After the Storm.

The first time that Harry had watched Jane come stumbling out of the shallow water, arms folded across her breasts, wet hair slicked across her face and pale with cold, her resemblance to her father had come as something of a shock. Now he got up, shook the sand from her towel and handed it to her. 'Is that the last of the gillyweed?' he asked.

Jane nodded. 'Where's Tonks?'

'She went to make tea.'

'How long ago?'

'About ten minutes.'

'Don't hold your breath.' Jane didn't stop but continued over the wall and into the garden.

Harry lay back down on his towel and stretched in the sunlight. After Professor McGonagall's announcement that he would probably be leaving the following day, they had decided to make the most of their remaining day by spending it on the beach, although it now seemed that Tonks might have thought of something else to do. Harry smirked. A pity that he was probably never going to be able to tell anyone about last night, even with Voldemort out of the way.

Tonks had made them laugh that morning by telling them about the 'Snape Shakedown' and the misadventures of various of her colleagues in that particularly misguided pursuit. Jane had initially been furious that her farther had been subjected to Ministry harassment but had then been forced to smile. Harry had been reluctantly impressed by the ingenuity of Snape's retaliation as well as almost inclined to regret not setting the 'Monster Book of Monsters' on Dudley. The Dursleys had requested obliviation and Harry hadn't decided how he felt about that, although he was quite sure that he would be happy never to see Privet Drive again.

Delicately, barefoot, Jane teetered back over the wall with two cups of tea. She handed them to Harry, spread out her towel beside him and collapsed onto it. 'It's gone kind of quiet,' she said. 'No sign of them.'

'Ah,' muttered Harry noncommittally, handing her back her tea.

She took a sip and smirked. 'Tonks says he's a total horror as a teacher.'

'Yes.'

'Rather you than me then.'

'You don't regret not going to Hogwarts?'

'Thank you, no. I tried school. Almost a month of it. I just couldn't seem to stay out of trouble.'

Harry wasn't all that surprised. While he really liked Jane, his opinion with regard to her arrogance had not changed. Sometimes it quite simply did not seem to occur to her that she might be wrong. 'What happened?'

'Harry hunting for bigger kids.'

What on earth could she have done to deserve that? Harry asked himself. He decided to ask her. 'Why?'

'It's about power, Harry, somebody else being worth less than your own amusement.'

Suddenly remembering the penseive and feeling utterly nauseated, Harry had to ask, 'what happened?'

'I ran away, hitchhiked to London, slept rough. By the time I ended up in the alleyway I didn't much care. I just wanted to be with my mother.' Her fingers closed about the talisman around her neck. 'That was when he decided to get involved. I was just about ready to jump in the river and probably would have done. If something happens to him . . .'

'No. What happened at school?'

'Not important.' Abruptly Jane put her cup down and swayed to her feet. 'Come on Harry, you're going away tomorrow.' She ran down the beach and into the sea, disappearing in a bright splash.

Harry followed more slowly.

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Harry had packed away his things the previous evening and now he had only to put his pyjamas away in his trunk. Lifting the lid precipitated a small cascade and, as he was replacing the various items that had escaped, he found something unexpected.

He considered the torus of lapis lazuli with its inscribed pentacle with mounting fury. She had simply decided to slip the talisman into his luggage, without telling him, when she needed it herself. Right, he thought as he had headed down the stairs, time for a little chat with miss Bossy Boots.

He found her in the kitchen. 'I won't take it,' he told her quietly, putting it down on the table, 'and you shouldn't have done that.'

'I'm sorry Harry. I can't take it back and even if I could I wouldn't. I'm not the one that bloody psycho's after: you are.' She was speaking like someone slowly and patiently explaining something to a young child. It was infuriating and Harry was already very angry.

'TAKE IT BACK!'

Jane crossed her arms. 'No.'

'I SAID, TAKE IT BACK!

She smirked and Harry lost it.

When Snape came in to find out what all the noise was about Harry had his hands on Jane's shoulders and was actually shaking her. Something flashed in her eyes and there was a sudden awful pain in his shin. As Harry's mind dealt with the fact that he had just been kicked, she took refuge beside her father. It was at this point that Harry fled the house.

Out on the beach, Harry sat on a rock, with his arms wrapped around his legs, shivering and trying to ignore the light but penetrating rain that swept in billows up the beach.

After a while he began to wonder how long he had been out there and at what point, if ever, it might be safe to go back in, when suddenly the subject of the argument, the 'Star' itself, hung twisting on its cord before his eyes and swinging slightly. 'Take it,' said Snape.

'No. Make her take it back.'

With a gesture, the Potions Professor parted the rain so that is splashed down around them. Harry was already so wet that it made little difference.

'I can't.' said Snape flatly. 'It doesn't work that way. You can only pass it on to someone else. Someone that you believe has greater need of it.'

Harry's head hunched down between his arms. 'I don't want her getting hurt.'

'Jane's wellbeing is important to you?'

'Yes!' snapped Harry, suddenly furious that Snape could be in any doubt.

'Then, that being so, the talisman will continue to protect her. Aside from which, should danger come to Jane from our world, have you considered that it is most likely to do so through you?'

Shame flooding through him, Harry stared at the dangling pendant. 'And will that help? What about Miranda Norton and Regulus Black.'

'The 'Star of Grace' cannot stop death. As to Regulus Black, he was not given but stolen the stone and in doing so killed.' There was a long pause. 'He had discovered my . . . alteration of allegiance. After his death I discovered that certain things were missing from my stores. From the nature of the missing materials, I was forced to conclude that he had known that he was to be interrogated and guessing what was likely to be the manner of his death had taken matters into his own hands.'

'What did he take?' Harry felt sick.

'Potions to induce forgetfulness and to reduce pain.'

'Why would he do that?'

'Because he could not reconcile what he had been taught with what the Dark Lord demanded and with his own distaste for it. Because he wanted to atone for his failure, to his family and to the Dark Lord, as well as for murder and others acts committed in the Dark lord's service. He was not entirely rational but I was still his friend and he chose not to betray me. No one ever suspected that I had the stone.' Snape's voice had become very soft 'What Regulus Black wanted most of all was to do was the right thing. He could as easily have been sorted into Hufflepuff, had it not been for his need to prove to his family that he was better than the brother that rejected them. A fruitless ambition and the endeavour took him to a point where death could be the only way out.' Letting the stone fall onto the sand, Snape walked away.

'He took stuff to reduce pain?'

Snape had stopped. 'Yes.' Harry could not see his face.

'Effective?'

'Not very.' Snape continued back toward the house.

With the drizzle once again falling on him, Harry slid down off the rock and considered the talisman. Sirius Black's younger brother had chosen to die horribly rather than allow Voldemort to posses it. Instead he had given it to Snape and, as a consequence of that decision; it was now lying half embedded in the sand of a rain mazed Scottish beach. His: almost a sort of heirloom. He picked it up and water washed the sand away until the stone felt smooth beneath his fingers as he examined the pale gold caught within the blue and then he slipped the cord around his neck.

As he came in through the glass doors, Jane was waiting. 'I'm sorry,' he told her.

She unfolded her arms, stepped forward. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I couldn't give it to my father. Apparently it doesn't work that way. So I gave it to you. I . . . I just wanted you both to be safe.'

'You gave me the 'Star' in order to protect Professor Snape?' said Harry, astonished. 'Does he know that? Did you tell him?'

'Well, er . . . no. I thought you might have noticed Harry: he's not all that fond of you.' A tentatively conspiratorial smile was aimed at him. Jane's weird sense of humour, thought Harry. It was altogether too ridiculous. He began to laugh.

'Jane. Thank you.'

'Thank you Harry. I am so going to miss you.' Abruptly she hugged him.

After a moment Harry put his arms around her. 'He promised me my testicles in a jar if I didn't keep my hands off you.'

'What?' She pulled back, looking confused. 'How very Victorian of him. Harry, I don't feel that way. Call me a bit slow on the uptake, but I'm really not ready for that. I just want to be . . . me? Although I always did want a little brother. Oh shit.' She closed her eyes.

'Jane?'

She was blushing. 'It's not that you're not . . . '

'Jane. I wish you really were my sister.'

He watched a slow smile gain possession of her mouth and then she raised her face. 'Take care of yourself Harry. You and him both.' She hugged him again and then shuddered. 'Ugh! You're absolutely soaked. Go and get changed. Honestly Harry, you'll be ill.'

Be careful what you wish for thought Harry, smiling to himself, as he went to get changed.

There was a knock and Jane came in with a plastic bag for his wet clothing. Harry repacked. As they started to carry the trunk down the stairs, Snape and Tonks came out of the bedroom opposite. 'Could you bring Harry's broom?' said Jane. Tonks smiled and went to do as she had been asked.

Under cover of the rain deflection charm, Harry's things were stowed in the car. 'Your wand, Mr. Potter,' said Snape, handing it to him.

'Thank you, sir.'

As Tonks and Harry drove away from the suddenly sunlit cottage Snape and Jane remained, with Jane waving until Harry lost sight of them.

A couple of hours driving brought them to a turnoff that took them, via a minor road, over a mountain pass. Near the top Tonks turned off onto a forestry track. A hundred yards further on, a figure among the trees resolved itself into Remus Lupin. Tonks stopped the car and Lupin got into the back seat.

'Hello Harry, Tonks.' Lupin was carrying a rolled up newspaper. 'Portkey, but this time we're taking take the whole car. How are you Harry?'

'I'm ok,' said Harry eying the newspaper with dismay. 'How does this work?

'We all hold onto the car and it comes too. Ready? One two three . . .' Gripping his seat with his right hand, Harry twisted around and touched the newspaper. The usual awful sensations followed and then the car rocked on its suspension. Opening his eyes Harry discovered that they were in a clearing, surrounded by members of the Order of the Phoenix carrying broomsticks. Harry got out of the car and greetings were exchanged briefly. He saw a flash of white as Hedwig flew past him. Someone had restored his familiar's form and she was clearly enjoying flying circles around them. Mad eye Moody thrust Harry's own broom into his hands and almost immediately most of the reception party were away, flying fast through the trees.

'This the Forbidden Forest?' yelled Harry.

'Yes. Not far.' Tonks suddenly rose above the trees. She gave an 'all clear' sign.

'Go,' screamed Moody and then they were out of the trees and streaking through the sky towards Hogwarts.

Hogwarts felt strange out of term time and Harry and Tonks moved fast through the empty corridors. 'Chocolate frog,' muttered Tonks and they were rising up the stairs to Professor Dumbledore's office.

'Hello Harry. It is good to see you looking so well. I trust that your accommodation agreed with you?' enquired Dumbledore rising from his seat.

'It was ok', replied Harry awkwardly. 'Actually it was better than ok.'

Good afternoon Mr. Potter,' said Professor McGonagall. 'I'm sorry that there isn't time for tea but the Ministry will be aware that you are here. We have to get you into Grimmauld Place. The house is subject to an entailment but, according to Magical law, those implicated in a death may not benefit from it through inheritance. This means that Andromeda Black is heir to Sirius' estate. As her daughter, the house should admit Nymphadora Tonks. Remus Lupin was Sirius' best friend and you are his godson. We believe that, if you all attempt to enter the house, at the same time, at least one of you should get in. Remus Lupin has apparated and is waiting outside the front door. Ms. Tonks will attempt to flue and you, Harry, will use the Portkey.' McGonagall held out the familiar kettle and Harry realised that Tonks had already left the room. 'Just count, one to three and be ready.' She put the kettle down on Dumbledore's desk.

Reluctantly, and for the second time in less than an hour, Harry prepared to Portkey. 'One, two, three . . .' He experienced the familiar jerk behind his navel, a whirling and then he was standing in the dim hallway of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

The first thing that struck him was an appalling stench with something of rotting fish in it but very, very much stronger and then he became aware of the silence. Looking around Harry quickly discovered the source of the smell. A deliquescent mass, wrapped in a rag and surrounded by what looked like a dried pool of blood, was all that was left of Kreacher, the Black family's house elf. Moving closer Harry saw two great puncture wounds through the elf's head and body, as though Kreacher had been bitten by an enormous snake.

There was a sound like dropped cutlery and Harry turned in time to see one of the snakes from the chandelier fall to the floor, a few seconds later there were three silver snakes scraping towards him across the dirty floor. A loud hammering commenced and, not taking his eyes from the snakes, Harry moved quickly to open the front door for Lupin but, as his hand touched the snake head handle, it twisted and sank its fangs into him. Harry jerked away and a silver snake body followed the head out of the door and wrapped itself around his wrist. The pain was sudden and shocking and Harry discovered that he could not detach the handle-snake. Neither could he now open the door. 'Professor Lupin, I've been bitten by the snake handle.' He heard Lupin curse outside and there was the sound of something impacting heavily and uselessly against the door. Suddenly dizzy, Harry sank to the ground and as his pursuers reached him he was unable to prevent them from biting him. Gasping with pain he could still hear, beneath the sound of his own breathing, a series of strange noises from the floor of the hallway, almost like someone picking through broken china, and he became aware that the tiles had become the tesserae of a mosaic, now changing colour to reveal the shape of a snake quite as large as the basilisk. He blinked and wiped away the sweat that had suddenly come to his face with his sleeve. As he watched, accompanied by peculiarly ceramic cracking and plinking sounds, the tiles began to move and the enormous snake to lift from out of the floor. Realising what had happened to Kreacher, and feeling as though his heart would stop at any moment, Harry stared up at the rather dusty looking reptile, its relentless chrysoberylian eyes.

'Intruder,' it hissed rearing back to strike.

'I'm not!'

The snake froze. 'A sspeaker of Parsseltongue are you?' The huge head descended to eye level, the long tongue flickering curiously inches from his face. 'Who are you child?'

It was hard to speak but he tried. 'I'm Sirius Black's godson.' Rainbow colours curved from the tongue and wrapped around him.

'And who iss the woman who iss in the kitchen?'

'Andromeda Black's daughter.'

'Andromeda iss not the heir.'

'Bellatrix killed Sirius and Narcissa helped Voldemort to lure him out of the house.'

'Iss that sso?' The snake appeared to be thinking. 'You are Harry Potter. He went to resscue you, did he not?'

'Yes,' whispered Harry, guilt and grief warring within him, 'he did'.

'Then I am ssorry.' The bizarre little noises resumed as the snake began to sink back into the floor. There was a crash and the front door flew open behind Harry. At the sight of the snake Lupin froze for a second and then fell to his knees beside Harry. 'Bitten by the door handle,' said Harry, raising his hand to show him but the snake had gone.

'Call Snape!' demanded Lupin. Harry looked up to see Kingsley Shacklebolt closing the door behind him.

'Tonks?' Harry tried to ask but Lupin was lifting him and carrying him into the library and then the walls around him lurched and fell away to darkness.

He awoke to burning pain in his arm and legs and opened his eyes. He was half sitting, half lying on a chaise-longue in the library. 'Harry? Snape's been called. I know you dislike him but he's good at what he does. Try to stay calm.' Lupin was doing a fair job of appearing calm himself, but this was Lupin and Harry realised that the former Defence against the Dark Arts Professor was terrified.

'Thirsty.' Harry's mouth felt unbelievably dry.

'I'm sorry.' Tonks' voice was gentle 'I don't think you should drink anything.'

He heard familiar footsteps in the hallway and Snape swept into the room, looking very much his usual term-time greasy self. Even so, such was Harry's relief to see the Potions Master that his eyes closed in humiliation.

'Can you really not stay out of trouble Potter?' Snape sounded bored, but his cool fingers were rapidly checking the wound in his hand and then his pulse. 'Open your eyes.' Harry discovered that even the low level of light was beginning to hurt.

'Can you do anything?' asked Lupin.

'Perhaps, but why would I be so foolish? In the event of the boy's death I would take the blame. Take him to Saint Mungo's.'

'Saint Mungo's would need to get in a specialist in poisons. You are one. How much time does he have?'

'Severus,' Dumbledore had arrived. 'Do what you can.'

Snape stood up slowly. 'And if he dies?'

'I do not believe that he will,' said Dumbledore, 'but I promise that you will not be worse off if you try.'

Snape's mouth tightened and Harry realised that however Dumbledore had meant it, Snape had perceived that statement as a threat. The Potions Professor reached into his robes and withdrew a small phial. 'Potter, what would I get if I added powdered asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'

The Draught of Living Death thought Harry.

'It should give me time to research an antidote.' Snape sat beside him and tipped the potion into his mouth: it bitter and very cold with a faint suggestion of raw onion. Harry swallowed and closed his eyes.