The Convict Trio and the Wings of the Heir

Harry took a look at the pictures of the three convicts. Snape and Lupin appeared just as he remembered them, with the former's greasy black hair and hooked nose and the latter's ill appearance. The one named Sirius Black, however...

This man had a haunted look about him. The slowly blinking, glittering eyes shadowed by his mass of tangled, matted hair were all that truly seemed alive about him. Even his skin had a waxy, unnaturally pale look to them.

"Incredible, isn't it?" Ron asked in awe as Harry handed the article back.

"Sirius Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse?" the scarred one asked of his friend, quite amazed at the prospect.

"YEAH! In broad daylight, too! Muggles and everything..." replied Ron. "And Azkaban is a top security prison. No one's even thought to escape that place. Heard it was really awful..."

"Do you really think that Snape and Lupin were talking with Black for years?" Harry wondered. Sure, SNAPE, he could believe...but Lupin? Unfortunately, Ron thought the same.

"I wouldn't put it past old Snape, but Lupin..." the red-haired boy trailed off. "He didn't seem like that bad a guy. Being a werewolf changes everything, though..."

"Something doesn't seem right," Hermione butted in with a frown. She had read the article over Harry's shoulder, and was silently contemplating the options. "How could all three of them escape so quickly? No one's ever escaped before...so why now? It's just too odd."

Ron rolled his eyes. "No one knows that, Hermione. All we know is that it must have taken a whole lot of power. I don't even want to know what they're able to do...and I hope I never see them again!" He leaned forward to mutter to Harry: "And it'd be a good riddance, too. I hated that unfair git of a Potions professor. I hope they do something horrible to him when they finally catch him."

Hermione simply furrowed her brow in response. The whole ordeal bothered her. Perhaps this calls for a bit of 'light reading' on the island fortress of Azkaban...

"Anyway!" Ron exclaimed in a cheery voice once more, the news of the day set aside for the time being. "What do you think of the Quidditch match coming up, Harry? I know you'll do well again!"

And so, normal conversations arose once more with Harry Potter and his friends...

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~Back to morning, before Harry and co's discovery~

Lupin bolted upright, panting with fear. He had had a terrible nightmare. He had been forced to eat vegetables. Mounds of vegetables. Not a single speck of red meat to be found, or any meat at all, for that matter. Broccoli and carrots and brussels sprouts, finally finishing with... a huge Christmas fruitcake. The utter horror of it all made Lupin scream aloud, waking himself up. There was a muffled groaning followed by a thump and a stifled curse; evidently Snape had been startled into consciousness by Lupin's very unmanly shriek. More thumping and cursing could be heard from the room beside Lupin's, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing. The door to Remus's room abruptly slammed open, and framed in the doorway stood a very disheveled, very grumpy Severus Snape.

"Why, hello, Severus," Lupin said calmly, having recovered from his nightmares a few moments before. "Shall I sing you a lullaby?"

The permanent scowl on Snape's features deepened, if that was possible. "I would appreciate it if you kept your no-doubt childish nightmares to yourself, Lupin. Other people are trying to get their beauty rest. Good Night!" Another resounding slam, and the sound of angry stomping could be heard making its way into Snape's room. A minute later there was another muffled thump and a string of curses that would have impressed the most hardened of sailors; Snape had apparently stubbed his toe on his bed.

Lupin chuckled and took a look at the mini-snow dome on his dresser. It contained a miniature model of Hogwarts and the surrounding grounds, and was filled with light at the moment. It seemed to be morning. Deciding he'd slept enough, Lupin got up and started searching the small library of books that lined one wall of his room. He selected a book with a dull green cover entitled A Guide to Things That Go Bump In the Night by Ghustav Coriander. The moment he opened it, a face stretched from the pages and tried to kill him, judging from the way it kept snapping its jaws. Lupin gave it a smart slap on the cheek and kept reading. The book kept him occupied until a small bell chime interrupted his thoughts.

Looking up, he noticed that the room's small table, formerly barren, was now occupied by a huge meat loaf. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in twenty-four hours, since his escape from Azkaban. Dropping the book and practically pouncing on the meat loaf, he quickly devoured it and leaned back, contented.

In the room beside him, Severus Snape looked with a small measure of disbelief at his table. It was piled high with food... but not exactly the kind of food he enjoyed. Snape had awoken expecting a bottle of aged wine and fine platters of gourmet food... But what the hell was this? The devoted author follows the greasy git's horrified gaze, and discovers...

Mounds of vegetables. Not a single speck of red meat to be found, or any meat at all, for that matter. Broccoli and carrots and brussels sprouts, finally finishing with... a huge Christmas fruitcake. One of Snape's eyes twitched spasmodically before he picked up his fork and poked the fruitcake with a measure of trepidation. The fork made a tinkling noise and bounced off and away from the cake. A tic began to form in Snape's cheek. He poked harder, determined to puncture the cake and at least devour its (presumably) slightly more palatable insides. At his fifth poke, there was a loud twing as the fork snapped at the head, sending the tined bit speeding like a miniature trident at Snape's head. He threw himself desperately to the side as the beheaded fork whizzed past his ear and embedded itself, quivering in the wall. Snape stared openmouthed at the kitchen utensil that had nearly sent him to an early grave, then back at the fruitcake.

A grin slowly spread across his sallow features. Perhaps he could find some silver lining in this rain cloud...

Sirius Black was still sleeping peacefully, undisturbed by nightmares or titanium fruitcakes. A multitude of sandwiches stood ready for eating should he awaken, although it didn't look like he would be doing so any time soon. A faint snore escaped his prone form, before...

Black's eyes flew open as something akin to a Bludger smashed into his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him completely. He rolled out of bed and onto the floor, clutching his chest and gasping for air. Another wedge-like missile smacked the back of his head, nearly knocking him out. He managed to reach his pillow and held it in front of him as an impromptu shield. When no further missiles were hurled in his direction, he peeked cautiously out behind the fluffy barrier.

Severus Snape stood, grinning and tossing a section of fruitcake from hand to hand. It looked to be quite as hard on the inside as on the outside, although a well-placed Dividing Curse had split it into three sections. He beaned Sirius on the head again with the last piece of fruitcake, sending the convict back into dreamland. He nonchalantly grabbed one of Black's sandwiches and hungrily devoured it. In fact, it wasn't long before all the sandwiches were gone. With a distinctly smug-looking shrug, Snape turned and returned to his own room, leaving poor Sirius Black with three rock-hard fruitcake sections. Perhaps a dog would be able to eat them...

Unaware of each other's motives, Lupin and Snape both downed another draught of Invisibility Potion (Snape had brewed an entire cauldronful for each of them) and left the secret chambers to make a run of the school. Each carried with him another beaker of the stuff, in case it should wear off. Of course, it was pure coincidence that Lupin set off towards the Potions dungeon, while Snape made his way towards what was now deemed by the Gryffindors as Sonores Territory.

Snape strode purposefully through the hallways of Hogwarts, even though he didn't really have a purpose. He passed the Charms classroom, where poor Professor Flitwick was unsuccessfully trying to teach his students Banishing Charms. From the way several quills and ink bottle shards were embedded into the walls, Snape thought that the students were being a bit too enthusiastic. If it had been himself teaching the class, everyone who had made a mistake would be serving hard cold detention. Alas, his current status (courtesy of the werewolf, Snape thought darkly) rendered him unable to administer justice to the ignorant. With a small sigh, he turned, about to roam the halls once more...

And abruptly collided head-on with Argus Filch, sending the school caretaker sprawling. Snape himself barely kept his footing, teetering precariously before slipping past Filch and beating a quick retreat down a side hallway.

Filch sprang to his feet, a vein on his forehead pulsing dangerously. His eyes buldged even more than usual as he shouted his war cry, "Peeves!!!" and set off running down the corridors, hoping to catch a glimpse of the poltergeist. Mrs. Norris yowled angrily and her tail lashed from side to side, perhaps remembering other encounters with people who could be smelled but not seen, and followed Filch.

Snape wiped his suddenly sweaty brow with the back of his hand, breathing a sigh of relief. He continued to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where it was pleasantly silent. The irritatingly loud chatter and laughter that had once pervaded the classroom was gone, replaced by a grim, serious manner. Snape gazed in, unknowingly in the exact same place that Lupin had stood the day before. Snape, however, was very pleased with what he saw.

Terrified students! Detentions! Points shaved off by the tens and twenties! It was almost like watching himself teach. A warm and fuzzy feeling swelled in Snape's chest, it seemed as if DADA had finally been taken over by the Slytherin head, in a certain way. He watched in vindictive pleasure as Justin Finch-Fletchley failed to answer a question and ten points were promptly removed from Hufflepuff. A woman after his own black, twisted heart.

Something was wrong about the teacher, though. Snape stared hard at the woman, trying to make out what was wrong. His mind kept shying away from the subject; he would suddenly find himself thinking about something else, for no discernable reason. Concentrating hard, he managed to break through the glamorie that surrounded the professor and gasped, his eyes widening: Professor Sonores was a Banshee!

Remus Lupin was about as unconcerned as one can get about the fact that his former subject was being taught by a Banshee, being, after all, completely unaware of that little tidbit. To him, Professor Sonores was just a beautiful, if extremely grumpy and ill-tempered teacher. In fact, Lupin was busy trying to think of ways to clear his name; he didn't intend on spending the rest of his days a fugitive from justice, confined to a small room at Hogwarts, unable to emerge except under the cover of invisibility.

He was so concerned with the problem of proving his (rather questionable) innocence that he didn't notice that he had passed through the Bloody Baron until he began shivering uncontrollably, feeling as if he had been dipped upside-down into the Northern Sea that surrounded Azkaban. The Baron turned to face Lupin, apparently aware of the werewolf's presence.

"What troubles you so, young werewolf?" the gaunt specter croaked, the opaque blood on his robes glinting in the sunlight. "Perhaps you too can sense He who comes on silver wings? The one the living once knew as the Heir?" The Slytherin ghost chuckled darkly, splashing more blood onto his already stained robes.

Lupin shook his head, confused. He didn't understand a word of what the Bloody Baron was saying, and was distinctly troubled by the fact that the Baron had no trouble whatsoever in seeing him. That, of course, meant that all the ghosts in Hogwarts (with the possible exception of Peeves) could see him, Sirius, and Snape, whether they took the Invisibility Potion or not. He made a hasty excuse and walked quickly down the hall.

Without realizing it, he was suddenly in front of the Potions dungeon. But something was wrong... for one thing, the door was open, and second, (Lupin could hardly believe his ears) he could hear laughter. It was a sound so utterly, completely alien to the usually dank and depressing dungeons that Lupin actually pinched himself to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming. He had to pinch himself harder once he peered inside the classroom.

A large disco ball hung from the ceiling and bright pink and neon yellow ribbons fluttered on the walls. Three couples were busy snogging in the corners, and something that looked positively evil was bubbling in a collosal cauldron at the center of the room. Every so often a bubble rose high into the air and popped, filling the air with a sickeningly sweet aroma. And at the middle of it all, stirring the huge pot, was Professor >D. An amused twinkling spark that reminded Lupin strongly of Albus Dumbledore danced in the man's eyes as he laughed warmly, handing out cauldron cakes from a large pile that sat at his feet.

Severus would be horrified, Remus thought idly as a grin started to stretch across his face. Lupin liked the new Potions Master.

The class ended all too soon, as Nad ladled small amounts of the now bright pink potion from the huge cauldron at the center of the room into small vials and distributed it to his students with a friendly wink.

"Remember, students. The Love Potion will only work for one hour, and you'll fall heads over heels for the first person you see after you drink the potion, whether male or female. So be careful, kids," the teacher said casually. "...and this is our little secret, okay?"

The whole class nodded excitedly and hid the neon pink vials in their pockets, chuckling rather insanely. Marcus Flint in particular, looked like he was about to collapse in a spasm of joy right then and there. Gossiping like sparrows, the students slowly filed out of the dungeon, followed by Lupin, who took another draught of the Invisibility Potion, just to be on the safe side.

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By the time Lupin returned to his rooms behind Vincent the Valiant, Sirius Black had awoken from his rather unfortunate bump to the head. He was lounging around on his bed, skimming through a book called Prefects Who Gained Power. Three rock hard wedges of fruitcake lie forgotten in a dark corner of the room. Lupin arched an inquisitive eyebrow at his old friend.

"What are you still doing here? I thought you'd be out remembering how to get around Hogwarts again..."

"And drink more of that stuff?!" Sirius exclaimed, motioning towards the cauldron full of Invisibility Potion. "Are you nuts? I'm not taking any more than I have to."

Lupin sighed at Black's unwilling attitude and plopped down onto the floor. If only there were more to do in this hole of a hiding place! So, to make himself at least a LITTLE less bored, the werewolf decided to play a game of Exploding Snap.

It wasn't until about 15 or 20 minutes later when he realized a member of the Trio was missing. But before he could even voice the question of where Snape could be, the man had stormed right in, approaching Lupin with no hesitation.

"Why didn't you say she was a Banshee, werewolf?" he demanded, eyes narrowed and the all-too-familiar sneer gracing his features.

"Banshee? What are you..." Lupin trailed off as he put two and two together and figured Snape was talking about Sonores. "...Oh. A banshee, Severus? Don't you think she's a bit too...filled in for a banshee?" he asked, referring to her rather curvy figure.

Snape merely glared in response. "Perhaps she had decided to ingest surplus calories before teaching," he stated in an icy, matter-of-factly tone, completely ignoring the fact that Sonores has an actual figure. "Unless you are merely defending another dark creature such as yourself, werewolf. Your kind tends to band together, after all."

"Only as much as you Death Eaters band together, Snapy."

Snape scowled. "We don't band together, Lupin."

Lupin smiled pleasantly. "Exactly!"

The only response from the former Death Eater was his deepened scowl. He then proceeded to...abruptly change the subject.

"I do not trust the banshee. I am going to...speak with her tonight to see if I can get anything out of her," he stated, quite plainly. It didn't matter what his companions had to say about the subject--he was going to do it anyway.

"Have a good time with Professor Sonores, Severus. Don't come in too late!" Lupin responded cheerfully with a suggestive wink.

Needless to say, Snape was flabbergasted. "WHAT are you suggesting, werewolf?" he demanded in a deadly, calm tone.

"Oh, nothing," Remus replied in that way-too-cheerful tone. "I'm so glad you finally found someone you belong with, Severus!"

The hook-nosed convict snarled at the cheery werewolf, striding over to the convenient fruitcake wedges and hurling one at Lupin's head. Unfortunately, he didn't expect this, and thus, would not be waking anytime soon due to the nasty bump he'd just acquired. With a smirk, Snape turned to grab another vial of Invisibility Potio--

"Will you two shut the hell up?!" Sirius shouted from the bed. "I'm trying to read something he--"

Since Black was not paying attention to the argument, he ended up getting beaned with a fruitcake wedge for the fourth time that day.

Snape silently approached Sonores's office. His invisibility potion was nearly used up, just as he had planned. Luckily, he had no unfortunate run-ins with Mrs. Norris or any of the ghosts, so it was a fairly smooth ride after he had gotten his companions out of the way for the night. All he had to do was slip into the Defense Against the Dark Arts office and wait for the potion to wear off completely.

And that was exactly what he did whilst trying to convince himself that he was not staring at her body.

She was grading papers when he had appeared before her. Seemed to be marking down an awful lot of Fs, especially for the Gryffindors. Still, however much he approved of her teaching methods, Dark Creatures were untrustworthy in his book.

Sonores snapped her head up sharply as Snape slammed a hand palm-flat onto her desk (much like he does to intimidate students) and opened her mouth to demand who it was...

Only to choke back her voice as she got a good look at the person before her. He was not a student...rather, he was a full-grown man. A full-grown man in a muggle Armani suit, snazzy pants, and...fluffy pink earmuffs?

"Nice outfit," she hissed sarcastically, expecting the man before her to fall to the floor.

Snape, however, showed no signs of understanding the woman. After a moment or two of glaring, he opened his mouth to speak in the iciest, most intimidating tone he could muster: "If you think these ridiculous earmuffs are purely for show, you are sadly mistaken. Start writing if you wish to communicate."

Sonores hesitated, matching Snape's glare with an emotionless gaze. She slowly stood and picked up a piece of chalk, turning to the board to write out her statements. "What do you want? You have no place here."

"Do you not think I am fully aware of that, banshee?" he sneered impatiently. "What business have you with taking a job here?"

"Whatever do you mean? I'm simply here to teach."

"Don't avoid the subject," he snapped in a suspicious tone. "I know you're here on higher orders."

She paused. "I have no idea what you are accusing me of, Death Eater, but I do not appreciate convicts such as yourself storming into MY office to thwart me of my nonexistent plans. I suggest you leave immediately before I notify the staff and proper authorities."

Severus's scowl slowly melted into a hint of a smirk. "Stay away from that Potter boy, banshee. He is not worthy of your killing shrieks," he hissed as he seemed to melt away into the shadows (in actuality, he simply left the room, turned the corner, and gulped down his second vial of invisibility potion).

But as Snape left, he couldn't help but have that nagging feeling that they were being watched...

----MWAAR. PAGE BREAK.----

Harry watched from beneath the safety of his invisibility cloak, wide-eyed, as Snape slithered out of Sonores's office and downed some sort of potion before disappearing. Snape? HERE? AT HOGWARTS?!?! he thought, panicking. He was a murderous convict, now. And not only that, but he was rumored to be allied with the infamous Sirius Black.

On top of that, what was that conversation he just had with Sonores? Harry? Not worthy of killing shrieks? Could it be that Snape wanted to kill Harry for himself?

With unsettling thoughts and fear heavy in his heart, the Potter boy hurried back to his dorm in Gryffindor Tower. He was already regretting trying out his Christmas present from an anonymous stranger...

----PAGE BREAK!!!!----

Snape tripped into the Vincent the Valiant statue, panting and red-faced. He had to dash clear across the school due to an unfortunate run-in with Peeves. It was difficult to get out of the hall before the poltergeist could get a chance to shout anything...

Thank Merlin for Filch's sudden appearance.

...On second thought, damn Merlin to hell for the Armani.

The greasy-haired git trudged back to his rooms, exhausted. He wasted no time in kicking off his shoes and moved to collapse right onto his bed--

"Why, hello, Severus!" called a cheerful voice from the doorway. The figure taking in his appearance noted the ruffled hair and reddened face. "Did you have fun tonight?

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