Janna Black and The Cite of the Dead

Blackening to Ashes

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When the sun was setting, shining through the windows and shimmering on the stones of the castle, Orion returned to the common room, sneaking past the sofa just in case Olive was there.

   "Orion, you are not fooling anyone with that strange expression on your face" Janna muttered as she watched him from the sofa's arm, the sofa the group had slept on the other night.

   "Is Olive still here?" Orion whispered in a hushed voice, Janna shook her head as Jake and Juno then looked at Orion.

   "Hello, mate, did the detention drain the sound of you?" Jake asked, Orion then up his fingers to his lips.

   "Olive is long gone, she tried to tame my hair" Janna snorted "she couldn't so I think she's gone to sulk with Rose and Aimee..." Janna smiled, Orion noticed little purple and white flowers in the curled of her hair.

  "We want to go back to the old corridor where Janna found the hidden slid" Jake explained, "are you up for it?"

  "Why won't I be?" Orion questioned, he watched as the three then rose from the sofa to look at him.

   "We thought you were out of breath" Juno informed Orion as he followed the curly haired boy.

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The corridor was illuminated with the aid of flaming torches, the fires swirled in the movement of the four students. Janna kept a good distance from the walls until she saw a portrait that had a landscape of a street lamp flickering with an old bulb which buzzed with life, a bench below the glass of the bulb sat older boy with shaggy black hair which reached to his elbow looking down at something in his hands which he fiddled with that was shiny and clear.

   "A glass cap?" Janna asked herself, suddenly the boy vanished, Janna turned to the boys who looked for the boy in the portraits nearby "where did he go?" The wall popped out and clicked as it turned... The four students stared down a corridor, which must have been closed up after the war at the school twenty years ago...

   "Well, Janna, you go first since you wanted to come back" Jake said, Janna looked at Jake with narrowed eyes.

   "Fair enough" Janna nodded walking into the tunnel, barking came from the tunnel, she jumped around and heard the barking again... She then stepped up to the corridor, the door nearly slammed behind her but the three boys caught it just in time, telling the door the password, making the thick wall slide open again.

   "Snuffles?" Janna asked as she ventured down a dusty and forgotten corridor, the carpet was matted with charred bits of paintings which were present in the wall, some hanging like grotesque bird wings without enough feathers, others without residence. Janna stopped at another corridor at her side, she couldn't decide where there to go forwards or right...

    "Janna!" Barked Snuffles' voice from the end of the turn, behind her was a moaning of tired wood so she shouldered her way into the right hand turn... She saw no paintings, just mirror shards on the floor... Some showed Janna differently, she stopped at a piece and lifted it to see herself with lighter more calm curly hair, she moved the collar away from her scar but it had disappeared from her skin in the mirror...

    "What on earth?" Janna questioned, she even raised her wrist to the mirror, showing no scratches nor marks—

   "Drop it!" Yapped Snuffles' voice, Janna shot her eyes upwards and saw Snuffles sitting in a portrait of him in front of two black lacy metal chairs, three piles of clothing laid empty, two on the seats and one next to Snuffles "It might look real but it's not"

   "How do I know you're not fake? How do I know I haven't fallen down another hole and hit my head?" Janna questioned as she placed the glass shard back on the dusty flagstones.

   "Because what you are gawking at is someone you would never want to desire in your life" Snuffled muttered, Janna came up to him.

   "No, no, I want to thank you for helping me... I asked Hagrid who you were" Janna said, Snuffles' ears lifted, the long straggly hairs swayed with the movement "I was told you are my uncle... Although you are a dog.—"

    "Hagrid must have mentioned that I'm an Animagus" Snuffles interrupted, scratching the back of his ear with his hind foot.

   "Yes, but why don't you transform into Sirius Black? I don't know why you would stay as a dog" Janna told Snuffles, in response he shook his snout.

   "I can't change back... Now I need you to take your friends and leave, do not come looking for me." Snuffles growled, causing Janna to back up instinctively "Harry must be watching you right now with the Marauder's Map" Snuffles grumbled, "I will lead you and your friends away from here... Never tell them of me again"

Janna nodded, Snuffles trotted through the torn and charred paintings. At the end of the corridor the boys watched Janna walking towards them, from some reason she alone  could hear Snuffles' pitter patter of paws in the area he had stopped

   "Did you find him?" Orion asked, panting, as though he had been running.

   "Yes, he was just a dog that had wondered away from a portrait of a troglodyte... It might have been dumb luck following him..." Janna lied, the boys nodded—crick! they all looked around as the wood around them creaked as if it were breaking.

    "Follow me Janna" Snuffles barked, Janna pulled the boys along the corridor "Down here" His voice echoed down a corner nearly inaudibly since it was competing with the sound of wood groaning.

   "I remember how to get out," Janna began to run to the corner Snuffles was waiting "come on!" The three boys ran as there was a crashing behind them, a loud crackling of wood alerted them of the falling floor behind them.

   "This way!" Yapped Snuffles as the boys caught up with Janna, the stones crashing below them sounded like thunder "Don't mind that!" Yapped Snuffles as they found the doorway out of the corridor, the four of them jumped through it and landed in a pile on the floor chased by dust.

Janna looked up at the painting, seeing the painting was burning, but without flames. Janna stood up and saw Snuffles watching her he wagged his tail and threw his snout towards the exit "do not come looking for me again, Janna". The burning cotton canvas engulfed Snuffles, he trotted away, towards the blackening canvas that scattered the floor as ashes.