109A/N: thank you to TwilightCharmedFaie for reviewing the last chapter.
It was a beautiful evening, but Prue hardly noticed. Her hands gripped her broomstick so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. She had to be losing it. She was not only allowing her sister to break a demon out of prison, she was helping her. But she knew there was no stopping Phoebe when she was determined. Better to help her do this than have her get herself in a dangerous situation alone.
Sirius, Phoebe, and Prue sped through the sky for what seemed like hours, before they finally reached the prison. Prue spared a glance at her sister. Phoebe was looking ahead with determination.
They slowed. "If we set off any spells, we should know soon," Sirius said, as they neared the prison.
They landed silently and took out their wands. "Better cast the patronus spell now," Phoebe said.
Sirius and Prue cast the patronus spell. Two ghostly dogs appeared.
Phoebe nodded. "Let's go."
Though there were no human guards, there was a gate. Together, Prue and Phoebe blasted the gate open.
"Something will definitely be set off by that," Sirius said. "We'll have to move quickly."
They ran into the prison, and Prue realized what a monumental task this was going to be. Her patronus was keeping the dementors at bay, but the prison was larger than she'd expected. How were they going to find Kira?
"Which way do we go?" Prue asked, hoping Phoebe had some idea what she was doing.
"I can just sense her," Sirius said. His eyes were closed. "This way." He pointed, leading them in the right direction.
They ran up the stairs, went right, and ran down a hall. Some of the prisoners were lucid enough to notice what was happening. They began shouting and banging on the bars of their cells.
Sirius stopped short. "Here."
Prue looked into the jail cell to see Kira crouched in the corner, holding her head.
"Kira," Phoebe said. "We're here to rescue you."
Kira looked up. "Am I already hallucinating?"
"No," Sirius said. "Stand back." He blasted open the cell door and offered his hand to Kira. "We've got to hurry."
They ran back down the hall, down the stairs, and out of the prison.
A group of people appeared on the rock. Aurors, Prue guessed.
"Stop!" one cried and sent off a stunning spell.
Prue deflected the spell back at the auror, stunning her. She summoned their broomsticks, and they all got on, Kira getting on behind Sirius. The aurors ran toward them, still firing off spells. Prue deflected all of them, and they got into the air and raced away.
They'd surely been recognized. Everyone knew who Phoebe and Prue were, after all. The aurors would probably go straight to Hogwarts. Where else could they go? The Manor? But that would be too obvious. The Black house? She figured they'd check there as well, but they had to stop somewhere to regroup. Prue shouted for the others to follow her.
During the flight to London, Prue kept checking behind her, certain that she'd see aurors after them. But no one had caught up with them. They made it to London and landed before 12 Grimmauld Place.
It was late, and Prue had left without telling Regulus where she was going or what she was doing. He was probably worried sick about her.
"Oh Merlin, not here," Sirius said. "We've got to go somewhere else."
"Eventually," Prue said. "But right now, we need to regroup. We've got to figure out where we're going to hide Kira." They entered the house.
"Mum will have a fit if she sees me," Sirius said.
"Morgana's blood!" Regulus said, descending the stairs quickly. "Where have you been?" His gaze landed on Kira. "Who's this?"
"Long story," Prue said. "We've got to get her in hiding."
"Why? What have you done?" Regulus said, looking at Sirius. "Sirius?"
"We broke Kira here out of prison," Sirius explained.
"I see," Regulus said, slowly.
"She can't stay here," Prue said. "The aurors saw us. They'll know to look here."
Regulus took a moment to absorb this information. "Well," he said, "there's always Uncle Alphard."
"Alphard?" Prue repeated. "What makes you think he'll take her in?"
"He's a bit of an eccentric," Regulus said. "She is innocent, isn't she?"
Prue and Phoebe exchanged a glance. "She's good," Phoebe finally said. "She doesn't deserve to be in prison."
"Sirius, please don't do this," Kira said. "I can't ask this of you and your family."
Sirius ignored her. "I think it'll be safe for her to stay the night here," he said. "Take her to Alphard in the morning. Phoebe and I should get back to Hogwarts. I'm sure the aurors are already there."
"But they'll come after you," Prue said.
Sirius shrugged. "It's going to happen sooner or later. Better to keep them distracted with us so they don't come here right away."
"Come on, use the floo," Prue said.
Her sister and Sirius disappeared through the floo, leaving Regulus and Prue with Kira. "Well, we might as well try to get some sleep," Prue said, though she knew that none of them would be getting any sleep that night.
Phoebe and Sirius were immediately accosted by Piper and Paige.
"There are people looking for you," Piper said, anxiously.
"Yeah, we were expecting that," Phoebe said. She turned to Sirius. "Might as well go to them."
"They're talking to Grams now," Piper said.
Sirius and Phoebe left the room, heading towards Grams's room.
"What do you think they're going to do to us?" Phoebe asked. She was starting to get nervous. What if they took her powers away, or her wand? But it was worth it, now that Kira was free.
"Don't know," Sirius said, sounding equally nervous. "Expel us, at least."
Phoebe stopped. "You shouldn't do this," she said. "I'm hardly even attending Hogwarts, really, but you still have another year here."
Sirius shrugged. "They'll find me if they want to find me. Might as well get it over with."
They reached the portrait to Grams's room, and Phoebe spoke the password. Inside, there were at least ten men and women, along with Grams.
"Phoebe," Grams said. "What on earth have you done now?"
The aurors descended on Sirius and Phoebe. "Mr. Black, Miss Halliwell," a tall, thin woman said. "Where were you earlier this evening?"
Phoebe took a deep breath. "Breaking Kira out of Azkaban," she said.
The aurors all began to talk at once. The witch held up her hand, silencing them. "Where have you taken Kira?"
Sirius and Phoebe said nothing.
"There will be serious consequences for what you have done," the witch said.
Phoebe straightened and looked the witch right in the eye. "It doesn't matter," she said. "It was the right thing to do."
The first thing the aurors did was take Phoebe and Sirius up to the headmaster, to inform him of what they had done.
"They will be contained here at Hogwarts until we can arrange a trial," the witch, who seemed to be the leader, told Dumbledore. "I will have to stay here to guard them."
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose. "Is that really necessary, Edwina? Or do you not trust I can keep track of two teenagers?"
"Of course not, Albus," Edwina said. "I merely feel we shouldn't give them special treatment just because of their age, or Phoebe's celebrity status. They've committed a serious crime."
"Very well," Dumbledore said. "I will arrange a room for you."
They ended up down in the dungeons. Phoebe thought about sneaking out to see Severus, as she wasn't sure that she'd be seeing him before the trial took place. But Edwina put wards on the room, preventing Phoebe from going anywhere.
Edwina lectured Phoebe on her responsibility as a Charmed One to obey rules and asked her, again, to reveal where Kira was. Phoebe refused, reiterating that Kira was good and didn't deserve to suffer now that she was human.
"Would you really sacrifice everything for a demon?" Edwina asked, exasperated.
"Yes," Phoebe answered.
Kira squeezed her hands together. "You don't have to do this, you know," she told the man before her.
Alphard shrugged. "No, I don't," he said. "But I'm happy to help you."
"You don't even know me," she said. She was filled with guilt over all that Prue, Phoebe, and Sirius had already sacrificed for her. She didn't want to ask a perfect stranger to hide her, but once Alphard had heard about her sentence from the Ministry, he had agreed to hide her.
"The Ministry doesn't believe in forgiveness," Alphard said. "I do."
Kira read Alphard easily; he was like an open book. She knew within minutes of meeting him that he'd been disowned by the Black family for giving money to Sirius after he'd run away. He'd never taken much of an interest in the pureblood politics, preferring to stay in his own world of study. He was a scholar, his expertise being charms. He wasn't a fan of the Ministry of Magic, with its rigid rules.
Kira had to get a plan together, but she didn't have any idea what she was going to do. There was no support group for former demons, no department in the Ministry for helping new humans start their lives. She had no property; demons didn't use money. She could use her skills to get a job, but not while she was on the run.
She was worried, but she was overjoyed to be out of Azkaban. She knew she would do almost anything to stay out of the prison.
Two days passed. Prue came to visit and told her about what would happen to her, her sister, and Sirius.
"A trial's been set," Prue said. "We're going to be tried individually, but we're trying to make it less about us and more about you. Phoebe doesn't think you got a fair trial; she wants to make sure they know that you could have killed us or given us to Voldemort at any time, but chose not to."
Kira shook her head. "This is such a mess," she said. "I never meant for any of this to happen."
"I know," Prue said. "All we can do now is hope."
After a week passed, and Kira began to get a little stir crazy. To keep herself calm, she started studying horcruxes. They'd managed to destroy one of Voldemort's horcruxes, but there had to be more. At least they knew that acromantula poison would work against a horcrux. Alphard helped her find materials, though he shuddered when she mentioned horcruxes.
"That's very dark magic," he said. "I haven't heard of it being used in centuries."
She spend hours studying, sometimes forgetting to eat and sleep. She didn't find much of use. What she really needed was information on Voldemort. So she began to examine what she knew about Voldemort. He was fascinated by Hogwarts and the founders, she knew. She guessed that the diary they'd destroyed had once been Voldemort's book of shadows, but she thought that perhaps the other horcruxes were somehow related to Hogwarts. He wanted, badly, to break into Hogwarts, and he'd almost succeeded.
Kira turned to the history of Hogwarts. She was particularly intrigued by the lost diadem. If Voldemort had found it, he likely would have used it as a horcrux. She read about the Gryffindor sword as well, but doubted Voldemort would have had access to it. It only came to true Gryffindors, after all.
She bounced some of her ideas off Alphard, and together, they began to form a list of possible horcruxes.
"This will be very useful in defeating Voldemort," Alphard said. "The Ministry will appreciate your work. Maybe enough to forgive you."
Kira shook her head. "I doubt it." But she couldn't deny that she hoped the Ministry would forgive her, if she did enough good.
What they really needed was to go out and actually find the horcurxes, but there was no way Kira could venture out into the wizarding world. There were aurors looking for her, and if they caught her, she'd be going straight back to Azkaban. It was frustrating, but there was nothing she could do about it.
So she threw herself into her studies. She even risked a visit to the Black library. Though Prue and Regulus had gotten rid of most of the dark books, they had spared some. She found some useful information on Salazar Slytherin there.
Then, Dumbledore appeared at the front door of Alphard's house.
"It's okay," Kira said, as Alphard tried to hide her. "He's not here to turn me in."
"Prue has told me that you're trying to figure out what objects Voldemort made into horcruxes," Dumbledore said, entering the house. "I'd like to hear what you've learned so far."
"Right now it's just theory," she said. "I'm guessing he used some objects related to the founders, especially Slytherin."
They sat together and discussed Voldemort and his history.
"You may be key to destroying Voldemort," Dumbledore said. "I will make that clear to the Ministry."
Kira wasn't sure that his word would be enough. "Thank you," she said.
"If the Ministry lets you go," Dumbledore said, "I'd like to keep you near, protected from Voldemort. A position is opening up next year, for Divination. I think you would make a fine professor."
Kira's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding me. A professor? But sir, I'm—well, you know what I am."
"You're a human, and a powerful psychic," Dumbledore said.
"But the parents will have a fit," Kira said. "I'm sure everyone's heard about my breakout."
"You would be surprised," Dumbledore said. "The Ministry has suppressed the news of the breakout. They don't want anyone losing confidence in the Ministry's competence."
If no one knew about the breakout, then only a select group of people knew she was a former demon. She may actually have a chance to start over. If the Ministry forgave her. "Do you really think I have a chance of going free?"
"Two Charmed Ones believed so strongly in your goodness that they broke you out of an impenetrable prison," Dumbledore said. "That will serve you well."
When he left, Kira was dizzy with the possibilities. She could have a life, after all this was over. Even though there was a chance that she wouldn't go free, she felt it was safe to hope she would.