The Guardian

Disclaimer: still don’t own them…


A/N thanks for the reviews!!! I’m so sorry this took so long, please forgive me but apparently my computer is trying its damnedest to die or something. I promise not to take so long in the future even if I have to commandeer my sweet old nana’s computer to do it. (Not like she should be using it anyway… too many things nana’s shouldn’t know on the internet) ha ha

Chapter 14
A truce, gruesome memories and a murder…

The next two weeks went by peacefully, with the exception of meals and a few hours after dinner the residents of number 12 Grimmuald Place stayed to their own rooms. Rhiannon typically cooked while the guys cleaned up. After dinner they would either read or more often spend a few hours arguing amongst them selves, Rhiannon and Sirius taking turns against Snape on everything from potions and school to muggle literature and movies. Rhiannon was pleasantly surprised to find Sirius knew a lot about the muggle world, she’d figured him for more of a pureblood recluse. Snape she had expected it from as he valued knowledge and had been raised in the muggle world. Rhiannon disappeared for hours sometimes, leaving a note pinned to her door in her loopy girlish scrawl.
“Gone, soul… Be back soon. Rhi.”
Sirius was always nervous till she returned, usually tired and hungry, she was his responsibility after all. He had woken up earlier than usual on a Thursday nearing the end of June, hoping to help Rhiannon with breakfast only to find her usual note stuck to her door. Breakfast was in the oven still warm and Snape was sitting at the table alone.
“How long has she been gone?” Sirius asked as he entered the room.
“Couple hours.” Snape stirred sugar into his coffee. Sirius put his plate on the table and started eating. He and Snape had never been alone for more than a few minutes. They had found long ago that they really had very little tolerance for each other. But Sirius was uncomfortable with silence, a trait he figured came from spending most of his life with no one to talk to.
“How are things on the outside?” He asked expecting one of the usual comments about Snape having to do all the work. He was surprised though when Snape looked at him a moment then hissed.
“Lucius is pissed that he can’t summon Rhiannon. My excuses are running out, soon he will go to Voldemort and tell him about her. Then…” the dark wizard shrugged looking tired and worried.
“I thought you didn’t like her.”
“I don’t dislike her, she just…” Snape shrugged, “what does it matter to you?”
Sirius thought a moment, “I don’t guess it really does.” He was lonely he admitted to himself, Remus was busy, James was dead, Harry had to spend the summer at the Dursleys. Even Rhiannon was busy and wouldn’t talk to him much. Although if he was honest he spent more time avoiding her than trying to start a conversation. She was just too tempting and he didn’t want to lose Remus as a friend, something he was sure would happen. He’d spent much of the last two weeks thinking, he didn’t have many friends and he found himself lonely. The evenings spent arguing with Snape reminded him somewhat of the times with James and Lily, just hanging out and talking. And to be honest, something he was trying very hard to do with himself now, the bastard wasn’t half bad, just grumpy. “I just thought we could sort of put the past behind us and be…civil.”
Snape regarded him a moment, indecision warring in his eyes.
“She makes me uncomfortable.” He said in way of acceptance of the proposed truce.
“Rhiannon make’s you uncomfortable? You’re the bat of the Dungeons, the most feared teacher at Hogwarts, and that little slip of a woman makes you uncomfortable?” Sirius was amazed; Snape had always seemed above those kinds of things.
“Not so much her but what she has seen.”
Sirius was confused now and said so.
The dark wizard sighed “When she was in her Third year I caught her roaming the halls in the middle of the night. At least that was what I believed; when I asked her what she was doing she refused to tell me.” Snape glared into his coffee cup a moment then shook his head and pulled out his wand, “Accio pensive.” A small stone basin flew into the room a moment later. Snape pointed his wand at his temple and pulled the gossamer threads of a memory out, pouring them into the stone. “Here, this will be easier than trying to explain what I saw.” Snape waited until Sirius started to put his fingers in the memory before he followed.
Sirius felt himself lift out of his chair and fall, landing easily in the dark hall near the Gryffindor Tower at Hogwarts. Snape looked younger as he lit his wand tip, illuminating a tiny girl. Sirius snorted, the girl was barely four feet tall, and she looked too young to be at Hogwarts let alone in her third year.
“Miss Hades, what are you doing out of bed at this hour?” The younger Snape asked her. Rhiannon looked up at him her eyes reflecting the small amount of light making them flicker.
“Nothing Sir just went to the lavatory.” Snape glanced down at the hem of her pure white robes; they were soaked in something dark. Sirius good smell the metallic sent of blood, so strong even in the memory. She was obviously lying as she worried her bottom lip. Her hair was short, Sirius noticed, brushing her chin and falling in front of her eyes.
“And what is that you’re trailing all over the halls?” Snape indicated the footprints and lines leading up the hall to where she stood. The child opened her mouth but no sound came out so she snapped it closed again shrugging instead and turning her attention to Snape’s shoes.
“Look at me.” He waited for her to comply then muttered “Legilimens”
The older Snape shuddered as the image around them changed. There was a library, Sirius didn’t recognize it but was smart enough to know it was a private study. Plush white carpet covered the floor, gleaming tables and expensive furniture cluttered the room, surrounded by books in huge dark cases. A large mahogany desk took up one wall; the chair was pushed over to the fireplace blocking the light from the rest of the room. The smell of leather and polish hung in the air almost over ridden by the heavy scent of blood. Sirius stepped forward, noticing Snape hung back. He looked over the back of the chair to see a young witch strapped to a small table. She had no clothes on; her hair was matted with blood, while her eyes were a lifeless grey that had probably been blue at some point. Sirius shuddered, there were long thin cuts running across her stomach and thighs, smaller ones on her breasts and face. She’d obviously been raped repeatedly and was now being left to die. Her face was pale, tear tracks cutting clean paths into her hair; she shuddered with pain as sobs racked her small tortured body. “Just a bit longer I promise.” A sweet young voice whispered, and Rhiannon appeared next to her. “My mum used to sing to me when I was afraid, would you like me to?” She grabbed the woman’s hand, jerked a second then held still. Sirius watched the memory in horror, such a small child seeing all this.
“I see a bad moon arising…” She sang softly, the witch had stopped crying and hummed softly along with the girl. Sirius jumped when the heavy door behind him swung open banging hard against the wall. His first instinct was to step between the dying woman and whomever was entering the room “Ahh I see you’re still alive. Glad I wasn’t too late.” Lucius Malfoy smiled down at the woman, not seeing Rhiannon grasping the dying witches hand tightly, smearing the other woman’s blood on herself. Lucius sat down in the chair, the leather squeaking slightly in the near silent room. He watched her, a small smile on his face as she took her last shuddering breath. Rhiannon stood up, holding out a tiny green bottle as a flash of light jumped from the now dead witch’s chest, hung in the air a moment before dropping into the outstreatched bottle. She tightly stoppered the top and tucked it safely into her robes.
“I know you’re here little guardian. I set this up just for you. How do you like it?” He chuckled at his own ‘gift’ “You know your mother died in much the same way. She wasn’t as much fun as this one, didn’t scream at all.” Lucius had his eyes closed, a sick little smirk on his lips. Sirius itched to kick his ass, what kind of sick bastard tormented a kid this way? He looked again at the body and gagged, oh that kind.
“You’re father on the other hand begged. Begged for his wife, pleaded that I not do anything to her. But how couldn’t I when she refused to bring the Dark Lord back? Stupid bitch, all she had to do is bring him back and you’d still have your mummy and daddy.” He mocked the sound of a child’s whine. “It’s entirely their fault you are an orphan now.” He dipped his fingers in the blood that was pouring off the table to pool on the floor, and stuck his finger tips in his mouth. “So sweet the blood of the innocent.” He stood up and moved to the door, bellowing for someone to clean up the mess in the library. Before the door closed he called back “I do hope you prove to be more useful than your mother was.”
Sirius turned to see Rhiannon pat the pocket of her robe and whisper “You’re safe now, he can’t hurt you anymore.” Before disappearing with a barely audible pop.
The memory shifted, they were back in the dark hall, Snape was slightly green now. His dark eyes showing the horror of what he’d seen. Rhiannon was looking up at him her eyes flickering madly with unshed tears. “I was just going to the lavatory.” She patted her pocket again. Snape refused to look at her instead fixing his gaze somewhere over her shoulder.
“Go to your room. Don’t let me catch you outside of your tower with out permission again.” He watched her scramble back in the portrait and waited till it swung closed behind her. As he turned he mumbled “Scourgify.” Pointing his wand at the bloody trail left by Rhiannon’s robes.
Sirius felt himself jerk backwards and land in his chair. Snape looked just as sick as he had in the hall.
“What the hell was that?” Sirius growled pissed at the images that were now burned into his memory. He couldn’t get the smell of blood out of his mind or how pitiful the dead witch had looked grasping the hand of a child.
“That is why I don’t look her in the eyes if I can avoid it. I’ve had to do things…” Snape paused a moment, “Things that made me so sick I wanted to die, it killed me inside to know that she had to see what I had done. I couldn’t bring myself to look at a student, someone whose care I was entrusted with, who counted on me to protect them, and see those things played back in their eyes.”
Sirius stared at his one time enemy for a long moment, feeling none of the old hatred or animosity for him. “Have you ever done something like that to a woman?”
Snape shook his head, his greasy hair covering his eyes. “Never, but I have been forced to…’ He waved his hand unwilling to say the words.
Sirius nodded understanding. “What happened to them? The ones who weren’t killed?”
Snape snorted, “There weren’t many, the Dark Lord doesn’t like to leave witnesses to his atrocities, nor do his followers but the few, very few, that have survived, I obliviated them. No one should have to live with memories like that. Except the ones who did it.”
The pair remained silent for a while, stuck in the past and their own memories.

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Rhiannon was just finishing breakfast when she’d felt the unmistakable pull on her soul that signaled the passing of a witch or wizard. It was like that first hill on a rollercoaster when your stomach flops all around inside and your heart jumps. She’d grown used to it now, able to control the shaking in her hands and her breathing better than when she’d been a child. It was early, barely six but she’d been up for hours unable to sleep the last two weeks, wondering why Sirius had kissed her then retreated completely in to some kind of shell, only coming out when they were eating or talking to Snape. Maybe he was gay… She shook her head, “if he was gay then he wouldn’t have kissed you in the first place.”
Then what the hell was wrong with her? She put the fresh biscuits and gravy on plates and put them in the oven. Snape would be up in a few minutes and Sirius maybe an hour later. She waved her hand and caught her robes as they flew down the stairs to her. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn’t apparate exactly, because that required knowing where you were going, she just went. Disappearing and reappearing where she wanted or needed.
She recognized the room immediately when she opened her eyes. It was a place she’d been often since becoming a guardian. The carpet was a different color but still just as thick and expensive, as was the furniture, expensive but sleeker than before. Malfoy manor had changed very little over the years she felt her shoulders droop. Lucius had finally remembered out how to get her to show up. Death.
A small wizard was huddled in the coroner of the room, lying in a puddle of his own blood. Only the top of his gray head was visible over his robes. She pulled them down and smiled sadly at the man. He was old enough to be her father, green eyes searched hers, seeming to recognize what was happening.
“It’s going to be alright.” She sat down next to him ignoring the warm liquid seeping into her clothes. “My mum used to sing to me when I was afraid, would you like me to sing to you?” She took the man’s frail hand and felt his pain. She hissed slightly, and drew the pain into herself leaving him feeling warm and weightless until he died. She looked at the wizard, smoothing his hair like a mother comforting a child and sang the same song she always did. It was the last one she’d heard her mother singing before she’d died. “I see a bad moon arising, I see trouble on the way…”
“I can hear the little guardian.” Bellatrix sang from the other side of the door.
Rhiannon hissed how could the bitch hear her? Only the dying could see her in these robes, they were the robes of death. She shifted uncomfortably, murmuring a disillusionment charm over herself for good measure. The heavy door was flung open, hitting the book case behind it with a resounding thud.
“Where are you little guardian?” Lucius Malfoy hissed she could feel his gaze for a moment. She gripped the dying man’s hand tighter, hoping they wouldn’t torture him anymore. The wizard was softly humming even though she’d stopped singing.
“You’re still singing that silly muggle song to the dying? How childish.” Lucius laughed.
Rhiannon glared at him, but didn’t say a word. Obviously Bellatrix could hear her and she didn’t want to give up her position just yet. The wizard started moaning, the pain getting worse even though she was now taking the brunt of it.
“Oh do shut up you miserable old fool.” Lucius raised his wand, “Avada kedarva.”
The room glowed green a moment, when the light died Rhiannon stoperd her small bottle and tucked it into her robes. She looked at her long time enemy, the man was an evil son of a bitch, who’d sell his own son for a bit of power. He’d tortured her parents, left her and countless others orphans at young ages, and delighted in every moment of it.
“It took you long enough to get to me.” She stayed disillusioned knowing he could hear her now.
“I was merely exploring other avenues. Finding new toys is getting more and more difficult you know. The ministry is keeping such a close watch over every little disappearance.” He raised his wand and sent a spell in the general direction of her voice. Rhiannon jumped when the bookcase behind her fell over, the top half landing on the body of the wizard.
“Maybe you should try leaving me alone.” She stalked him, walking a quiet circle around the pale wizard. She wondered how someone that personified light, the platinum hair, pale skin and glittering eyes, could be so dark. She stepped out of the way of another cutting spell.
“Oh I couldn’t do that. The dark lord wants you too bad now. Besides, he says that as long as you do his bidding, I can keep you as my own little pet.” He sounded like she should be grateful.
“Nah that’s okay Lucius. I’d rather die than become the pet of a sick bastard like you. You know there is a special place waiting for when you die. I just hope I’m the one that gets to take you there.” She knew he was getting mad, his spells were flying around the room with none of the careful aim he’d been taking before. Books were falling off shelves that no longer stood up, the occupants of paintings were running about to keep from being sliced in two. Rhiannon paused a moment when Lucius turned away from her, anger making his face contort and turn red. He threw a curse where she’d been just a second ago, instead of it cutting into the wall it hit a mirror above the fireplace and bounced back. Lucius’ scream of outrage drowned out Rhiannon’s scream as the curse cut a deep line in his cheek and another larger one into Rhiannon’s arm.
“You fucking bitch, look what you did!” He bellowed wiping blood from his face.
“What I did? You’re the one that threw that curse.” She hissed and yelled “stupify.” Before leaving Malfoy manor silently.
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Sirius and Snape were well into a conversation about Quidditch when Rhiannon stomped into the kitchen. Sirius was surprised, her sleeve was torn and blood dripped down her arm. She didn’t seem to notice as she growled her greeting and slammed open the cabinet that held the liquor. He wondered quickly what had happened that had her so angry.
“Are you okay?” He asked watching her take a strange bottle he’d never seen from the lower shelf.
“Fine.” She studied the amber liquid inside for a moment then twisted the top off.
“You need some help with your arm?” Snape looked at Sirius and shrugged at his unasked question.
“No.” She swallowed a good portion of the bottle with a hiss before setting it on the table and dropping into a chair. Sirius recognized someone on their way to getting good and pissed, it was still quiet early but Rhiannon was doing exactly that. He pulled out his wand and floated three glasses and a bottle of Firewhisky over to the table. She obviously didn’t want to talk so he would wait till she was pissed enough to tell them what happened.
“Got any plans Snivellus?”
“None what so ever Mutt.” Snape took the glass with a smirk of understanding, “What about you Miss Hades?” He used his most authoritive professor tone making Sirius grin.
Rhiannon glared for a moment obviously caught up in her own anger.
“Look it’s barely noon and if you drink alone most people would say you have a problem… but if you drink with two… rather one very straight laced adult and one devilishly handsome rogue…” Sirius winked at her
“It’s a strategy session.” Snape smirked. Rhiannon glared a moment more before laughing.
“All right… but it’s going to take more than two bottles to get me to tell you two what happened.
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A/N the song Rhiannon sings is “bad moon a rising” by Credence Clearwater Revival, it’s a great song. I think given world events at the time when most of the older HP characters were young, it would have found it’s way to Britain quiet easily.