our own. It is especially obvious to elders such as my mother, who have had much more practice attuning to the signals that the universe provides. My mother said that she has never encountered a magical resemblance such as she saw in Mina. And my mother also said that she has never encountered someone with so much potential who seemed so entirely ignorant of their own gift.

"She was intrigued, and after we left with the unicorns, my mother brought the incident to the attention of the other village elders. They consulted the stars and found little, which was strange by itself. We have been reading omens of war for decades, and will likely continue to do so as long as humans remain. However, everything seemed a bit dimmed… And both Magorian and my mother read blindness, as well as pain if it was allowed to continue.

"I tried to convince them that Mina's bout of blindness over the summer might be responsible, but the same omens persisted even after her sight returned. And when my mother was offered the Divination post, the elders decided that she would take it, that she would investigate further and try to coax Mina into accepting her path. Dumbledore, of course, failed to mention that Mina does not take Divination. My mother has had almost no opportunities to even interact with Mina, who is still holding a bit of a grudge against her. I was urged to find out what I could-"

Sirius drew in a sharp breath, an ice-cold wave of betrayal washing over him.

Of course, Firenze seemed to sense as much and sheepishly insisted, "I didn't. I did my best not to meddle at all. I… Mina is my friend. I know how seers are treated by your people. And… And she seemed to hate even the idea so much that I couldn't… I told my mother that Mina should be left alone, that no matter what abilities she might possess, she did not accept them. The future is inevitable, but knowledge of what is to come is a heavy burden that should not be forced upon the unwilling…

"When my mother and some of the other elders asked for me to arrange a meeting, I didn't think… We don't meddle like this. We don't. I thought they just wanted to talk to her. I know they didn't trust my judgment, but I thought if they could just talk to her and hear that she wasn't interested… I'm sorry. My mother initiated the ritual before I could do anything to prevent her, and once it starts, it can't be stopped without danger."

Seething—because as rambling as that story had become, the gist of Mina got tricked and kidnapped by crazy centaurs and is now in danger remained clear—Sirius demanded, "Explain to me exactly what's happening and why I shouldn't blast our way out of here."

Firenze sighed. He looked nervous and embarrassed but declared, "There is a rare plant that grows only in places where a unicorn has slept under the light of a full moon. Its entire lifespan is normally no more than a few hours, during which it flowers but once and then wilts and dies. The tiny blue flowers of the plant, if they can be located and collected before death, are used to make a powder that, when inhaled, allows a being to see what needs to be seen. My people are only seldom able to find enough of the flowers to be useful, and due to certain… side-effects, we only bother if we have a specific purpose in mind. Such as convincing a potentially powerful seer that she is, in fact, a seer."

"Side-effects?" grumbled Sirius (because he wasn't touching the rest of that nonsense).

"The substance… it opens beings more completely to what the universe is attempting to tell them," Firenze said, "And, make no mistake, the universe is nearly always attempting to tell each of us something. The powder amplifies the ability to recognize these messages, but, unfortunately, it also amplifies other senses as well. Hearing and touch worst of all. Talking at a normal volume could deafen her. Clothing likely would've felt like brambles against her skin. The sigils help protect her, somewhat, but they are far from perfect… I know seeing her like she is disturbs you, but it was done out of necessity. She was not handled inappropriately or disrespectfully." He shuffled, sheepishly. "This likely won't be of much comfort, but to be offered the powder is… considered a great honor among my people. Even more so for a human. Hence the ceremony."

Sirius really didn't know how to react to any of that. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure that he wasn't in shock, sort of numb to anything about the situation that wasn't Mina's wellbeing. Confusion and indignation and anger could wait until he managed to get her far away from the crazy-as-shit centaurs. And their magical roofies. "You realize, of course, that when Mina wakes up, she is quite likely going to burn down your village. At the very least."

Another uncomfortable shuffle from the tall half-horse. "Yes, I did warn the elders of that and similar possibilities," he remarked, almost laughing, "They seemed to think I was exaggerating."

With a bitter chuckle, Sirius decided he had another reason to look forward to his lovely girlfriend's return to consciousness.

xxXxx

They had been waiting so long to meet their daddy. Mummy shouted about him sometimes, calling him a liar and a scoundrel and all other sorts of mean names, but the twins didn't care. Hardly anyone ever visited, and, even if the man didn't listen to their pleas and save them from her, then at least he was a new face to make their lives a bit less dull.

"Awfully scrawny," Daddy slurred as he bent down in front of them, teetering from side-to-side and reeking the same way Mummy did when she drank the bad drink. Still, he smiled, and that was far more affection than they usually received. The balding man even poked Remy lightly in the belly before turning away and hissing, "Merlin's freckled balls, Genevieve. What'm I sendin you money for if you're not usin it to feed the little bastards?"

Mummy sneered, most of her pale, yellowy face hidden in a curtain of dull, greasy blonde hair. "You want 'em fed," she spat back, "Then show up and feed 'em your own fuckin self! S'been three years since I even seen your sorry arse, Cassius! I don't want to listen to lectures about how to raise the bloody leeches you stuck me with!"

"Gen," Daddy sighed, "I'm just… busy-"

"Going to parties, getting laid, getting drunk and high," Mummy yelled in response, "Don't you think I want to be doin that too?! But nooooo! I gotta be here! With them! Hardly the life I imagined when I stupidly agreed not to abort your hideous spawn! Or do you not remember promising to marry me and give me everything-"

"We want to show Daddy our room," the girl piped up, not really caring to have their slim chance of rescue waylaid by a drunken rant that, even at her young age, she could almost recite from memory.

She didn't flinch when their mother's expression darkened and hand drew back. Honestly, even if the girl hadn't been used to being smacked, she really hoped that now that Daddy was there, now that he would see what was happening, that the man would stop the hit before it landed, that he would be horrified and take them away to somewhere safe and happy and-

WHACK.

No such luck. Either his reflexes were terrible or he just didn't care, and the girl ended up as she usually did, sprawled on the dirty floor with her ears ringing and head spinning, hardly able to decipher the screaming that continued above.

Daddy didn't seem happy about seeing his daughter so viciously backhanded, but just the fact that he didn't even stoop down to check if she was ok, that all he wanted to do was yell at their mother didn't seem promising.

Though she always hated when he did, her brother skinned his knees in the haste to kneel down at her side and inspect the wide gash that split her cheekbone and the bridge of her nose. He frowned, practically vibrating with rage and ignoring the stupid adults. The twins clasped hands, and her brother gently swiped their joined fists across the wound.

A rush of magic, a burn and a tingle, and while the girl's face suddenly began to feel a bit better, her brother's started to show an identical cut. Hers wasn't gone, but it was much shallower than it had been mere moments ago; his was… equal. Even his rapidly darkening bruise seemed to match the one she could feel on her own throbbing skin.

"Told you not to do that anymore, not in front of anybody," she scolded without speaking, curling closer, noting that her headache was half vanished but her knees were suddenly bloody, about half as much as her brother's had been and soaking through her thin leggings.

He grinned goofily, wincing as the shouting increased in volume. His lips didn't move, but just from the sparkling in his caramel eyes and the movement of his tawny brows, she heard, "If Daddy heals us, he's not totally useless. If he doesn't, then it's just another Tuesday with dear old Mum."

"Cynic."

"Quit using words I don't know."

"If you would just read that neato Dictionary thingie-"

"Some of us like to sleep-"

"Unfair-"

"ENOUGH!"

They jumped a bit, staring wide-eyed at their father as he glowered down at the pathetic wretch that was their mother. If they didn't hate her so much, they might've felt sorry for her. Fortunately, their daddy spun away from her after a brief moment and, still slurring, still obviously agitated, managed to smile as he declared, "Show me your room, ok?"

They did, hands clenched tightly together. As soon as the door was shut they turned around and were very pleasantly surprised when the man actual did cast a series of clumsy but effective healing spells on their various injuries. He didn't seem to notice that the twins' injuries matched almost perfectly.

"We don't like it here," said the girl.

"Mummy drinks bad stuff and yells and hurts us and won't give us food," said her brother.

"Please," the girl added.

"Don't make us stay," her brother begged, his eyes so huge and pitiful that the girl couldn't help shuffling closer in an attempt at comfort.

Daddy… just kept on smiling. Like the absolute idiot that he was. "Oh," he chuckled, "I'm sure it's not as bad as all that. Gen loves you both. You just have to try to behave for her, alright? Don't talk back so much. She has a temper, but if you just-"

"We understand," they declared, the identical disappointment and sorrow and helplessness that welled up in them made the twins forget themselves, made them do the double-speak thing that drove their mother crazy.

"If that's all," murmured the girl.

"Then we have headaches," declared her brother.

They smirked mirthlessly and turned their backs on him (just like he was so determined to do to them); they would've felt alone if not for the fact that nothing had really changed. And that they always had each other.

"Goodbye, Daddy," they chimed.

That night, for the very first but by no means last time, the girl dreamed of a wolf.

xxXxx

Thankfully, Mina's seer abilities seemed to be rubbing off on her friends. Well, that or James was just very lucky not to have left his internship application in his bag on a morning when he would not only have to hand said bag to Sirius, but would also end up with lots of time to kill as he waited in the Hospital Wing for Remus to wake from his mysterious, inexplicable fainting spell.

(The nurse had diagnosed magical exhaustion, though no one was exactly sure just how the poor berk had achieved such a state when he wasn't even doing anything more strenuous than walking down the hallway.)

James sighed and scrawled another line of the short essay required by his forms. Since Healer Cadwallader had personally shown up to give him the application, the young man didn't think he was anything less than guaranteed; however, he wasn't interested in half-arsing his efforts, not to mention the fact that the topic itself—what inspired your interest in healing?—was one on which he had copious amounts to say.

The problem, of course, was that writing out even the more innocuous and amusing anecdotes about having reversed his friends' injuries made him feel all the more helpless at not being able to do anything useful at the current moment. With Mina missing, Sirius chasing after her, Pete chasing after him, and Remus downed by a mysterious illness, James couldn't accomplish anything more constructive than haunting the infirmary and doggedly trying to get a jump on his future.

"What are you working on?"

James leapt nearly out of his skin, heart hammering as he whirled around to see that Lily and Mary had finally returned from the last of their classes, that the gorgeous redhead he was now—amazingly—actually friends with had been reading over his shoulder. Doing his best not to squirm as he tried to cover the parchment, he muttered, "It's… er… well, apparently I impressed some people with that stasis spell I cast. I got offered a chance to apply to a summer internship at St. Mungo's."

Mary smiled and congratulated him before focusing her attention back onto Remus.

Lily's reaction proved a bit more interesting. "That's…" she stammered, looking at him like she'd never seen him before, "That's just… wow. I had no idea you were interested in becoming a healer. And I know those internships are really exclusive. They only let in a handful of sixth years from all over the world. You should be proud."

"I was just, er…" the young man replied, valiantly fighting the urge to preen under such admiration from a source he very much craved, "In the right place at the right time. Well, I guess I should say that Mina managed to nearly get herself killed again at the right place at the right time."

Lily giggled brightly at gave his arm a playful swat.

James ducked his head to hide the immensely pleased grin that blossomed on his reddening face.

xxXxx

"She called."

The young werewolf blinked rapidly to clear his vision, even though the odd sight of his grandmother (who was dead yet somehow just as tall and imposing as ever) remained. "She can't," he growled, years of bitterness coloring his words, filling the cheerful, familiar parlor, "You made sure of that."

"Nevertheless," said Grandmother, as she glided into her favorite chair and crossed her long legs with more ease and grace than her arthritic joints had permitted during most of the last decade of her life, "She called. You still cannot answer, of course, but I believe it is safe to assume that your sister will begin to remember."

A hopeful dread filled Remus as he found himself hurriedly blurting, "The barriers are breaking? Is that supposed to happen? Will she be alright?"

With a very slight nod and an even slighter smile, Grandmother replied, "Even our most conservative estimates did not have the barriers beginning to erode on their own for at least another ten years. Joy's math is rarely wrong, but it seems as though she vastly underestimated the strength of Mina's magic, as well as its efficiency in healing the damage that was done… and, yes, I believe your sister will be alright. However, the safest course of action now is to have Joy gradually dismantle the barriers. I shudder to think of the backlash that could occur if they were to fall without warning."

Remus… he had so many questions. Questions that jostled for space on the tip of his tongue (What sort of backlash? Joy placed the barriers? Does she know they're falling? Why hasn't she done more for than get Mina poisoned and then creep around the hospital afterward?). However, just as he was about to voice these concerns, he noticed that the usual warning bells that accompanied the vows he took at the tender age of five were not going off. "I… I can talk about this…" he drawled, eyeing his grandmother suspiciously, "Is that just because I'm talking to you? Is this all in my head? Or are the vows-"

"I cannot release you," Grandmother wearily proclaimed. Whatever she was—ghost, apparition, echo, figment—seemed entirely genuine as it added, "I had always intended to. I had intended to tell Mina myself and accept responsibility for the mistakes I made. But my death was sudden. I should've been smart enough to make provisions, but, as it stands, you can only be released once Mina knows the truth... However, you may have noticed that my death has allowed you far more leeway in the quality of your hints."

Rolling his eyes, Remus declared, "Ya, I did gather that. Thanks so much."

Grandmother fixed him with a no-nonsense glare. "What your tone, young man," she drawled, "Death has not made me any less deserving of proper courtesy, nor has it robbed me of the ability to tan your backside. I daresay watching you explain an injury of that nature to the mediwitch would be worth wrestling you over my knee."

Remus sighed and tugged at his wild sandy hair. After several deep, calming breaths, he declared, "You know, I tried to tell Mina what happened. Right after she woke up, in fact. I was struck mute for two days, and you didn't seem to notice. Even thinking about the whole thing used to make my head split, so I just learned not to think about it at all… I hated you for a long time for letting them do what they did to us, and I hated you even more for swearing me to secrecy. It always felt like another betrayal against my sister."

For several long minutes, the old woman seemed weary. Sad. "I failed you both quite horribly," she murmured, "I hope that you believe I did what I thought was best… and that someday you can forgive me." She smoothed down her prim skirt and the white hair of her austere bun. "But even if you cannot, I know you will take care of each other, and that brings peace to my old heart."

A charged silence followed before Remus slumped, staring up at a ceiling that couldn't have been the exact one he remembered from their grandmother's parlor but nonetheless bore all the same plaster patterns and faint cracks. "I want to tell her everything," he murmured, despondent, "I want to shelter her from everything. I want… Merlin. I don't know what I want. I can't tell her, and having her find out on her own will only make the situation even more devastating… What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't have answers for you, Remus," Grandmother whispered, her gnarled hands clenching and unclenching in an uncharacteristic show of nerves, "You must speak to Joy-"

"I'd love to, if only she'd quit skulking around like a crazy person-"

"Listen," the old woman hissed, "From what I understand, Joy can not only remove the barriers, but she might also be able to repair the damage from the separation ritual. All she's done since disappearing is research a method, and she has almost certainly succeeded or she wouldn't have bothered to return. You will never have your bond restored, but Mina could be made whole again."

Tears sprang into his eyes as his right hand covered his heart, the phantom ache there that was at once an agony and a comfort.

xxXxx

"This is weird," James murmured, fidgeting anxiously at his friend's bedside while the comatose werewolf did what comatose werewolves did best.

A discreet snort from the shadows signaled the Defense professor had returned to lurk and loom. Although Lazarov hadn't said much as she drifted in and out of the infirmary, James got the impression that she felt at least an appropriate minimum of concern. Or maybe she was just especially curious about what had befallen the brother of one of her more promising students.

Rolling her eyes on the other side of their friend's curtained cot, Lily tipped her chair backward and forward a few times as she remarked, "You're going to have to work on your medical jargon, Healer Potter."

James was man enough to admit to a bit of pouting as he complained, "That's potential Trainee Healer Potter to you, madame."

Lily dissolved into chuckles that, while probably unsuitably loud and jovial for an infirmary, had the young man's heart skipping several beats. "Madame?" she laughed, "Did you just call me madame?"

"Any sign of them?" Mary asked, perking up as Pete returned from his jaunt around the nearest border of the Forbidden Forest.

A short shake of his pasty blonde head indicated that he'd had no luck locating either Mina or Sirius.

James didn't like being even one Marauder down; three Marauders down actually made him quite twitchy.

xxXxx

"Romy, sweetheart." The healer trembling on the other side of the cell bars had been one of their least favorite, the one who kept trying to separate them even after all the others just gave in and let the twins be. A whole month they had to listen to lectures about how inappropriate it was for a little boy and a little girl to share a bed. Like they didn't share everything anyways. The healer was also the one who had insisted, just hours earlier, that her brother was going to die.

Shows what he knows.

"You need to c-c-come away from there, love. P-Please. I-It's not safe."

Glowering in disgust (really, did adults always have to be so stupid?), the girl snarled, "Go away, you liars. We don't need you."

The little fingers wound through her brother's coarse silvery fur seemed to vibrate with the force of his answering growl, the sound bouncing around the dirty cell. She grinned, "Remy think so, too. He doesn't like your smells. He thinks you all smell like rotten garbage, and he wants you to go away!"

A different man… a man that she recognized, even though she couldn't see his face in the shadows, shoved past the trio of healers. When he spoke, he didn't sound scared like the rest; he sounded… excited. "You can communicate with the beast?" the man breathed, almost drooling in his obvious awe, "You understand it?"

She knew that voice. "Mr. Shiny Shoes?" the girl wondered aloud, even as her brother placed himself between her and the bars and snarled menacingly. His hackles raised like steely spikes and his densely muscled body tensed to prepare for attack.

The man chuckled; he did find their name for him ever so amusing. "What else does it say, Romy?"

Scowling, the girl announced, "Remy's not an it!" She cocked her head a bit to listen to her brother before adding, "And he doesn't want me to talk to you anymore. He says you're a very bad man."

Even with such a statement hanging between them, Mr. Shiny Shoes still positively radiated glee. "How did you get in there with him, Romy? You shouldn't have been able to get past the locks, never mind the wards." He didn't sound scolding at all. Just perversely curious.

Ugh. So stupid. "He was hurting, and he called me," she declared, like the answer should've been apparent to everyone with half a brain, "I helped him feel better. You can't keep us apart. We won't let you. Just go away and leave us alone!"

For a few minutes, there was quiet. Or near enough as Mr. Shiny Shoes and the trio of frazzled healers bickered in rapid, indistinct murmurs. The girl felt tired, even more so than when she normally answered her brother's calls (she usually didn't have to cross such a vast distance or crash through such powerful wards, and the actions left her drained and sore); she would've sat if the floor hadn't been caked with a disgusting crust of rancid bodily fluids (she was furious that they'd locked Remy up in such a horrible place). Instead, she leaned against her brother, snuggling into his warm furry neck and sighing contentedly when he returned a soothing rumble.

The argument on the other side of the bars increased sharply in volume, Mr. Shiny Shoes bellowing, "Are you out of your minds?! Do you have any idea of the groundbreaking potential of this discovery?! It would be criminal to destroy their bond at this stage of-"

"You conniving bastard! You knew all about this didn't you?! You suspected-"

"I am a Ministry employee, and my confidential research has been sanctioned by the uppermost levels of my department-"

"Mysteries, I'll bet. So the Unspeakables are experimenting on children these days, eh?! You lot are a disgrace! Bloody worse abominations than the boy!"

"Oh, Merlin. Was the bite even an accident?! Did you purposely have that boy infected just to see what would happen?!"

"I did no such-"

"SECURITY! I NEED THE SECURITY TROLL IN HERE RIGHT NOW! CODE FUSCHIA!"

"Now wait one damn minute! You are interfering with vital research-"

"The boy might be a lost cause, but I'll not let his madness destroy the girl along with him! If we can get them separated, then she might have a chance-"

"And you call me a disgrace! You are talking about carving apart their very souls-"

"Better than the alternative-"

"Ignorant fools! You can't possibly think that- hey! Get your hands off me! I am a Ministry employee-"

"We'll be sure to let the aurors know when they haul you off. Get this filth out of my sight, Grong. I don't care if he comes back bleeding to death! He is never to be allowed in the building again!"

"You can't be- stop it, beast! You're making a mistake! There is a damn good reason bonded twins are no longer forcibly separated! And with how close those two are, with this new development, you'll destroy them both!"

"Sorry to say, but it's still better than the alternative. Do you have any idea what you've done, you idiot? The rogue packs, the Ministry, every dark witch or wizard on the planet. The sheer carnage they could inflict if got their hands on a werewolf who could be so easily tamed and controlled?! And by a mere child, no less! If they gain the knowledge to duplicate these results… We have to break their link. It's… it's for the safety of all humankind! And a mercy for the girl! She'll just be slowly consumed by her brother's madness, or enslaved by another and forced to-"

"A mercy?! Rubbish! You're scared and won't take the time to even try to understand! You'd rather maim and probably murder two children! Yes, bravo. Such a righteous and morally upstanding citizen you are! Such a superior option than doing your best to protect and harness a force that could very well cure a disease that's plagued our community for thousands of years! I hope you're proud of yourselves! When my department is through with you, you'll all be begging to be chucked into Azkaban!"

The shouting mostly tapered off as Mr. Shiny Shoes seemed to be dragged away, as the healers went back to their hushed conference, occasionally peering through the cell bars with nervous, terrified, disgusted, calculating, pitying, apologetic, cold looks in their eyes.

Dreading daylight, the girl wept silently into her brother's fur.

xxXxx

Sirius had never been known for possessing an abundance (or, depending on who was asked, a reasonable amount) of patience; the longer he stood in the oppressively warm clearing, glaring at the oppressively silent centaurs as they ignored him and stared at Mina (naked, unconscious, probably-going-to-slaughter-everyone-when-she-woke-up Mina), the more the young man had to fight the instinctive, near overwhelming urge to grab her and run away. Far, far away, hopefully to a country that had never even heard of seers.

He might've done it, too, if not for the fact that he doubted he could battle his way past the dozens of rather enormous centaurs, all of whom seemed to be armed with at least bows and arrows; some also carried a variety of knives, axes, spears, staffs, boomerangs, and bolas. Actually, Sirius was quite surprised and disturbed by just how well-armed they were; he wondered if they conducted all their important ceremonies in a similar fashion—or if they actually had been smart enough to plan ahead for Mina's inevitable violent meltdown.

Fidgeting in place from an odd combination of boredom and fear, the young man did his best not to groan aloud. Next time I end up having to chase Mina all over creation, he thought to himself, I'll have to remember to bring a crossword or something… Stupid centaurs. I can't even enjoy my girl being naked. They've managed to make nudity completely unsexy. How is that even possible?

Hours of such nonsense passed, Sirius's restlessness increasing all the while as the sun inched closer and closer to and then touched the treetops. Firenze shot him the occasional concerned and/or apologetic glance, but mostly nothing else happened. Until finally, finally something did.

Sirius likely only noticed the beginning of the low creak because, after such a long stretch of strictly enforced silence, the faint sound might as well have been a cannon blast. At first, he thought the noise was coming from Mina, but then the altar beneath her prone body suddenly started cracking, small spider-web fissures splitting the rough-hewn stone. The small cracks gradually became larger and larger, branching out, joining up with one another until the entire carved slab looked to be one good tap away from crumbling to dust.

The centaur elders (a particularly somber group of seven that included Firenze's mother) stepped away from the rest of the crowd and cautiously approached. Elda carried with her a large, soft-looking black animal skin, which she wrapped around Mina before scooping the girl easily off the altar. Only seconds later, the stone seemed to disintegrate, all the fine, gritty remnants carried away in the breeze, vanishing into the twilight like they had never even existed. "It is done," declared Elda.

Sirius didn't know why he was expecting applause and celebration, but neither occurred; instead, the gathering dispersed with an anticlimactic lack of fanfare. Figuring that quiet was no longer so vital to his girl's health, he marched straight up to the half-horses, held out his arms, and demanded, "Give her here."

During their previous interactions, Elda had made it rather clear that she wasn't terribly fond of Sirius. He couldn't blame her; the only time they spoke was during Divination, and, throughout many years of torturing the late Professor Giles, Sirius had gotten into the habit of being particularly badly behaved during that particular class. Out of respect for Firenze, the young Marauder tried his best to hold back, but the fact remained that he had done little to earn Elda's favor and much to earn her ire.

The glare she leveled at him made all the rest seem like doe eyes in comparison and could've sent lesser men diving for cover. "You were allowed to remain as a courtesy," Elda declared, "Do not interpret the gesture to imply that your opinions are wanted. We will care for the girl. She will be returned to school when she has sufficiently recovered."

Blood boiling as hours of stubborn silence and completely uncharacteristic patience caught up with him, Sirius didn't even attempt to calm his answering shout of, "Well excuse the fucking hell outta me for not trusting you with the safety of the woman I love! You fucking drug her, kidnap her, strip her naked so that your whole fucking insane village can stare at her for an entire Merlin forsaken day, and you think I'm the one who doesn't deserve the right to take care of her?!" He stomped closer, glowering straight up (wondering how Mina ever pulled off being intimidating and short, because it was damn hard). "Listen up, you bunch of overgrown pack mules! Do you want to know what tomorrow's headline is going to read? Vicious Forest Beasts Abduct and Assault Intended Bride to the Heir of a Noble and Most Ancient House!"

There were murmurs, huffs of anger and disbelief.

But fuck that shit. "Hell, I don't even have to play the wronged-pureblood card to ruin you," the young man declared, "The Ministry would exterminate you all for less than a misdemeanor, and this… well, it's a lot more than a misdemeanor, isn't it? In fact, I'm fairly certain you've broken just about every treaty your race has ever signed with ours by as much as touching Mina without permission. But then, of course, you went above and beyond into actual acts of war! I love Mina. I'll do anything to keep her safe. That includes standing around like a bloody moron waiting for the shit you drugged her with to wear off, and it includes seeing the lot you slaughtered rather than let you molest her any further. So. I repeat. Give her here."

The unconscious bundle of teenage witch and silky black fur was handed over, grudgingly but swiftly. With a fierce glare, Elda announced, "She must remain until she wakes."

"That's not a good idea," snapped Sirius. He held his girl close, relieved but vigilant; no way was he letting anyone take her from him again. "Mina is going to wake up angry, and you're going to want her to be very, very far away. I can't even imagine what she's going to do to you arseholes, but a little distance and some extra time to calm down might just save your lives." The young man spun on his heel, more than ready to get the hell out of there.

However, he had barely taken a step when the earth began to tremble, the ground shaking harder and harder for the longest thirty seconds on record. With the sound and shape of thunderbolts, radiating outward from the spot where he struggled to remain standing, long gashes broke through the packed dirt. Seeing as Sirius didn't think he was in any way responsible for such seismic activity, the young man stared down at Mina.

Her pale, pretty face remained blank until the last of the quake bled away to stillness and silence that put the whole rest of the day to shame. Gradually, after more long, breathless moments, Mina opened her murky blue eyes.

She clutched her heart, arched her spine, and screamed.

xxxxxxxxxx

Hopefully this chapter wasn't too confusing to anyone. Yes, Mina's drug-induced flashbacks are out of order. She's pretty much tripping balls through her traumatic early years, haha. Also, did anyone catch that Remus finally got a POV? I'll probably let him narrate occasionally from now on.

Don't know when the next update will be. To be honest, I've already restarted it twice and might end up scrapping it again for another attempt. Stubborn little bastard just doesn't want to cooperate, but w/e.

And remember, every time you review, a fairy gets its wings. Every time you leave a long review, a fairy gets armed to the teeth with as many tiny chainsaws and shotguns as her heart desires. True story.