The Guardian

Disclaimer- I own nothing you recognize, only Rhiannon and the illogical plot!!! All else belongs to the beautifully talented JKR


Chapter 10
They Meet

Sirius jumped when the white around him flickered to something else then went back. “What the hell?” He muttered
“Oh bloody hell that’s high.” That voice again, she was above him somewhere.
“Shit” Was that Remus? Sirius was sure he’d heard his friend, there was more talking a high shrill voice and the dulcet tones of the woman he’d been hearing all night. He looked up following her voice.
“Good luck with that you crazy bitch.” She said.
Sirius was surprised again when the world around him shifted, became a small canyon with high cliffs on each side. In front of him there was a row of gates of varying heights and colors. He took a step forward to touch them, but heard something above him. Whatever was falling was coming fast. He looked up to see a woman jerk to a stop in mid air a couple dozen feet above him. Her eyes were shut tight, her dress hanging away from her body. Her arms were held out in front of her as though she was bracing herself. The woman hung there for a moment before dropping. He held out his arms she didn’t look all that heavy. The combined weigh and momentum from the falling woman carried them both to the ground.
“Oi what the hell?” he groaned, that really should have hurt more than it did. He felt something hard dig into his shoulder and pushed her off him.
“Hey you okay?” he gently pushed the curls off her face, she was pretty with ruby red lips and thick dark lashes. She still had her eyes tightly closed but she was breathing.
“Well if I'm going crazy at least I’ll have beautiful company.”
“Bloody fucking hell!” She sat up. It was her! The woman he’d been hearing.
“It’s you! Who are you? Where the hell am I?” He shook her.
“Oww you git. Don’t do that!” She hissed now, but didn’t look at him. She was searching the ground around them. “Thanks for breaking my fall.” She shoved the glasses she’d picked up on then raised her face to him.
“Didn’t exactly have a choice there did I?”
She smirked reminding him of Snivellus, making him suspicious. “Who are you?”
“Rhiannon, I’m a Guardian.” She was staring down at her shoulder muttering to herself. Her long hair curtained her movements making it impossible for his to see what she was doing. He shifted to his other foot, and pulled out his wand just in case. She didn’t know it didn’t work.
“What are you doing here?”
“Bleeding to death, no thanks to your idiot cousin.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, revealing a silver dagger. His eyes widened at the stream of blood running from her shoulder to pool on the vivid green grass next to her. Bellatrix did this? How did she know his cousin? And what had she done to warrant getting stabbed? Not that Bellatrix really needed a reason to torture anyone. But a Guardian, what was a Guardian doing anywhere near that group? He vaguely remembered a story about guardians that his nanny had told him. They were neutral entities, which were seen only at death.
“So… I’m dead?” He asked shoving his hair out of his eyes.
“No, although most people believe so.” She was wiggling the dagger.
“Want some help?” He reached out to grab the handle.
“No! Don’t touch it!” She crab crawled back. “Stay the hell away from it! Are you bloody stupid?” She was glaring up at him, at least he thought she was but he couldn’t really tell.
“Damn for someone that’s bleeding to death you sure are a bitch to someone trying to help you.” He pulled back watching her shift the dagger.
“And for someone described as naturally gifted you sure are dimwitted.” Her tone was down right snarky.
“How do you know me?”
“Dumbledore told me about you, as did Remus and Harry and his friends. But they left out the part about you being idiotic enough to try and grab a cursed knife.”
“You know Harry?” He dropped down next to her.
“Yes I met him the other day.”
The other day? Harry had been locked down in Hogwarts since before Christmas. He pointed his wand at her but she didn’t move. “You’re lying.”
He watched her sigh, and stop fiddling with the dagger. “Sirius Orion Black, you should know better than that. You’ve heard me talking constantly, haven’t you figured out how long you’ve been in here?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s been a month since that night at the ministry.”
He couldn’t believe it, a month? Harry would be out of school, getting ready to go back to the Dursleys. He hung his head, his shaggy hair covering his face. What had he done, he’d let Harry down again. Had screwed up when he should have been there for his godson.

Rhiannon watched the man before her, he was down right gorgeous. She watched him rub his long tattooed fingers over his face and ignored the throbbing in her arm. She’d have to pull the dagger out soon but wasn’t quite ready yet and Sirius Black was proving to be a good distraction. She’d noticed him pull his wand, even though he knew it wouldn’t work here. She wondered what he thought he could do with it.
“Has Harry gone on holiday yet?” His voice was deep and warm making her shiver.
“No not yet, they leave the day after tomorrow.” She sighed her fingers were going numb now.
“When you go back will you tell him I’m sorry?” He sounded resigned like he’d accepted something but didn’t like it.
“No tell him yourself. He’s not exactly happy with me at the moment.” She took a deep breath and grabbed the dagger, one more and yanked. Blood rushed freely now even more pooling next to her. She was starting to feel a bit cold, nothing new there but she felt oddly numb all over now. She was dimly aware that there was way too much blood now.
“Come on help me up.” She raised her hand to Sirius only to find she couldn’t hold her own weight.
“What curse was on that knife?” He felt her sag against him.
She shook her head indicating she didn’t know. “Think about Hogwarts.” Mumbled against him and crossed her fingers that this worked. She had no particular room in the school in mind, just the castle. She closed her eyes and wrapped both arms as tightly as she could around the man practically carrying her.
“You focused on it?”
“Yes.” His breath tickled her ear as she focused on her destination. They seemed to dissolve into the landscape.