A female vampire was in front of them so quickly that Sirius had only an impression of an ice-pale face split into a fiendish grin. She threw out her arms and a thick cloud of bats poured out around them. Wings and little claws beat at them, snagging at the invisibility cloak.

The vampiress moved with the same mind-boggling speed. Her sharp fingers slashed through the cloak and Sirius realized that even if she hadn't been able to see him, the bats would know he was there. She didn't attack him, though. She didn't even spare him a glance. She was after Lorelei.

Shadows flowed around him like dark water. It was the other vampires, he realized as fear made him stagger. Moving so fast that they were just darker blurs in the darkness, they circled like sharks. He had no idea how to fight them. They were everywhere at once, too fast to even swing at. He kept waiting for the sudden pain when one would attack, but aside from the aching chill their eyes left when they glanced at him, they didn't seem interested.

I could run, he thought, shapeshift, apparate, anything! He felt something cold brush against his mind and he swayed. The words of a spell just came out in a gasp. Cold mist wrapped around his legs and when he looked, he saw it take the shape of arms that held him. His feet were held fast by the clutching fog. The cold something began to close around his brain like a fist.

"No!" someone screamed. For a moment, Sirius thought it had been him. But then a hot green light exploded around him. The bats were incinerated. They vanished in little puffs of ash. The mist dissolved backwards away from them, halfway returning to several vampiric forms before it was completely burned away. The vampiress blocking their path shrieked and fell back.

Lorelei stood in a halo of fire. Even in his terror, Sirius stopped to gape at her. It was like her shadow hound spell, only now the hounds were tentacles of green flame. She still had a deathgrip on his upper arm. Behind them, Brohm roared in outrage. With the fiery whips clearing a path into the dark garden, Lorelei ran, jerking Sirius after her.

As he was being bodily hauled away, Sirius saw Brohm grab North by the throat, then scream again as he dropped the dog. North sank his teeth into the vampire’s arm and ripped it off at the elbow. Other vampires joined the fray, but every time they laid hand on North, they jerked away with cries of pain. North shook them off and bolted after Lorelei.

They ran. More mist and bats fluttered around them, but the flames drove them back. Shrill voices rang out behind them. Sirius felt the cloak catch on something and pull off him, but he didn’t dare stop for it.

North caught up with them easily. His snowy coat was spattered now, but his eyes were bright and happy. He had done a good job and he knew it. He took the lead as they ran into the garden. His coat was the brightest thing in the evening. Lorelei followed him and Sirius was towed along after her. She was strong enough that if he stumbled, she would probably drag him and Esme both.

“Get away!” sobbed Lorelei as she ran. “Get away!” She cast a whirling crackle of light. It whirlpooled into a circle that Harry would’ve recognized from the night the Elmskill students had fled to Hogwarts. It was a portal, ripped into the world.

“Somewhere safe!” she screamed. “Think of someplace safe!” Then she jumped headlong into it. North jumped with her, a graceful white arc in the darkness. Images of places Sirius had hidden flickered through his head. When was the last time he had even been safe? Getting a better grip on Esme, he jumped into the circle of light.