The Dark Witch

P.O.V. - Albus Dumbledore

The room which I now found myself was dark and dismal. Only a solitary candle lit the dusty war torn living room. A puzzled feeling came over me. Where was I? Ah, yes, I thought, comprehension dawning on me as the sight of a clump of bloody fur in a nearby corner, I was in the Shrieking Shack. The very place that I had sectioned off for Remus Lupin to inhabit during his werewolf transformations, never before had I realized just how incredibly bleak it truly was. That poor poor boy…

My gaze slowly drifted down to the space beside me where Sirius was sitting on what remained of a dark green couch. The young man’s eyes were clouded as he stared at his best friend, James, who, I saw, was pacing in front of him, an extremely exasperated expression on his face.

“I can’t do it to her anymore, James.” Said Sirius suddenly, breaking the overwhelming silence that had obviously hung in the air for some time, “She’s been through enough.” He paused, his dark features turning resolute, “She is not going to harm us.”

James stopped, turning his head to stare directly at Sirius, his right eyebrow raised disbelievingly, “We don’t know that for sure, Padfoot.” He replied grimly, I could tell that he was doing his best not to anger his friend, “You still haven’t found out enough for us too be sure.” My Head Boy raised his right hand and ticking off fingers, apparently forgetting that Sirius was not on his side at the moment, “All we know is, her father abuses and hates her, she’s an exceptionally powerfully witch, she’s a mental case…” Sirius gave James’ a dark look, “someone has sent her after us, and,” James paused running a hand through his hair nervously, as if he was questioning his next words as he took a deep breath, “ and,” he started again accusingly, “that you have fallen in love with her!”

Sirius flinched at his best friend’s words. The exact reaction I knew my Head Boy had been trying to avoid. I felt my eyebrows rise. Well, I thought to myself, it had finally happened then. Sirius, and perhaps Maria as well, had fallen in-love.

I watched as Sirius shifted uncomfortably under James’ accusatory gaze, “She’s after Moony, Padfoot. She’s after us. Don’t you want to know why?”

“Yes.” Began Sirius finally, his eyes flashing, irritation rising in his voice as he rose from the tattered couch, “And I’m going to find out. But I won’t pretend with her anymore, James.” He barked before turning his back on his friend and walking away towards the exit, “Maria deserves more than another fake person in her life.” I heard Sirius add quietly to himself as he shut the door behind him, leaving James anger and slightly bewildered in the shrieking shack. A sight I’d never thought I’d see.

I blinked slowly, running my normal hand across my forehead, wiping the sweat off my brow. It was hard for even me to comprehend what I had just witnessed. The two closest friends that I had ever met had just parted ways in anger right in front of me. I had never even begun to suspect a rift between them could have ever existed. That it had all been over their plan to find out as much information on Maria as possible…

Exactly what I was attempting to do now, I thought distractedly. Well, at least Sirius’ dog form around Maria was now explained. He had been using it to get close to her. To gather information, it had been a smart plan, until he fell in-love.

Ah, a quote drifted into my mind absently, ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive’. I sighed, could that quote explain where these memories were leading me? If it were true…thoughts were rapidly beginning to form in my mind now, a process that I had rather grown used to, no matter how annoying and muddling it could be, then who was the first to try to deceive?

The Shrieking Shack was beginning to grow hazy, as I began to slip into another one of Sirius’ memories. One of his most important memories, I suspected. How, I wondered, would Maria take the news that her dog, her best friend, was really Sirius Black? One of the young wizards she had been spying on? I could only take a guess, barely grasping it before the next memory surrounded me.