'I don't know,' said Lupin thoughtfully. 'Either he's in no trouble at all, or he's in worse trouble than we can possibly imagine.'
'Moony…' Sirius sounded exasperated.
'All right.' Lupin reached up and took a book off the top of his desk, balancing it on his knees. It was the same book that Harry and Draco had seen on his desk the day before, but there was no way for him to know that. 'I really wonder if it was a good idea, Sirius, to let him keep that Magid sword of his.'
'I didn't let him keep it. That was Dumbledore's decision.'
'I suppose he had his reasons,' said Lupin dubiously. 'But that sword…if it's the sword I think it is…it's a very powerful and evil object.'
'It was Salazar Slytherin's sword, wasn't it?'
'Well, there's the possibility it might be a fake or an imitation. I can see why the Malfoys, or any magical family, might want to claim they possessed something like that. The story goes that Salazar Slytherin sold his soul to a powerful demon in exchange for the use of a sword that would make the bearer invincible.'
'Did it work?'
'Certainly. Slytherin won every battle he ever took part in. And then, one day — he vanished. Just vanished. Never seen again. And the sword was thought to be lost as well. In fact, the story goes that he reneged on his deal with the demons; he wasn't meant to keep the sword forever, but he refused to give it back at the appointed time, so…' Lupin shrugged. 'No one knows what happened to him, but it's generally considered that it wasn't good.'
'He must not have been reading his Evil Overlord handbook,' grinned Sirius. 'Rule 54: 'I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being, then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.''
Lupin rolled his eyes. 'Sirius…'
'Sorry, I just honestly don't see what all of this has to do with Draco,' said Sirius.
'It's a demon sword, Sirius,' said Lupin irritably. 'It's got a lot of power and it has its own intelligence. Whether that intelligence is benevolent or malevolent, I don't know. It takes will and strength and skill to master something like that, and he's just a child.'
'When we were sixteen, we didn't think we were children.'
'Oh, but we were. Think how things might have turned out differently if we'd been a bit smarter, a bit more patient, a bit less trusting. Peter might not have turned out like he did, and James -
James might be — '
'Don't,' interrupted Sirius. 'Don't say it.'
Lupin sighed. 'There's one other thing.'
'Oh, no,' said Sirius, with finality.
'What?'
'I know you. Whenever you say 'there's just one other thing' it means you've been saving up the worst possible news for last.
'Everything's perfectly fine, there's just one other thing, Harry got himself eaten by a basilisk.' That sort of thing.' Sirius sighed. 'Well, go on. Tell me.'
'There's a prophecy about the sword.'
'Bugger,' said Sirius glumly. 'Well, what is it?'
Reading from the book, Lupin said: 'When the sword is once again wielded in battle by a descendant of Slytherin, Slytherin himself will return, and he and his descendant will join together to wreak havoc and terror on the wizarding world.'
'I sometimes wonder how you can say these things with a straight face, Remus. Sorry!' Sirius added good- naturedly at Lupin's dark expression. 'Well, I don't think we have anything to worry about yet. Draco hadn't wielded the sword in battle as far as I know. Harry was the one who used it against Lucius.'
Lupin expelled a breath of relief. 'That's good. That's what I wanted to know.'
'Just keep him away from it,' said Sirius.
'Oh, right,' Lupin replied. 'Do you remember when we were sixteen, and people told us just to stay away from something, how obedient we were?'
Sirius' eyes lit up with a smile. Lupin had only ever seen Sirius smile like that at a few people in his life. At James. At Lily. At himself. And at Harry. Maybe he smiled at Narcissa like that; Lupin didn't know.
He hoped he did. 'We were terrible, weren't we?' Sirius said.
'No,' said Lupin, smiling back. 'We weren't terrible. We were great.'
Hermione screamed.
And skittered backwards, on her elbows, as far away from the horror that was blocking the doorway as she possibly could. She hit the wall and pressed herself back against it, squeezing her eyes shut.
Calm down, she told herself. Be brave. Be like Harry. Harry's seen worse things than this. Be like Harry.
She opened her eyes.
And saw what she had seen before. The wizard who had entered the room was still standing where he had been standing, motionless, his dark hood pulled back to show his face. It was the face of a man about Siriusage — an face as white as salt, with enormous, prominent cheekbones, and white hair that was matted and shaggy.
This man had a large, beaky nose and razor-thin eyebrows, and his mouth was a grim hard line. He was incredibly thin, even thinner than Sirius had been when he came out of Azkaban. Tattooed on each bony cheek was the clear image of a skull with a serpent protruding from its mouth. The Dark Mark. It was horrible to look at, but that wasn't why Hermione had screamed.
