“To make sure there isn’t a repeat of LAST time, extra precautions are being taken,” he was explaining to her.

“Last time?”

“Captured criminals have a nasty habit of disappearing from Hogwarts,” he said soberly. “Some just vanish, some are killed by Dementers, the whole thing is highly inconvenient. So, we are keeping her body in an orb and her self in a mirror-snare. As long as her body is reflected in the mirror, she can’t get out of it. She’ll stay separated until her questioning.”

“The Ministry’s failures are of no interest to me,” Lorelei protested. “You can’t be sure she did it!”

“It was her blood that released the thing,” Fudge said. “We’re sure of that much.”

“But I told you that was the ichling!”

“Creating an ichling is a serious crime as well, Ms. Zephyr. It’s been added to the list of charges against her.”

“What??” Lorelei’s outrage sent a cold gust of air through the room. “What list is this? You have no right to accuse her of anything without proof and if there is proof, why haven’t I been notified of it??”

“Please calm yourself,” Fudge was taken aback. Lorelei was doing her best to hold back her voice, but Fudge couldn’t help but feel the menace there. “The Ministry has done some research and compiled a timeline of events and unsolved crimes that occurred in those times that your sister was, er, vampire hunting. As soon as the High Judges arrive she will be questioned. That is all for now. Would you, eh, care to see the charges...?”

The last was offered very timidly, as Lorelei was all but baring her teeth at him. It took her a moment to get a hold of herself. The chill in the air was still there, but she was able to compose her expression and unclench her hands and her teeth.

“Very well,” she said evenly. “As unlikely as I think it is.”

“Good,” said Fudge, obviously relieved. “Good, good. Come this way... Um, her familiar? What should we do with that?” Sirius found the Minister looking at him and resisted the urge to growl. His lips twitched up to show a flash of white teeth against his dark face. Lorelei looked at him carefully too.

“Let him stay,” she said. “After this, it may be a long time before he sees her again.” Fudge nodded a bit reluctantly and motioned the other officials out as well. When they were gone, Sirius went to Esme’s body. It hung in the air, a few inches above the floor. He shifted to his human self to try and reach her through the orb. He expected it to hurt or burn, but his hand passed through the side of the orb with no more than a fuzzy sensation.

They had dressed Esme in a conservative robe that didn’t fit her well. The sleeves were too long and the neckline was too wide. It was made of some kind of itchy velvet with a faint pattern like lilies and spiderwebs. It looked wrong on her, like they’d dressed her for her own funeral.

He took her hand. It was limp, but warm and he could feel a pulse throbbing gently in her wrist. He was afraid to reach in further than his shoulder, and gave her an experimental tug. She didn’t budge, so he let go and pulled free of the orb. It let him go, which was a relief. Esme’s reflection was watching him from the mirror. When he turned to see it, it gave him a little wave. She looked defeated, but smiled for him anyway.

He tried to speak to her, but she couldn’t hear him through the mirror. He could see her mouth move as well, but not a sound made it through the enchanted glass. He tried to move the mirror, but it couldn’t be budged either. Fudge had been careful this time.

Giving up when his arms started to ache, Sirius sat down next to the mirror and leaned against it. On the other side, she crouched down too. She wasn’t able to move outside the confines of the frame, so she had to squirm to get down to a sitting position.

It was like she was trapped in a coffin, Sirius thought gloomily. That image, combined with the black dress left him a little queasy. He remembered his own imprisonment. Death might’ve been better than Dementers, but it provided much less opportunity for escape. He had only gotten away because he was an Animagus. He didn’t know how to help Esme.

Sick with worry, he rested his head against the mirror, trying to think of anything that could get her out of this. He still had her rings, but he couldn’t undo a mirror-snare without the keyword that had been used to lock it. He might be able to dispell the orb, but it wouldn’t do her any good without her self. It would just be what Rosie would call meat. It would eventually weaken and die without a self.

He looked at her again. She had mimicked his pose, leaning her head against her side of the mirror next to his. Maybe she couldn’t help it. Maybe being trapped as a reflection forced her to mirror whoever looked into it. His breath misted on the mirror’s surface. Hers didn’t. Reflections didn’t breathe. The part of her that could was across the room after all.

An idea sparked into life in Sirius’ mind. It would take too long, he thought immediately. It had taken him months to get it right.... but still. He had been learning on his own, without any help from someone who knew what they were doing. If he could teach her the words, and she could say them as soon as her self was safely in her flesh... It might work...

He sat up quickly and went fishing through his pockets. He pulled out one of her rings and held it up to show her. She looked puzzled, so he ran across the room to reach back into the orb with it. Making sure she was watching, he slid the ring onto her finger and pulled the ill-fitting sleeves over it. Esme blinked, baffled as he hurried back over to her. He breathed a cloud of mist out onto the mirror. Hand shaking with eagerness, he began to write backwards in it with his finger.