It was early morning when Sirius crept through the mist to a huge and imposing wrought iron fence. It was over nine feet high and the bars were twisted into elegant, somewhat sinister shapes. It would have been easy to climb if the groundskeepers hadn�t kept a razor-edged spell on it that made it too sharp to lay hands on.

As it was, Sirius trotted around the perimeter to a place where a huge bush of black roses had engulfed part of the the fence. Briared tendrils swayed gently without a breeze and a few of them reached for him as he passed. Vampire roses, he thought with a grim internal chuckle. If they got hold of him, they�d bury their thorns in him and drink his blood until he was dry. Then, the blooms would be red for a few days before they�d fade to black and be hungry again. His mother had always admired the Nalicus gardens. He had been forced to tag along with his brother and trot politely up and down the paths as the Lady Nalicus had advised his mother on how to grow the ghastly things.

It had been good for something though. There was a gate in the back, hidden by some harmless ivy, that the garden staff was allowed to use. There weren�t any dangerous plants there, because after losing two or three groundskeepers to one shrub or another, the Nalisuses had been forced to allow them a safe point of escape.

The House of Nalicus wasn�t what it had been in those days. They had been very wealthy and made little secret that dark magic had played a part in that. The Lord Nalicus hadn�t been willing to show deference to anyone, much less a half-blood like Voldemort, and had been killed by Deatheaters. His wife had accepted this turn of events a little too well, and devoted her attention to her carnivorous garden until her death. Rumor held that she was buried beneath her favorite tree in the garden and her voice could still be heard from the leaves when the wind blew. Of her five children, one had left the country to avoid Aurors, one had died in Azkaban, and one had simply married into another family and faded from sight. The oldest two were still in the manor, Gilles and Messalina Nalicus.

No one had seen Messalina in years. Her brother had explained that she had taken the same obsession with vicious plants as their mother had and had lost all interest in other humans. Sirius could only dimly remember Messalina. At the Christmas ball he remembered she had been a few years older than him and hadn�t joined the children�s games. She hadn�t been as pretty as her other sister, and had faded rather easily into the background. Sirius could only recall her smiling once.

He and one of her younger brothers had been roughhousing and had knocked over a tall iron candle holder into a large mirror. The smash had been spectacular, and glass had rained down on the floor like sharp hailstones. The lit candles hit the floor as well, splattering red wax over the mess. The Nalicus boy (Sirius couldn�t remember his name) had screamed with such horror, that Sirius thought he�d been burned. Messalina appeared in the doorway and as soon as she saw the broken mirror, her face had split into a look of delight.

�It was HIM!� the boy had screamed, pointing desperately at Sirius. �I tried to stop him!� Sirius had been about to argue, but Messalina, a tall girl in a long gray dress had only waved a hand. A blue stone in her ring had flashed and her wand had appeared. She restored the mirror with a flick and was setting the candle holder back up when a house elf had rushed in.

�What was that noise?� the elf had asked, a bit sharply Sirius had thought, for one speaking to the lord�s daughter.

�We were playing,� Messalina told him. �And I knocked this over.� Her brother had cowered. Sirius had been looking closer at the mirror to see what all the fuss was about. The elf saw him and lunged to block his view of it.

�Miss should know better,� it snarled at her. �Too many breakables here for playing.�

�Run tell my father I knocked over a candle,� Messalina had said. �I dare you.� And with that, she swept out. The house elf glared at Sirius until the other boy pulled on his arm and led him from the room.

Just another happy wizard household, Sirius thought a little bitterly. He wondered what had happened to the boy he had played with. He was either dead or fleeing Aurors in some far corner of the world. Had they been in Azkaban at the same time? It didn�t matter now. It was too long ago. The gorgeous manor was now dark and unkept, and the gardens had grown wild. The powerful family was now nothing but an eccentric and feared old man and his recluse sister, locked away in their old home like two paranoid snails in the same shell.

He came to the gate and found it locked, and the lock rusted solid. The dirt underneath was loose under a blanket of dead leaves, so it only took a minute or two to scrape his way underneath. Once inside, he found himself on a path thick with dead leaves and overgrown plants. He had no idea which plants were still dangerous, or what else might be here that he didn�t know about. He�d have to run the gauntlet just to get to the house, and it was there that the real danger would start.

Sunrise was turning the mist to the east a golden coral color. He hadn�t seen Lorelei since they had spoken, but her dread of Brohm had prompted him to wait until morning. With any luck, the vampires would all be asleep. Maybe all he would have to do would be to sneak in, find Esme, and sneak out with her. And maybe McGonagall will dance naked on the roof of Hagrid�s cabin on New Year�s Eve, Sirius thought, rolling his eyes at his own optimism.

He had come this far, and he would keep going. He was risking a lot for Esme, and he realized that. Maybe he was tired of losing friends, though he wasn�t sure that Esme could be safely called a friend. I�ll be hers then, he told himself, setting off in a careful dogtrot towards the house. Would she do this for me? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I�m not even doing this for her. Maybe I�m just here so I don�t have to hide in Harry�s dorm anymore and watch the Map for hope. Maybe I�d rather risk my life on some stupid adventure than wait for something to happen.

Something slithered in the grass nearby and he jumped from his maybes back to alertness.The grass was too tall for him to tell what it was, but it seemed to be heading away. Hopefully, it was just some snake he�d startled. To be safe, he quickened his pace, leaping over a fallen branch, and running to a clearer spot ahead. He paused there, and checked to be sure nothing had followed him. All was still around him. He turned and found himself facing a huge, gnarled tree. It still had leaves, but they were a dead, dirty red, and hung on their branches as if the faintest breath of air would send them spinning away. Clutched in its roots was a black marble tombstone.

So, the rumors are true about that much, Sirius mused. I don�t hear any voices though. He glanced up into the branches and was shocked into biting his own tongue. Tiny clusters of bones were hung from the branches. With his hackles bristling, he recognized them for what they were. His family had mounted house elf heads from the walls, but it seemed the Nalicus clan hung the whole body out in the garden. Or maybe the house elves had hung themselves, he thought, shuddering. With the lord gone and their lady dead, maybe they had just strung themselves up like hams over her grave.

He turned his back on the macabre place and started for the house again. He had brought the invisibility cloak that Fred and George had stolen, but wasn�t going to use it yet. The plants were his main concern now and they didn�t have eyes to see him with anyway. He passed a fountain that was clogged with leaves and the moss growing at its base rippled under his feet. He ran from that and had the ground open up under him into a pit lined with stone-like teeth. If he�d been in human form, he would�ve fallen, but four paws scrabbling madly in the loose dirt kept him from losing his balance. The stone teeth snapped hopefully, but finding nothing, closed again.

Badly shaken this time, Sirius took a moment to recover. He hadn�t been expecting that. When his heart beat calmed down a bit, he crept on, much more cautiously this time. Another rose bush reached for him, but he saw that coming and dodged away. Another rustle in the trees made him cringe, but it was only a pair of squirrells chasing each other. How had anything survived in this garden? he thought, watching them scamper. But as he looked closer, he saw that the branches had all grown together into a cage. There were a few birds trapped inside too, but they squatted miserable on their perchs and didn�t even blink when the squirrells trampled over them. They�d been in there a long time.

Why have an aviary when you can grow one? Sirius thought. He wondered if the tree could actually catch things itself and add them to its collection. He gave it wide berth to be safe. Here and there, he saw other bones scattered in the grass, too small to be really worrisome, but it made him nervous just the same. Something fluttered over his head and he lunged away, but saw only an owl�s shape against the brightening sky. It was gone quickly and he ran the rest of the way to the manor before anything else could happen.

Crouched against the stone wall, he gathered his thoughts. The night of the Christmas party he had left the main hall before the carols started so he wouldn�t have to sing. He had gone to the kitchen for more dessert and there had been a cellar door to one side. Keeping close to the wall, Sirius circled the house until he came to the outer cellar entrance. There was a lock on it as big as his head. Wonderful.

This one wasn�t rusted liked the garden gate was, and the wood was still too intact to break or gnaw through, even if he had the time. One of the hinges looked a little bit loose. He wondered if he could work it free without shapeshifting. If there was someone awake in the house, a dog pawing at the cellar door wasn�t nearly the threat that a human trying to break a hinge was.

�Can you not cast an unlock spell in that form?� The voice was soft, but it still startled him out of his skin. He was halfway up the wall behind him before he realized who it was. Lorelei was crouched on the gutter above him like an especially beautiful gargoyle. As he gasped and tried to get his heart going again, she dropped lightly as a dancer to stand beside him. A tap of her wand opened the lock and a flick of her wrist opened the door. Two white owl feathers were hanging from an ivory bracelet she was wearing.

The open door was just a black hole into the ground. She stood there looking down into it with her usual unreadable expression. Adrenaline was still screaming through Sirius� body, but anger at being so startled was beginning to seep in with it. He shifted to his human form so he could snarl at her in a way she could understand.

�What. The. HELL. Are YOU. Doing. HERE??� He managed to keep his voice low as well, but it wasn�t easy. His eyes flicked over the windows to make sure no one had come to see them and then back to her. She was still peering into the darkness

�I don�t know.� she said, not looking at him.

�Where�s North?� he asked next, trying to unclench his teeth.

�Hidden,� she said. Finally, her red eyes made their way to meet his. The fear in them chilled the anger from him. �What now?� she asked. Her voice was breathless and faint. Sirius sucked in a heavy sigh and released it. A change in plan couldn�t hurt when there was no plan.

�Just follow me and be ready.� he said, and he dropped back to all fours as a dog and went down the cold stairs into the dark.