Flame to the Fyre Chronicles #1: Black Blood

[A/N: this is nowhere near my first fan fic, but I haven't written one in years, and this is my first hp attempt. Please review, and send me an opinion. I'll try to have an update every week, key word try. Also, I could use a beta reader, because I can write really confusingly, and I'd be more than willing to return the favor! Thank you, and enjoy. -sakhara291]

Sinia Santrai was not a noticeable sight at Hogwarts- unless you were Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, or had a particular vehemence for Sorcery Blood and happened to know she was there. If you didn't look her in the eyes, she was almost commonplace. The only giveaway of the hard- won battle for her humanity were the jet black wings that rode lightly on her back, even though their crests went to the top of her head and stretched down to the backs of her knees. They faded in and out as the spell- casting suited her, though generally they were hidden with a Disillusion or Reduction charm so as not to attract attention or get in someone's way. Harry Potter had never noticed her in his two years at Hogwarts, but she'd watched him with a vigilance accounted only the insane and the murderous. She was both, when awarded the opportunity, but not tonight, nor tomorrow. After all, the only reason she had for murder was not within reach yet, and Albus had been clear. "You owe it to me, Sinia, to do as I ask you to do, not as you wish to do." So she stood, waiting, the last hurdle between Voldemort and Harry. She was a Black- Blood Sorceress, graduated out of Hogwarts, long ago banned from the British Isles after she'd been set free from Azkaban. She watched the class change quietly, rubbing her left hand ring finger with a slightly absent look on her face. Sinia had lost her heart and a good portion of her will twelve years ago, when she was arrested at the altar. She knew why, then, that he was late. And she knew, now, why they'd stolen her engagement ring from her. Severus's schoolboy crush on her face had not left in the decade past, and she resented it, for every time she looked in his eyes she saw Sirius, pushing him off her wings as she walked to class, a handful of black feathers littering the floor behind them. She heard his voice, ringing back to it's sixteen- year- old timbre, "Sinia, there isn't a deity in this world who can stop me from killing him, outright, if he does one more thing against you!" She saw James, pushing and shoving Severus out of the tunnel, narrowly missed by the Whomping Willow. James voice, yelling. "Sirius, don't lie to me, you knew damn well what would happen! And I can't say I blame you, but there are better ways to take out vengeance on an ass who taunts your girlfriend!" There was bad and good, and when Sinia could manage the feat, she avoided both of them, living within the shadows of who she'd been. There was little reason to trouble with living, less for dying, and nothing worth loving. The only reason she was still alive was simple. Her godson's life was at stake.

***

Sirius laid his head on his paws, stood back up, paced around his cell several times, and sat back down. Peter was burning his way through a mind already warped by loss and fear. Briefly, in memory, he saw her smile, but he shrugged it off. For all he knew, Sinia was dead, Sinia was gone, Sinia had found someone else to complete her life and he was a mutt stuck in Dementor Central. The rage poured through him at this turn of events, and he shrugged that off, as well. Harry's second term at Hogwarts would have just ended a few weeks ago. Cornelius Fudge was concerned with his seeming wealth of sanity, and perhaps he should have been ashamed of how proud he was. Sirius Black, sane? After twelve years. But Peter was at Hogwarts. So was his godson, and Peter would not stop at anything once Voldemort was back into power. He sighed. Prongs, where are you when I need you most? but he was partially responsible for that misfortune as well, partially responsible for everything. He had not been there when Voldemort had descended upon he and Sinia's home, fully intent on possessing the last Black- Blood- Sorceress to have been born in fifty years. He had not been there, and he had promised her. He'd failed James, Lily, Harry, Remus, Albus, Sinia. He didn't even know what the outcome of that battle had been. He'd been arrested before he could even apparate to his own wedding, getting arrested in his tuxedo. His mind was infinitely made up.
The Dementor reached in, opening the slot that held his food tray. Now was his chance. The bone- thin mutt named Sirius Black wiggled his way out of the prison that had held him for twelve years.

***

Sinia walked into Professor Dumbledore's office, slightly surprised to see Cornelius Fudge there, ranting and raving in his typical panicked manner. She remained aloof and unreadable, as much as was manageable, stifling a grin at Fudge's antics.
"Good afternoon, Sinia. I trust you've met Cornelius Fudge?" Professor Dumbledore interrupted Fudge's tirade.
"Good afternoon, sirrah, and yes. We have met prior to today. You sent for me?"
Dumbledore stilled another outburst from Fudge. "You don't keep up with the papers, then, do you?" He shoved the morning edition of the Daily Prophet to her side of his desk. She walked closer to read- all she needed was the headline.
BLACK ESCAPES AZKABAN
"So he's gotten loose, has he?" she said quietly. "I told you, Albus, did I not?"
"You did, Sinia," Dumbledore's smile was faint, but present. "But under the circumstances, I don't believe it is a betting matter."
"You helped him escape, didn't you?" Cornelius burst.
Sinia eyed him coolly, suppressing a sweep of anger at the words. "I have no more wish to be on the wrong side of the Dementors than you do, Cornelius," she said softly. "Albus, is this why you brought me here?"
"We have good reason to believe that Sirius is headed this way, as a threat to Harry, Sinia," Dumbledore barely whispered these words, yet it seemed they filled the room. "Do you see our predicament?"
"That outside of Harry, I'm the best bait you have to catch him? It's not that hard to see," she eyed him coolly. "On the flip side, that would also make me a threat to Harry, wouldn't it?"
Albus nodded, relieved not to be forced the explanation.
"We do have measures at stake," Fudge cut in, "to be sure that you do not threaten him."
"Such as?"
"If there is any evidence to the contrary of your hunting down and isolating Black, if there is any evidence of your risking Harry's life, Sinia Santrai, you shall be slotted for a Dementor's Kiss just as quickly as your fiance has been," Fudge's face was positively livid.
Well, then," she replied coolly. "Perhaps someone should inform you that Harry risks his own hide quite well without a Sorceress's help."
"There is one more thing, Sinia," Dumbledore stopped her from walking out the door. "Remus will be coming to teach this year, and he requested, if it was possible, that you should meet him at King's Cross. Though I would understand if you had no interest in doing so."
"Remus?" her face was incredulous. "No, I... by all means, tell him I'd be happy to meet him. Good day to you, sirrah."
As she walked out the door, only one thought stayed in her mind.
What the hell?

***

Sinia calmly boarded the Hogwarts Express early in the morning, with the predawn darkness giving the ground a misty chill. It smelled late, and the train's whistle punctured the uneasy silence, as the great engine churned, lurching into a forward rhythm for its circular trek. Sinia sat in a booth in the last car, staring out the window. The staff eyed her uneasily, and she knew, but paid them no mind. She sat like that the entire trip, one leg pulled to her chest, her head resting on it. The other leg dangled, childlike, swaying in the space between the chair and the floor it couldn't reach. Her wings were spread forward slightly, so that she could sit comfortably. The only motion she made for the whole of the trip was to brush her hair, which drug almost as far toward the ground as her wings, out of her face. She was lost in thought. The thoughts of memories. Of Sirius. In her mind's eye, his brown eyes bored into hers, his voice breathed her name, his arms wrapped around her, his lips kissed hers, and she felt herself melt willingly into oblivion...
Her recollections were forcefully interrupted by a screeching whistle, and the train began to slow. She shook herself and sat straight, pulling her hair behind her ears. Composing herself, she stood and walked towards the door. When the train stopped and it slid open, she stepped out, her step as easy as though it had been rehearsed. On the top step of the platform she turned her head and saw Remus, sitting alone on a bench. She walked in his direction, then sat next to him. They had two hours before the students arrived. He raised his head when he felt the shift in weight on the boards, then his eyes widened slightly when he looked at her, taking in the drastic changes of the decade. He'd had a schoolboy crush on her as long as his first four years, but partially out of cowardice and partially out of difference to her and Sirius's relationship, he had let go. Taking in the length of her hair, he knew that there would be no wisdom in reviving it. Looking closer, he could see scars and worry lines hiding in the glitz of a beautiful face. But her best weaponry was missing. Her eyes were glassy and her smile was a million miles away, replaced by something haunting and cold. He sighed and gripped her hand, and she returned the squeeze, grateful for the comfort. Though there had never been a mutual attraction between them, they shared a bond that only two outcasts could have. They had been friends since their first trip on the train, both discouraged from keeping any other group's company, both dubbed sub- human by everyone they had come across. Remus, in fact, had probably saved her life, as he had found her trying to hold her own against a veritable gang of future Slytherins, led by Severus Snape, literally dragging her around the car by her hair as she kicked and fought. Sirius and James had been just behind him. Thus they had met. Sinia had a magnetic attraction from that point, the air of a victim who was trying to become the hero. She'd been the smart one, the brave one. Melodramatic and self- sacrificial, cool and calculating, independent and bitchy beyond god's own get- out. He'd never thought she was afraid of anything. But she'd spent the summer in a castle, alone, with the one person who could drive her to murderous rage. The terms of her imprisonment were strict enough to promise death for little breaches. She wasn't even supposed to leave the grounds.
"We should get in the train," she said quietly, loosening her grip on his hand. "Dumbledore will not hear the end if any student's parents see me board."
He nodded. "Forgive me, but once we get moving, I'll probably pass out. Full moon was last night."
She nodded, grinning sympathetically. The old warmth was still there, but the sparkle, the infectiousness, was gone from her smile, and she knew it. He offered her his arm, and they stood and walked into the train together. Old friends, good friends. He fell asleep on her shoulder as soon as he sat down.