Finally escaping from the Ministry officials with the excuse that she couldn’t wait any longer to take her medication, Lorelei ducked around a corner and tried to think of where Esme could be. For all that they were twins, she had never been able to read her sister well. A soft panting sound caught her attention and she stopped to hear it better. After a moment, she was able to follow it to a stair well, where she found the ichling painfully climbing the stairs.

One wing was slashed and hanging useless over the small creature's back. It was obviously unused to having to travel with only its legs and stopped often to rest or lick at its wound. It paused to sniff the air and Lorelei quickly drew back into the hall to keep it from noticing her. She wasn't quite fast enough, because it began to run as best it could. She ran after it, but even injured, it moved quickly when frightened.

It bolted up the stairs, stumbled on the landing, then ran for a corridor. Lorelei came hard after it, but slid to a stop before following it into the dark hallway. It was some sort of memorial hall, she guessed, wishing she knew more of the layout of Hogwarts. There were statues of wizards and witches, every other one holding a very weakly lit candle. She whispered a spell that made the flames leap high and looked closer.

The shadows of the long corridor seemed even thicker. There were countless places to hide among the statues and display cases for something as small as an ichling. She pointed her wand at the ceiling and fired a ball of light into the air, hastily pulling on her dark sunglasses at the same time. The blast of brightness lit every corner and she waited tensely for the creature to scuttle into view when its hiding place vanished.

Nothing happened. Lorelei walked carefully to the other end of the hall and looked back the way she had come. There was no sign of the ichling. The ball of light began to dim. Lorelei turned again, her robe catching at her arm. She shook it loose with an impatient sound and started back to the door.

Four small clawed hands scrabbled at her through her clothes. She gasped and spun to see the creature clinging to her sleeve. Its face split into a fanged hiss. Lorelei threw off her coat in a panic, getting tangled in it for a moment, then casting a spell to blast it away from her. The ichling squealed, but instead of attacking her, it ducked into the folds of her coat. Lorelei cast a fireball at it, incinerating the clothing, but the ichling danced clear at the last possible second. It crouched on three legs in the floor. In one of its front paws, it clutched the orb that the Bind was held in.

"Don't!" Lorelei screamed before she could stop herself, but the ichling opened its maw and sank it's teeth into the orb. There was a crackle of released power and a crunching sound like jawbones breaking. The Bind burst out of the orb and the ichling sucked it up. Blackness flowed over it. The injuries on the wing that Snape had damaged bled black and then healed over. Its greasy eyes flared with a red glow and it tilted its head to grin at Lorelei.

"Last of my line," it said, in Brohm's velvety voice. “Give me your strength.”

Lorelei had trained long and hard to be a Defense teacher, but there was no fighting the horror that washed over her. She had only been in Brohm's hands once before he turned her over to his underlings, but he had tasted her blood. The part of her that had been broken in the dark recognized him as her master, even as that thought made her sick.

She took a step back before she remembered. Brohm was dead. The Bind was the last bit of his awareness, but it couldn't bring him back. The ichling shuddered and then stood upright on it's hind legs. Lorelei became aware of the wand in her hand and quickly pointed it at the creature to unleash the same capture spell she'd used before.

The ichling was faster, though. It sprang at her with the same unnatural speed that Brohm had fought with. She struck at it, but its little clawed feet went scrabbling over her. It ran over her back and she screamed for help even as she threw her weight against a wall to pin it. As quick as cockroach, the ichling jumped to her head, its claws digging into her scalp. It dove for her collar and her scream rose high and shrill again as it sank its teeth into her neck.

On their way to Lorelei's room, Esme, Sirius, Harry, and Ron all froze as the sounds echoed down a stairwell. Esme recognized her sister's cry and nearly bolted in that direction before she slid to a stop and ran back. She handed the World's Door key back to Harry.

"Go to the room!" she said. "I'll be right back." Then she was gone, taking the stairs three at a time. Sirius grimaced and ran after, also shouting over his shoulder for Harry and Ron to wait inside. He caught up with her at the first landing and they started into the dark hallway together. They found the crumpled body of the ichling lying in a spatter of blood. It was dead and shriveled, as if the very life had been wrung from it.

"Something's wrong," Esme whispered. "This is bad."

"Didn't you want it dead?" Sirius asked.

"Lorey wouldn't kill it." Esme nudged the corpse with her toe. "She would capture it in case she needed it later. No burning bridges for that girl. Something else killed it and something made her scream."

"How do you know?" he asked, looking around for any movement in the dark hall. He wondered where he could lay hands on a wand. Being without one in the dark was unnerving.

"Twintution," Esme said. Sirius started to grin, but it faded when Esme stayed serious. The word might have been a joke once, but now she barely noticed that she used it. She was sincerely worried and looked it. "Something bad is going to happen now."

They ventured on past the hall’s dim candles into a slightly better lit one. There was a smash and they both froze. The sound came from around a corner. Something huddled there, a dark shape on the floor. Esme gasped and left Sirius to creep closer. He was reminded of the careful way she had approached him when she first met him as Padfoot. A choking sound came from whatever was on the floor.

“Is that you, Lorey?” Esme asked. Her voice sounded hesitant and scared. Her rings started to glow. “Speak up if it is.” There was silence after that. Esme started to back away again. There was a rush of movement. Only the reflexes gained from hunting vampires saved Esme from a strike that would have broken her neck. Any one who hunts vampires successfully enough to do it often soon becomes paranoid about anything coming at their throats. Some honed instinct sent her scrambling and the hit that should have killed her only slashed some furrows into the stone wall.

“Get out of here!” Esme screamed to Sirius. He hadn’t even seen the attack coming, and stumbled back. Esme fired a spell that manifested as spear-like shards of indigo ice that streaked towards the attacker. A few very narrowly missed Sirius, who shrank back against the wall. A flare of red light repelled them before they hit and Esme looked horrified. For a moment, Sirius thought she was upset because the spell hadn’t worked. Then, the attacker stepped into the light.

It was Lorelei. Her eyes gleamed red in the stark whiteness of her face. Esme stood speechless and frozen, her face anguished. If Lorelei’s eyes were red again, did it mean that she had regressed? Sirius wondered. If the cure hadn’t worked, then all of Esme’s years of hunting had been in vain. Lorelei gave Sirius the briefest of glances and then focused on her stricken sister. As her head turned from him, Sirius saw a flicker of movement under her skin, like a dark shimmer off fish fins.

“It’s the Bind!” he shouted. Lorelei ignored him and leaped at Esme a second time. Esme dodged again, levitating up in a leap that carried her over to Sirius. She grabbed his arm and they ran back down the hallway.

“Damn this place!” she growled. “Ichlings can Apparate in and out, but I can’t!”

“What happened to your sister??” he asked. “The Bind didn’t send you running red-eyed and attacking people!”

“When it was in me, Brohm was still contained!” she answered. “Now the Bind is all that’s left of him. He needs a body to function. The ichling wouldn’t have been strong enough to contain him. Now he’s in Lorelei.”

“Can’t you Crucio it out of her like she did you?” Sirius pulled her down a staircase. They heard something else break behind them.

“I don’t know how!” Esme bit her lip. “ I never learned any Forbidden Curses, just some really iffy ones. And even if I did, I couldn’t use them on Lorey!”

“She used it on you,” he reminded her and she glared at him.

“And you once chased me with a knife!” she snapped. “Luckily for the both of you, I’m the forgive and forget type of girl.”

“What will you do?” he asked, abashed that she had known about the knife.

“She’s already got it in for me. I’ll lure her away until I can force the Bind out of her. Take the World’s Door to the Headmaster if you’re sure you trust him.” There was a swish of black and Lorelei struck again, falling from above them like a lightning bolt. Sirius and Esme scattered to opposite sides of the hall. Lorelei spun and launched after Esme who ‘eeked!’ and ran again. Sirius threw open the first door he saw.

“Broom closet!” he yelled, grabbing the likeliest broom in it. He threw it at Esme, who was circling around a pillar to keep it between herself and Lorelei. “Thanks!” she screamed, leapt onto it, and shot off, Lorelei still in pursuit.

“Be careful!” he called, running to keep up.

“Hah!” was her only reply.

Esme shot down a corridor and used her gust spell to blast open a window. The hallways were too close for dealing with something as fast as her possessed sister. Lorelei slid to a halt at the windowsill and glared at Esme. Esme spun the broom around to face her and cast a wave of green lightning back at the window. It was a mild spell. Even if it hit Lorelei, it would only stun her.

Lorelei’s black robes swirled around her in a cocoon and the spell flickered over her, sputtering out. Her robes then unfolded like huge batwings. How did she learn THAT one?? Esme thought, gaping. Lorelei leaped from the window and flew after her, the black wings looking too sharp to be fabric. Esme pointed the broom towards the woods and sped off again. The important thing is not to panic, she told herself. See how calm I am. Yes...That’s serene hyperventilating I’m doing. Behind her, Lorelei shouted out a spell that Esme could vaguely recognize. She looked over her shoulder quickly and saw a dragon-shaped shadow materialize out of the night air.

“You’ve improved!” she yelled at her sister. “Used to be a shadow horse was the best you could manage!” Lorelei didn’t answer and Esme cast her strongest light spell back at the shadow creature. The dragon faded out as soon as the brightness touched it, but the glare was still dazzling Esme’s eyes when a fireball came blasting through it. With almost no time to dodge, Esme dove the broom straight into the trees. Branches whipped at her, clawing at her arms and legs and raising stinging welts on her head.

“I’m still not panicking!” she squealed aloud. In the woods, she had to concentrate on steering around the trees. She risked one glance back to see a huge winged shape swoop on through a gap in the skeletal branches like a black angel. I gotta think, she told herself, mentally this time. Lorey is Defense teacher so she’s going to know most spells. My best chance is to surprise her and then hit again before she recovers. She wracked her brain for a spell that Lorelei wouldn’t know, skimming a small pond and sending some furry winter-frogs scattering.

Her sister had never been as good at Personalification as she was, but that took time. If she could land in the woods and lash some fallen branches together into stick men, she could animate them and send them to fight her sister. The trick would be doing it on the back of a speeding broom, at top speed through a dark and overgrown forest, while one’s homicidal sibling rained destructive magic on one’s poor, branch-whipped head. As if on cue, a blast of red energy shot toward her, setting a few evergreens ablaze on the way.

Esme only barely dodged that one. A few twigs in her broom were singed. The black wings blocked out the weak light from the moon. In desperation, Esme cast the gust spell again. The rush of wind caught the wings and sent Lorelei reeling higher, like an escaped kite. Taking the opportunity, Esme sent the ice spear spell at her. She didn’t even aim, telling herself that the Bind wouldn’t let Lorelei die. She needn’t have worried.

Lorelei dodged the ice missiles as elegantly as a matador. She flourished her wand and glowing golden wire uncoiled from it, spinning towards Esme. There was no eluding that one. It snaked at her too quickly to dodge, cutting through the tree branches between them like butter. Esme jumped from the broom, casting her levitation spell again to stay in the air. The wire sliced the broom into five different pieces which fell to the ground.

Levitation was much slower than broom riding and nowhere near fast enough to keep ahead of Lorelei for long. Esme shot into the thickest underbrush in sight, hoping the overgrowth would slow her sister down as well. Through the trees, she could see the lake gleam. The moon was finally full and a few rays were making it through the clouds. The silver glow suddenly reflected red. Esme cursed and threw herself flat to avoid the fireball that came scorching in past her.

I’m beginning to panic now... Esme whimpered to herself. Thank God my adrenaline is so high I can’t feel my arm hurting anymore... She ran a few paces and them jumped into the air, levitating out over the lake. Heading for deep water, she heard the crash of breaking tree limbs as Lorelei flew into the open. Esme turned to face her. The black wings tucked into a falcon-like dive and Lorelei charged.

An idea clicked into place in Esme’s smarting skull. As the space between them closed, Esme cast Blindness on her sister. Instant blackness flowed over Lorelei’s vision. Her speed faltered, but the momentum carried her on. Just before she collided with her twin, Esme cast a spell she had never had to use on a vampire: a Magic Cancellation Curse. A small shock wave of nulled power exploded from Esme. It canceled out her Levitation and Lorelei’s wings. Both women toppled into the icy water.

On the shore, gasping for breath from the run he’d had catching up with them, Sirius leaned against a tree. He watched the water for any sign of them. What kind of school taught such powerful magic spells to such unstable people?? he wondered wildly. Lorelei was obviously insane and Esme wasn’t far from it as much as he could tell. The moon came out completely and lit the whole surface of the lake. Just as he was about to consider that he might have to go into the frigid water, there was a splash.

Lorelei floated out of the water. She seemed to be unconscious, hanging a few feet about the water. The moon beamed down and water ran from her robes. Mist rose up from the lake, turned silver and twined around her body. Another long minute ticked by with no sign of Esme and with a sigh, Sirius pulled off his outer robe and waded in.