12 Grimmauld Place

Third Person P.O.V.

They followed Professor McGonagall past the silent figures of Neville, Dean, and Seamus, out of the dormitory, down the spiral stairs into the common room, through the portrait hole, and off along the Fat Lady's moonlit corridor. Harry felt as though the panic inside him might spill over at any moment; he wanted to run, to yell for Dumbledore. Mr. Weasley was bleeding as they walked along so sedately, and what if those fangs—Harry tried hard not to think "my fangs"—had been poisonous? They passed Mrs. Norris, who turned her lamplike eyes upon them and hissed faintly, but Professor McGonagall said, "Shoo!" Mrs. Norris slunk away into the shadows, and in a few minutes, they had reached the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Fizzing Whizbee," said Professor McGonagall.

Asteria was slightly scared. It was the first time she would be going into the headmaster's office with something other than the detention.

But Asteria zone out as they talked about the dreams and such. No one was acknowledging her as they made sure Auther was fine. Which he was after Harry having him sick that got him here. Until she heard Dumbledore speak to a portrait about sending a message.

"Sirius knows not to destroy your portrait," said Dumbledore, and Harry realized immediately where he had heard Phineas's voice before: issuing from the apparently empty frame in his bedroom in Grimmauld Place. "You are to give him the message that Arthur Weasley has been gravely injured and that his wife, children, Harry Potter and a new guest Asteria Katsaras will bewill be arriving at his house shortly. Do you understand?"

"Arthur Weasley, injured, wife and children, Harry Potter, Asteria Katsaras coming to stay," recited Phineas in a bored voice. "Yes, yes . . . very well. . . ."

He sloped away into the frame of the portrait and disappeared from view at the very moment that the study door opened again. Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron were ushered inside by Professor McGonagall, all four of them looking disheveled and shocked, still in their night things.

"Harry — what's going on?" asked Ginny, who looked frightened. "Professor McGonagall says you saw Dad hurt —"

Ginny didn't even notice Asteria there. Which was no surprise to Asteria. Being unnoticed has been normal for her and didn't take it personally.

"Your father has been injured in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix," said Dumbledore before Harry could speak. "He has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius's house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than the Burrow. You will meet your mother there."

"How're we going?" asked Fred, looking shaken. "Floo powder?"

"No," said Dumbledore, "Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey." He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. "We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back. . . . I wish to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you —"

"Or we could use something else," Asteria chimes in before Dumbledore could finish. "Nico has powers to get us there without a problem. And I can try."

"There is no need for that Miss Katsaras. It would be safer to do it this way."

Asteria sighs as she looks through the shadows. She saw Nico listening in the background and obviously wanting to come with her. Instead, she pulls out a coin that looks similar to a drachma. But it wasn't, she made two of them so when she leaves one behind they can find her by how warm it becomes. It was like a game of hot and cold.

"You have all used a Portkey before?" asked Dumbledore, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle. "Good. On the count of three then . . . one . . . two . . ."

It happened in a fraction of a second: In the infinitesimal pause before Dumbledore said "three," Harry looked up at him — they were very close together — and Dumbledore's clear blue gaze moved from the Portkey to Harry's face.

At once, Harry's scar burned white-hot, as though the old wound had burst open again — and unbidden, unwanted, but terrifyingly strong, there rose within Harry a hatred so powerful he felt, for that instant, that he would like nothing better than to strike — to bite — to sink his fangs into the man before him — ". . . three."

He felt a powerful jerk behind his navel, the ground vanished from beneath his feet, his hand was glued to the kettle; he was banging into the others as all sped forward in a swirl of colors and a rush of wind, the kettle pulling them onward and then —

His feet hit the ground so hard that his knees buckled, the kettle clattered to the ground, and somewhere close at hand a voice said, "Back again, the blood traitor brats, is it true their father's dying . . . ?"

"By gods won't you shut it," Asteria whispers.

She looks around the house and it was like she was invisible to everyone.

"OUT!" roared a second voice.

Harry scrambled to his feet and looked around; they had arrived in the gloomy basement kitchen of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The only sources of light were the fire and one guttering candle, which illuminated the remains of a solitary supper. Kreacher was disappearing through the door to the hall, looking back at them malevolently as he hitched up his loincloth; Sirius was hurrying toward them all, looking anxious. He was unshaven and still in his day clothes; there was also a slightly Mundungus-like whiff of stale drink about him.

"What's going on?" he said, stretching out a hand to help Ginny up. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured —"

"Ask Harry," said Fred.

"Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," said George.

The twins and Ginny were staring at him. It was only till Asteria creep from behind them that they notice Asteria was there.

"You could say it was a vision or whatever. But the only reason Harry got it was because he's got a part of someone else's soul in him," Asteria says nonchalantly.

Everyone turned in shock at her statement. Sirius was looking at her wearily as he did not expect someone outside of the Order to have been so calm about seeing him.

"You don't know anything and shouldn't even be here. So Harry what happened," Fred says.

"You know what it doesn't matter if I should be here or not. Visions like that only happen to half-bloods how are in prophecies."

Asteria pushes past all of them and going somewhere away from them. She's definitely going to have some explaining to do.