Caelen's eyes widened as she took in the room she'd rolled into. She hadn't meant to leave, not really, she knew she wasn't allowed to leave Grimauld place. She'd hoped to pull Harry back, to convince him whatever he thought, whatever Kreacher had told him, wasn't true. Now she lay, stunned, on the floor of a room she couldn't imagine having entered before. The walls were positively covered in kitten adorned plates. The nauseating overabundance of things, many of them grotesquely pink, reminded her horribly of Gina's house. Before she could take in any more of the room she was jerked suddenly up from the floor by the collar of her green and blue pajamas.
Caelen let out a startled whimper as the large toad-like woman shook her, a gleeful smirk rising on her awful face. "Ah ha! So this is who you've been contacting, Potter! You're the halfbreed's spawn aren't you? ARENT YOU?!" She shouted the last, spittle flying into the terrified child's face as she shook her.
"I I I," Caelen stammered in a terrified whisper.
Harry struggled against Draco's hold on him, attempting to reach his godsister, "Leave her alone! She's just some kid I've never seen her before, she's probably lost! It's easy to end up the wrong place in the floo, where were you headed little one?" He directed the last to Caelen his tone softening as he gave her an encouraging, if not pointed look.
Understanding dawned on Caelen's terrified face, he wanted her to lie, to pretend they didn't know one another. "I w-was going to Hog-hogsmead, m-mother let me use the floo on my own this time. Was my f-first time." She murmured avoiding the eyes of the other students. It wouldn't be too hard to recognize her, she'd spent plenty of time wondering around Hogwarts while her father had been teaching. Thankfully for her the Slytherins had always been rather dismissive of the shabbily dressed professor's child.
"Lies!!" The toad woman shouted throwing the girl at her desk, where she landed with a pained thud. "You," she snapped pointing her large sausage like finger at one of the assembled Slytherins, "run and fetch Professor Snape."
The boy rushed from the room grinning maliciously.
Caelen whimpered curling in on herself beside the desk.
"You will tell me the truth, the both of you!" Umbridge taunted in her sickly sweet tone as she knelt menacingly, her wand waving in the young Lupin's face.
"You wished to see me headmistress?" Snape questioned from the doorway looking around indifferently at the struggling students. A muscle twitched nearly imperceptibly in his jaw when his eyes landed on Caelen, still cowering by the desk. "Lost child i assume? I shall return her to the proper authorities," he began offering his hand.
Caelen stood to her feet and was just taking her first step towards the professors offered hand when she was slammed forcefully back, her head connecting with a resounding crack against the desk. Snape's hand twitched and he moved slightly forward his protective instincts warring with his need to appear against Potter.
"Oh no no Snape you misunderstand, that is the story they'd have us believe yes," Umbridge began pacing between Harry and Caelen her wand wandering threateningly between the pair. "No, this little monster is in cahoots with Potter, I suspect she belongs to that halfbreed Lupin."
Caelen's eyes flashed angrily but she remained silent, knowing better than to snap at someone who had shown violence. She rubbed her head gently, her tiny fingers coming away damp and bloody.
"I require another bottle of veritaserum, quick as you can please." She ordered turning her wide grin on Harry and Caelen once more, the focus of her fury for the moment.
"You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter," he responded glaring through his curtains of black hair, "surely you did not use it all? I told you three drops would be sufficient."
Umbridge flushed.
"You can make more cant you?" She said her voice becoming more sweetly girlish as it always did when she was furious.
Caelen found it all rather disconcerting and cringed, curling further in on herself as she attempted to disappear into the desk. She wondered vaguely if her time away from her mother would have lowered her pain tolerance, as she saw in this Umbridge woman the same malicious intent her mother had displayed.
"Certainly," said Snape, his lip curling, "it takes a full moon cycle to mature so I should have it to you in around a month."
Caelen tuned out of the ensuing argument, her vision had begun to blur and she wondered exactly how hard she'd hit her head. Perhaps she had a concussion? She'd had them before, with Gena, it felt like a concussion. The voices around her came in jumbled roaring sounds as if she were in another room listening through a pipe, rather than sitting at their feet.
She was vaguely aware of Snape's retreating form, was he leaving? Surely he wouldn't abandon her here? Caelen's breathing sped up, the pain and fear catching up with her as her final hope left the room. Caelen was unaware of the change in the room until she was jerked suddenly to her feet, a bruising grip digging into her slight shoulder.
"No!!" Hermione shouted from her place where a large Slytherin girl held her in place, "no! She's only a child! Professor Umbridge it's illegal!!!"
"You will tell me who you are and why Potter was so desperate to speak with you!" Umbridge stated throwing the girl away from her as she aimed her wand.
Caelen knew what was coming, she'd experienced it before at the hands of her mother. She curled to the ground preparing for the excruciating pain to come.
"No!! Harry, we'll have to tell her." Hermione exclaimed, tears threatening to fall as she stared wide eyed between Caelen, Harry, and professor Umbridge.
"No!" Caelen shouted, the first words that had left her mouth in ages, "no you can't! They'll find him!"
"Ah ha!! Find who? Who will we find!?"
"She'll get it from you anyhow, what's....what's the point?
And Hermione began to cry weakly into the back of Millicent Bulstrode's robes. Millicent stopped trying to squash her into the wall immediately and dodged out of her way looking disgusted.
Caelen stared at Hermione angrily for a moment before her own protective nature took over. With an angry growl she rushed forward kicking out fiercely into the large, ugly, professor's legs.
Umbridge howled in pain and anger before rounding on the little girl, "crucio!!"
"NO!!!" The majority of students assembled shouted in horror, as one.
Harry broke free of a shocked Draco's grasp rushing forward and throwing himself protectively over his godsister. "No, no stop, Hermione's right we'll tell you, just stop!"
Umbridge's gaze surveyed the, suddenly willing to cooperate, teens. "Alright, well tell me, with whom was Potter communicating just now?"
"Well," gulped Hermione into her hands, "well, he was trying to speak to professor Dumbledore...."
The other students stared on in shock, save for Umbridge and her assembled goons, who were focused too completely on Hermione to notice the suspicious signs.
Harry cradled his shaking godsister against him whispering reassurances in her ear, as Hermione spun her tale. "It's alright Caelen, it's going to be alright. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry this happened, it's all my fault."
Caelen shook her head nuzzling in close to the comfort offered in her godbrother's embrace. " 's n-not your fault H-Harry. I's o-ok"
Quite suddenly Caelen found herself wrenched from her godbrother's grasp, "I'll hold this one, you two," Umbridge began pointing her wand between Harry and Hermione, "will go ahead, show me the way."
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Sirius sat starring sullenly into the blazing fire in one of the many studies in Grimauld place. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, he thought he should check up on Caelen, he hadn't seen her, more than brief glimpses, throughout the day. With a large sigh and a scowl plastered on his face, not directed towards the child but seemingly a permanent expression in the last week, Black eased himself from his chair and wandered down towards the kitchen where he assumed she'd be.
Sirius had no sooner stepped foot in the doorway when a flurry of black robes rushed at him plastering him forcefully into the wall. "Where. Were. You?" Snape's voice hissed, the fury rolling off him in waves as his wand twitched in the other man's face.
"Bloody hell Snivilus get off!" Sirius responded pushing against the hands that held him.
Severus pressed harder as if he could make him one with the paneling behind him, dark eyes flashing, his forearm pushing dangerously into Sirius' throat. "What, pray tell, is the one useful thing you have been charged with doing while you hide away here, Black?"
"What are you talking about?!" Sirius roared fighting against his attackers hold more forcefully. "Why're you here?!"
"I am here, Black, because your charge is not!" Snape growled finally releasing the other man who leaned forward sucking air in greedily. "Have you even seen her today? Are you even vaguely aware that she's in danger?!"
Sirius, who had caught his breath and stood glaring at the unwelcome professor, smirked, "again, since you obviously were too dense to catch the question the first time, what. Are. You. Talking. About?" He asked each word slowly as if Severus were hard of hearing.
"I am speaking, Black, of your goddaughter," Snape growled his hold on his temper barely keeping him from strangling the man he held responsible for the girl's state, "the child I witnessed being thrown into a desk moments ago. I am speaking of your idiot godson who believes you to be being held and tortured at the ministry. I am speaking of a little girl with big brown eyes ENTRUSTED INTO YOUR CARE WHO IS CURRENTLY BEING HELD AT HOGWARTS BY A RACIST BIGOTED WOMAN WHO WOULD LOVE NOTHING MORE THAN TO ERADICATE CAELEN AND ANYONE LIKE HER!!! THAT IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT BLACK!!! NOW, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN POTTER STUCK HIS HEAD THROUGH THE FLOO AND CAELEN FOLLOWED HIM BACK!?" Severus roared, his fury at Sirius and worry for the young girl eating through his usual calm facade.
Sirius stared blankly back at him, shocked into silence for a time. "W-what?" He whispered falling back against the wall in shock. "I have to go to Hogwarts, I have to stop them! Harry will try to get to the ministry, and Caelen, little Caelen, oh Merlin!"
Severus stared coldly at the, now flustered and rushing, man before him. "See that you get to her Black, if Caelen is harmed because you were pouting like a child rather than the grown man that you are, you will have me to answer to." And with those parting words the potions master hurried from the room vanishing through the floo back, presumably, to Hogwarts.
Sirius wasted no time in sending his protronus to the other members of the order before stepping into his floo and shouting, "the Gabby Goat!" And with a twist and a roar of green flames Sirius Black vanished from Grimauld place, intent on saving or stopping his godchildren.
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Hey peoples! I told you I'd update soon yay look at me lol anywho I love all your comments you guys are the best. I hope you enjoyed this chapter see you soon with the next 😊😊😊😊