Dinner that night had been wonderful and all were lounging about the common room afterwards. Harry was reading. Hermione and Ron were just beginning to snipe at each other over something when there was an explosion of green smoke and soot from the fireplace. It was Floo Powder and Fred and George Weaselly both came reeling out of it. Fred was obviously hurt. His face was clenched into a rictus of pain and George was holding him up. Everyone in the common room was on their feet and shouting an instant later.

Harry rushed forward with the others. He saw Hermione head for the door, likely going for help. He and Ron tried to see what was wrong with Fred. McGonagall burst into the room with Hermione in her wake. In the commotion, George shoved something into Ron’s hands before he and Fred were hurried away. Baffled and worried about his brother, Ron started to follow but McGonagall told him to stay put.

“I don’t know what your brothers have done this time,” she told him. “But until we know for sure I want every one to stay in the house.” Then she was gone in a swish of her cloak and Ron was left to peer forlornly down the hall. Then his eyes fell to the bundle George had given him. It seemed to be a strange-colored cloak, wadded into a ball. He and Harry caught each other’s eye and quickly went up to their room. Sirius was there as well. The noise had woken him and he got up to see what the excitement was. Once inside the room, they unrolled the fabric. A familiar shimmer went over it.

“It’s an invisibility cloak,” Ron whispered. Harry nodded, his eyes wide.

“It isn’t mine though,” he said. “This one is much bigger. Where did they get it?” Ron began to shrug and suddenly they could hear a muffled voice from inside the cloak’s folds. Startled, he gave it a shake and one of the twins’ doll heads rolled out. It was one of their voice throwers and Dumbledore’s voice was speaking through the doll’s open mouth. His voice was as grim and serious as Harry had ever heard it, and both boys leaned in close to hear.

“Your brother is in the infirmary, George,” the headmaster said. “His injury is obviously cursed. Even if Madame Pomfrey can regenerate the rest of his arm, he may never have full use of it again. I want you to tell me what happened. Where did you come in contact with such Dark magic?”

There was a pause. Ron’s eyes were wide and worried. Then, George’s voice came meekly from the doll.

“...Last summer,” he said. “We heard Dad talk about a raid the Ministry made on a suspected Dark wizard named Nalicus...He said he had been sure that he had seen a copy of “Illusionary Arts and Practices” before Nalicus showed up and ordered them all out. ...We...wanted to find it for him...” There was another pause. Harry could picture Dumbledore’s piercing stare, then George went on. “...and we had read that there some spells in it that allow you to set illusions in inanimate objects...so, we uh, borrowed an invisibility cloak from Filch’s closet and used some Floo Powder to get to Knockturn Alley. From there, we used the cloak to get in.

“Nalicus was there and we followed him down to a parlor... It was full of vampires, all of them fish-belly pale and drinking blood out of cognac glasses. There was this fountain in the middle of the room and it emptied into a pit in the middle of the floor. Nalicus left for a minute and then came back with someone all draped up like a Dementor. He said that they were all there to witness a great honor and to celebrate the end of a common enemy. Then they brought in some guy, he looked like a Muggle, and led him over to where the hooded person was. Whoever it was in the hooded robes just sort of swept the Muggle up and...and...”

“Go on,” said Dumbledore, more kindly than before.

“Bit his neck,” George squeaked. “Just...just sucked him dry. It was so fast. You could see the life just draining out of him!...He screamed once...and me and Fred just stood there frozen...Then something happened. I couldn’t see what because all the vampires gathered around to look. But first the Muggle guy was dead and then he woke up. It was like he was crazy-starving-mad. The vampires all sort of shrank back and the dead guy attacked the person in the hood. The robes got torn off and it was this woman.. and she just sort of stood there and let it happen! He tore into her and...bit into her neck. She was bleeding all over from where his claws had ripped her. Most of her shirt had been torn off, too...she had these long scars down her back...”

Sirius flinched. Biting his lip, he leaned in even closer to hear the rest.

“I...don’t think she was very awake,” George was saying. “She kind of jerked and this black stuff flowed out of all her cuts and bites and the dead guy sucked it all up. His eyes turned red and the woman just collapsed. The guy...I guess he was a vampire too then, he held her like a rag doll and this weird black aura flowed out around him. The other vampires all sank down to their knees and Nalicus kinda bowed a little.

“The new vampire said something like, uh, ‘I have walked the earth since ages past and only once in countless years was I taken by surprise’ and he held the woman up by the scruff of her neck. And all the vampires started screaming for a taste of her. That she had dared to destroy the children of one of the oldest bloodlines, that they would eat her heart, and drink her blood til her veins collapsed, that sort of thing...But the new one said no. That there was something special about her because no ordinary mortal, even a magic-using one, could have come so close to killing him.

“There’s life in her yet, one said, and her blood’s so warm, and they reached for her, but he pulled her away before they could touch her. By then, me and Fred were just trying to find our way out. We tried to backtrack through the house, but it was like a maze, we kept getting more and more lost. We still had some Floo Powder, so we were just trying to find a fireplace. It seemed like hours! We were just running from room to room and every now and then we would hear the vampires yelling or something downstairs.

“ Finally, we got to a hearth shaped like a big dragon’s head...so it looked like the fire was burning down in it’s mouth, but when we threw in the Floo Powder, its jaws slammed shut. The stone teeth bit into Fred’s arm and I just sorta panicked. I grabbed his other arm and screamed Gryffindor and it brought us here...”

“The loss of an arm is a high price to pay for an illusions spell,” Dumbledore said severely.

“Nothing is worth my brother being hurt,” George said meekly.

“You’re parents are on their way here, now,” Dumbledore went on. “I’m afraid you may have more explaining to do. You may go straight back to your house and I’ll ask you not to leave until I send for you again. On your way, please ask Ms. Zephyr to come see me.”

The sound of George leaving was drowned out as Sirius jumped to his feet and started for the door.

“I’d better go to,” he said.

“A rescue mission?” Harry asked.

“It will be,” Sirius said and then he was gone.