forms, and unpleasant black flying things glared with horrible fierce eyes, diving and biting at anything that moved. And where was Slytherin? He must be somewhere in the upper tiers of the castle, since he wasn?t showing up on the abbreviated Map. This made Sirius even more nervous -
what was he plotting?
His thoughts were firmly disrupted as he passed a set of double doors; they flew open, and out of them poured twenty or so skeletons dressed in brazen armor and carrying great axes. Skolks.
They rattled and clanked across the floor. Sirius ducked back against the wall, but one of them — the captain, probably, for he had a scarlet plume flying from the top of his brass helmet — turned and glared at Sirius with darkly glowing red eyes. With a hiss, he lunged at Sirius, who whipped out his wand and hurled a quick succession of spells at the creature, all of which bounced off its armor. Sirius had to duck to keep from being struck by a rebounding Impedimenta curse. He heard the whistle of displaced air as the Skolks axe whipped just above his head; ducked, knowing it was useless, and then -
A hand grabbed the back of his robes and yanked him backwards as a flashing sword came down, leaving a trail of scarlet fire behind it in the air. It struck the skeleton in the shoulder, and the Skolk burst apart into a heap of tumbled bones. Silently, the other skeletons backed away, then turned and fled down the hall. Sirius saw the red stones in the hilt of the sword glitter as it was withdrawn, and thought, with mingled shock and relief, Harry?
He turned around, and saw, staring back at him with an expression of concern, James Potter.
* * * * *
Ginny seized Dracos arm so tightly that he winced. 'Sirius,' she said, and pointed.
Draco glanced where she indicated, and saw Sirius, leaning back against a wall further down the corridor, and standing in front of him, Ben. At their feet was a heap of Skolk bones — Draco had just dispatched several of them himself, and Ginny had quite impressively destroyed one by kicking it apart with her foot. Sirius was white as chalk; Draco had never seen him look like that. Surely he couldn?t have been so badly put off by the Skolk; he was an Auror, after all. Then he twigged. Ben. Unprotesting, he let Ginny seize his hand and together they raced down the corridor to Sirius.
Ginny caught at Harrys godfathers arm. 'Sirius,' she panted.
'This is Ben — Benjamin Gryffindor. Harrys ancestor.'
Ben, having resheathed his sword, had been holding his hand out to Sirius and was looking extremely confused. 'Is something wrong?'
The color came slowly back into Sirius? face. Draco looked at him, and felt a twinge of unhappy empathy. Until now, it hadn?t occurred to him that a twenty-year old man who looked just like a dark-eyed, scarless Harry would be someone who looked just like James had when he had died. And behind the comprehension dawning in Siriuseyes, there was something else. Disappointment.
Wearily, Sirius held his own hand out. 'Nothing. I thought you were someone else. I?m Sirius Black.'
Another one of the nasty black flying things swooped low overhead.
Draco dispatched it with his sword, splattering green ichor all over Ben, who glared.
'Now we can continue to stand here exchanging pointless pleasantries and get hacked to death in the process, or we can go after the Orb,' said Draco. 'Thoughts?'
Ginny pointed. 'Upstairs,' she said shortly, fingering the Turner around her wrist.
They ran upstairs en masse, crouching low. The battle raged on around them, but something — probably the fact that they were with the Heir of Slytherin — kept most of the worst of it away from them.
They raced quickly around the marble spiral staircase, Draco in the lead, turned several corridors, and found themselves standing before a set of carved malachite doors. The carvings depicted scenes of battle and court life.
Slightly breathless, Draco pointed at the door. 'The Orbs in there.'
'And so might Slytherin and dozens of minions be,' pointed out Ben, fingering the hilt of his sword.
Draco looked at Ben, then at Sirius, and then, with a slight shrug, reached out, took the handle of the door, and pushed it open.
They all peered around the edge of the door. They saw a vast and empty room, in the center of which the jade-colored Orb sat displayed on its serpentine pedestal. There was no sign of any other furnishings, save a series of strange markings on the floor.
'I?ll go in and get it,' said Draco, drawing his sword and looking at Sirius. 'You lot, stand guard and make sure nobody comes in.'
'I?m going with you,' said Ginny. She shook her head at Dracos mutinous expression.
'Maybe we can get it open — I?m Hufflepuff, and you?ve got Slytherin and Gryffindor blood — if it doesn?t work, we?ll just take the Orb instead, but we might as well try. Anyway, its safer in there than it is out here,' and she gave him a little half-grin that was rather cute.
Sirius had his wand out and a determined expression plastered across his face. 'You two go — we?ll keep out anything that might come in after you.'
Draco nodded at him and at Ben, who was staring off down the darkened corridor, his sword glimmering in the half-light. Then he took Ginnys hand, and ducked in through the open malachite doors. They stepped into the vast circular chamber, and as they did so, Draco distinctly heard the malachite doors shut and lock behind them with a sharp, audible click.
* * * * *
Hermione knew what the gold pillars were for, now. She stood with her back against one, her wrists and ankles bound tightly to it with slender, steel-strong ropes. Harry, beside her, was likewise bound, only his right hand was also encased in an adamantine cuff which ran through the side of the pillar. Both of them had been too stunned to react when Slytherin had first revealed himself, and had lost precious seconds of time trying to recover from the shock.
Harry had shoved Hermione behind him and as a consequence, she hadn?t even seen Slytherin hit him with a Stunning spell. He had collapsed in front of her, and she had gone for her Lycanthe, but it was already too late — Slytherin had flung an Impedimenta spell at her with bruising force, knocking her to the ground. She had blacked out momentarily, and when she had regained consciousness, no more than seconds later, she had found
