His insistence that whoever was behind the murders would strike soon because there was now an Auror at Hogwarts proved groundless. A day went by, and then another, and then a week, and nothing changed. 

There was, Harry concluded, no curse. No plot. Lupin had been right. He relaxed, though he did still keep the Maleficum in his pocket and in his nightstand drawer and peeked at it regularly. 

The gem remained green. Remained, as October passed, stubbornly, vibrantly, disgustingly, smugly green. Malfoy was in perfect health, perfect safety. Harry almost would have welcomed a sudden change to yellow, just to relieve the monotony. 

As Halloween drew near, he found himself checking the Maleficum more frequently. He didn't know why … only that the 31st loomed large and ominous in his mind. If he had been a murderous villain, he'd pick Halloween or Friday the 13th. It seemed fitting somehow. 

He had done his best in that time to keep an eye on Jane as well. If he was buying into Malfoy's paranoid rubbish even a little bit, it stood to reason that she would be on the list as well. 

And he did have to admit, there was a certain slinking part of him that wouldn't have been horribly surprised if it did turn out to be Snape. With Voldemort and the Death Eaters back in power, and Voldemort known for not being terribly forgiving to those who'd crossed him, a devious viper like Snape might well have conceived such a plan. 

It made a darkly beautiful sense, and even explained why Malfoy had thus far been spared. Snape could have eliminated Nott, Crabbe and Goyle, and then used Malfoy as a bargaining chip.

Harry knew, in his more rational moments, that of course if Snape or anyone else had made any overt threats or demands of that sort, Malfoy wouldn't still be at Hogwarts. His parents would have whisked him away in a trice. 

And Jane? How, in that scenario, did Jane fit in?

He could only think of two possibilities. One was that Snape did not know Jane's secret. The other, and by far more unthinkable, was that …

Well, Snape wouldn't harm his own child, would he?

Halloween arrived as it always did at Hogwarts, in a bustle of activity and preparations for the feast. While endeavoring to salvage the pumpkins from the flooded-out pumpkin patch, Hagrid and Madame Sprout had come up with the idea of shaping the gigantic orange gourds into fanciful shapes, so that by the time they were carved and lit with candles and magically suspended in the Great Hall, they were pumpkin-castles and pumpkin-ships and pumpkin-dragons. 

Dumbledore had been erratically in and out of Hogwarts, but under the capable hands of Lupin and McGonagall, the school ran smoothly. Tonks prowled around, sitting in on classes and club meetings, but her only real job thus far as Head of Security had been to ensnare Peeves in a Ghost-Bind when the poltergeist had made good on a long-ago bluff of Ginny's and released Garroting Gas in one of the corridors. 

"Always wanted to get that little bugger," Tonks said in satisfaction after the temporarily trapped and corporeal Peeves had been turned over to the Bloody Baron. 

The caretaker, who claimed to remember Tonks as a troublemaker from her own school days, had readily forgiven all past misdeeds and chortled for days over the memory of Peeves' punishment. 

Harry tried a few more times to make contact with Jane, but she remained steadfast in her determination that they could not possibly hope to be friends. The second mirror sat in his trunk with the first, and every time he looked inside, the pair of them were a doleful reminder. 

Jane, for her part, grew paler and more withdrawn than ever. She had never been one of the Slytherin leaders, always preferring to stay there on the edges of Pansy Parkinson's group of girls, watching but rarely speaking. Now she avoided everyone's eyes, most of all those of Harry and Snape. 

As for Snape, his face healed without a scar. Harry was burning to know how Jane's detention had gone, and what was happening with the Dark Arts Club. More, he simply missed her, and felt more and more that he must have done something, or failed to do something.

The situation with Ron, Hermione and Luna seemed to have reached a precarious truce, though with another Hogsmeade weekend approaching in early December, Harry sensed the strain building. 

Halloween itself turned out to be a beautiful autumn day, the sky so blue it hurt the eyes, the Forbidden Forest brilliant with fall colors, the sunlight like warm marmalade. Dumbledore returned for part of the feast but didn't stay long – perhaps he, too, was worried that something might happen and had to be prepared. 

Then it was November, and the Maleficum still vivid green. Nigel Nox had not returned to school, and Edmund Hawke was reportedly recovering at home but would be back after the Christmas holidays. The tragedies of earlier in the term, while not forgotten, were pushed aside as schoolwork and other concerns occupied their time. 

On Friday, two days after Halloween, Harry stayed up late in the common room playing wizard chess with Ron, while Neville and Ginny kibitzed and Hermione pored over A Treatise on the Treatment of Magical Non-Humans, which she had borrowed from Dumbledore. Ginny had, over Hermione's protests, popped down to the kitchens and gotten a supply of treats from the house-elves, and they'd all gorged on cakes, pastries, and cocoa. 

It was nearly midnight when Harry finally got to bed, and he lay strangely restless while one by one the others dropped off to sleep. 

Something … 

What? 

It was like a persistent hum or buzz in his ear, too low to really be heard but audible enough to intrude on his thoughts. 

Something he had forgotten to do? Something he had overlooked, had missed?

He rolled over, parted the bed-curtains, and slid open the drawer of his nightstand, meaning to distract himself by paging through the photo album Hagrid had given him. Looking at his parents, so happy at their wedding, was a melancholy experience but a soothing one. 

His hand froze on the drawer-pull. 

The Maleficum was not glowing green. 

It was a hot flame-orange.

Harry sat up and held it, peering into the jewel. "Orange?"

If yellow was trouble, and red was mortal peril, what was orange? 

"Not good," he muttered. "Malfoy!"

He jumped out of bed and threw on his clothes. Ron mumbled and turned over in his sleep and Harry almost woke him but knew that there wasn't time to explain. Ron would only be querulous, disbelieving, and incredulous. 

Grabbing the Marauder's Map, Harry ran down to the common room. He lit his wand and frantically scanned the map for a dot labeled Draco Malfoy. There was no such dot in the Slytherin dormitory. Not in the Slytherin common room, or anywhere in the dungeon. 

Movement on the map – there! No! That was Mrs. Norris, creeping about the second floor. 

There! Three moving dots headed for the Astronomy tower. Harry's nose almost bumped the paper as he squinted. 

Three dots …

Draco Malfoy!

He started to lower the map, then was riveted by the other two dots. Dread clutched him like a claw.

One was labeled Jane Kirkallen, and the other was Severus Snape. 

Hermione had left her books neatly stacked, and A Treatise on the Treatment of Magical Non-Humans was bookmarked and resting atop the midnight-blue Mind–Journeys volume. His gaze fell upon it, and Harry nodded. 

"All right," he said to himself. "Calmly. It won't work unless you're calm."

Putting the Maleficum and the map in his pocket, he stretched out on the couch with his wand held loose and his arms folded. 

"Astralio," Harry said. 

Too tense. Slow, deep breaths … don't think about what could be happening … don't look at the gem and see if it's changed to red … slow, deep breaths. 

"Astralio," he tried again. 

This time, he rose up from his body, floating free and wonderfully weightless. He took a moment to enjoy the sensation, and then concentrated. 

A crystalline blackness surrounded him, lit only by the diamond-chips of stars seen through arched windows, and the faint luster of three auras around three dark shapes. 

One aura was familiar, a dusty burgundy. Jane. 

The others were a rich burnt-umber, and a very pale green. As the shapes passed a window, enough thin starlight fell on them to illuminate their features. Harry caught a glimpse of white-blond hair and realized that the pale green aura belonged to Malfoy. Malfoy looked petrified.

The burnt-umber one belonged to Snape, whose uneven teeth were bared in a rictus of fury. 

Harry wheeled around until he could see Jane's face, which was ashen and streaked with tears that sparkled in the starlight. 

His silvery lifeline glimmered above him. Harry shot along it at a dizzying speed and slammed back into his body so hard he almost knocked himself senseless. The room rocked and spun around him as, without waiting until he'd acclimated, he lunged up from the couch. 

There was no way, even if he pelted full-tilt through the halls and up staircase after staircase, that he could possibly arrive in time. Unless he took a shortcut. 

"Accio Firebolt!" he cried. 

From above came the thud and crash of his trunk falling over, as his broomstick burst out of it. Seconds later, the contoured, polished handle of the Firebolt smacked into his hand. Harry flung open a window, clambered onto the sill, mounted the broomstick, and hurtled into the night. 

The moonless sky was a deep, pure black studded with the hard points of the stars. The warmth of the day was long gone, leaving a cold so crisp that it sucked the breath from his lungs in clouds of frosty white. 

He sped up at a steep angle, then circled, orienting himself. He saw the rising black spire of the Astronomy tower silhouetted against a dazzling band of the Milky Way, and arrowed toward it. 

Three dark-robed figures emerged onto the telescope-ringed roof. Harry saw Malfoy step up onto the rail, and lean out over the precipitous drop. He was going to jump.

As Malfoy's foot slid forward into space, as his body tipped inexorably forward, Harry launched from the Firebolt in a flying tackle. 

His shoulder struck Malfoy in the midsection, a solid blow that jarred Harry's spine. Malfoy, the wind knocked out of him, was driven backward as if punched by Hagrid. He hit the stone roof and slid headfirst into the base of a telescope with Harry sprawled half-atop him. Malfoy went limp. The Firebolt flew on, clearing the roof, and plunged away into the darkness. 

Harry sprang up, drawing his wand. He started to turn toward Snape and was halted mid-motion by a harsh whisper. 

"Imperio!"

A feeling came over him of detached lassitude, as if he were inside himself but not really of himself. He had the sudden strong urge to stop where he was, to hold absolutely still. A demanding yet persuasive voice echoed in the silence inside his head. 

Stop. Turn around. Go away.

But he couldn't.

Go away.

No, Harry thought. I won't.

Turn and leave. Just go, leave and don't look back.

No! he thought more firmly. 

Go away! Now!

"No! I won't!" Harry shouted, tearing free of the spell with a convulsive jerk. He spun around, and looked from the tip of the wand leveled at him to the shocked face behind it. "I won't, Jane."

"You … how … you can't …" she said falteringly. "My spell …"

"I've had some experience resisting the Imperius Curse," Harry said. 

To his right, Snape was locked in the motionless rigidity of a Full Body-Bind. To his left, Malfoy was unconscious with his eyes rolled up to whites and blood staining his hair where his head had collided with the telescope stand. Between them, in front of him, stood Jane.

She lowered her wand in slow increments, as if the strength were being leached from her arm. "Why, Harry? I was so close … why did you have to interfere? You've ruined everything!"

Understanding came to him with a stark and total clarity that wrung his heart like a rag in his chest. 

"There was a plot," he said, feeling hollow and numb.

"I could have finished it tonight!" she said.

"Jane …"

"It would have been over."

"No. Not you," he said, knowing it was true but not wanting to believe it.

"Yes, Harry," she said. "Me."

"You killed them? Nott, Crabbe –"

"They killed themselves," she said, "but, yes, I made them do it."

"Why?" Harry asked. "Why, Jane?"

"You know why," she said, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. 

"For your mother."

"All I cared about from the moment I learned I would be coming to Hogwarts was that I might finally be able to find out who was responsible for her death, and take revenge! That was my driving force, Harry. That was my ambition. Which was quite convenient, really … look where my ambition put me. Right into Slytherin House. I couldn't get at them, but I could get at their children!"

"You've been here five years, why now?"

"Because I didn't know for sure!" she cried. "I didn't know who they were! I had my suspicions, but it wasn't until your interview came out that I had the names, the confirmation!"

Harry felt cold all over. "That issue of the Quibbler …"

"I finally knew who they were, thanks to you," Jane said. "I spent the summer making my plans, practicing, getting what I needed, so that I'd be ready. Then, as soon as I had my chance, I took it!"

"You were at the Leaky Cauldron that morning," Harry said. "You must have put the Imperius Curse on Nox, and made him break his wand, tie that rope around his neck, and jump out the window."

"Yes."

"Then, later that night … what? You put Crabbe under it too, and made him go into the bathroom, turn on all the hot water, and slash his wrists? And just sit there as he … as he bled and boiled to death?"

She nodded. "It was risky, so close on the heels of the other, but he frightened me that day. He showed that he was smarter than any of us had ever guessed, by something he'd said on the train. So I knew I had best get rid of him quickly, in case he figured out what was going on. I didn't want to underestimate him."

"I saw you coming out of Knockturn Alley," Harry said. "That was when you bought the Liquipurging Elixir. That box you were carrying. The one you hit Kreacher with. The shopkeeper lied about not selling to students."

"Of course he did."

"You made Goyle swallow the capsules … but why didn't he tell anyone what you'd done? It was hours later before it took effect!"

"Haven't you ever seen him eat?" She laughed wildly. "I mixed the capsules with his breakfast porridge. I didn't have to use the Imperius Curse on him … he just made some remark that the porridge had extra currants in it that day, and he gulped it down like a starving wolf. He never stopped long enough to chew."

"The suicide note --?"

"I bought a Forging Quill in Knockturn Alley, too," Jane said. "After breakfast, I said I'd forgotten my Charms homework, and I went back to the dormitory, to his room. I wrote the note and left the bottle."

"What about Devona Stormdark?" Harry asked. 

Jane's face crumpled. "Devona … I didn't set out meaning her to die, Harry, not at first. She wasn't on my list. Neither were Nigel or Eddie. I swear to you, I had nothing to do with Eddie burning himself … I never would have harmed him. Never."

"Why not?"

"They weren't connected. They weren't the ones I was after."

"Nox's aunt, Lethia –"

"Was a woman. And Eddie's great-uncle and Devona's relatives … they were dead long before. They couldn't have been involved. I'm not on some great mad vendetta against all Death Eaters, Harry. I'm no Auror, no crusader on the side of good. It's never been anything but purely personal."

"Then it really was an accident, there at Hogsbrook?"

"It … it wasn't deliberate. I didn't plan it. But no, it was no accident. I killed Devona. Not because she was related to Death Eaters. I'd have probably done the same to anyone who found us there that night."

Harry went still. "That's why? Because she caught us together in the Shrieking Shack? Is that why she had to die? Your reputation?"

"You heard what she said!" Jane looked miserably at him. "She would have told everyone about us. It would have finished me in Slytherin House, and I never would have been able to get close enough to him –" here she gestured at the unconscious Malfoy, "—to do what I had to do!"

"But I saw what happened!" Harry said. "She had you by the throat –"

"I staged it," Jane admitted, now with downcast eyes. "I knew you would come after us, so I put her under the Imperius Curse and had her grab me, threaten me like that."

"What?"

"I thought that in the struggle, I could make Devona fall into the brook and it'd look like an accident. I hadn't counted on the lightning, on both of us getting thrown in."

"You used me," Harry said. "You tricked me!"

"I'm sorrier about that than anything else I've done," Jane said in a low, pain-filled voice. 

"All along, you lied to me!"

She quickly raised her head, and searched his gaze imploringly with her dark eyes. "No, Harry! I've never lied to you. Not directly. I couldn't do that. I left things out, yes, bent the truth now and then … let you make your own conclusions, let you believe what wasn't true … but I never lied to you. Please, believe that, at least."

"I trusted you."

"I know."

"You tried to talk me out of it, tried to … to warn me off from caring about you and being your friend! You kept saying that you were no good, that you'd only hurt me!"

"I was right, wasn't I?"

"All this time …"

"I've wanted for so long to tell you all of it," she said. "But what could I say? You would have stopped me."

"Damned right I would've!"

"I couldn't let you. I have to do this."

"Kill them?"

"It's all I've got!" she said desperately. "All I've ever had, all that's kept me going! It would have worked, too … but you had to find me out. How, Harry? How did you know?"

He took the Maleficum from his pocket. It was now a smoky orange-red, but he supposed that in the moments before he knocked Malfoy back from the rail, it had been the pure crimson of mortal peril. 

"Malfoy gave this to me. It has the Maleficus Charm on it." Harry uttered a brittle laugh. "He suspected Snape. How do you like that? He thought Snape was the one behind the deaths. And I have to admit, I reckoned it was pretty plausible myself. So when I saw the three of you together, I thought Snape had control of both of you. What were you going to do with him, Jane, after you chucked Malfoy off the Astronomy tower?"

"Ask him some questions," Jane said unflinchingly. "Torture the truth out of him with the Cruciatus Curse, if it came to that."

"Did he guess it was you?"

She shook her head, her ponytail swaying. "He spotted us leaving the dormitory. If I'd just killed Draco in his room! But I'd thought that if he fell from here, it'd look like another suicide. Everyone knows how he's been acting lately."

"So you took control of him, and then Snape, too, and marched them both up here."

"Yes. I knew I didn't have any choice. I was so frightened of what would happen … all the way up here I was practically in tears … but there was no turning back once I'd begun."

"Malfoy never suspected?"

"He was starting to think it was over," Jane said. "That the danger had ended … that your friend the Auror had frightened the killer off or dispelled the curse."

"Or that if anything bad was going to happen," Harry said, "it would have been on Halloween? But once that had passed, he thought he was safe."

"Exactly."

"Why did you wait?"

"Partly because it would lull him into thinking he was safe. Any Dark wizard worth his or her salt wouldn't be able to resist doing their most heinous deeds on Halloween, would they? But I wanted it to be tonight. It had to be tonight."

"Why?"

"It's my birthday," she said. 

Harry heard an echo of her in his mind – two nights before I was born, the Dark Lord walked into your house … and never walked out. "Voldemort killed my parents on Halloween."

"And I became what I was meant to be all along," Jane said. "Not in the way they'd wanted it, perhaps … not like this … but the bad blood still runs true."

"Was anything between us real?" he asked. "Any of it?" 

"You know the answer to that," she said softly.

"Do I? Jane, you've murdered people! You've used one of the Unforgivable Curses! It's life in Azkaban if you're caught!"

"I am caught, Harry. You caught me."

"No," he said, startled. "No, that can't be right …"

"Could you stand back and do nothing? Walk away and let me kill them?" Jane asked, her gaze steady. "Could you, Harry?"

"No!" He stared at her, appalled.

"Even though it's Draco Malfoy, and Professor Snape? You'd try to stop me, and save their lives? After all they've done to you?"

"I'd have to try," he said.

"Then I'm caught. It's as simple as that."

"There's got to be a way!" he said urgently.

"Oh, I could try to fight you, I suppose … but my best spell is the Imperius Curse and you've already shown me that it won't be any use. And anyway, Harry … I wouldn't do that. I couldn't. Not to you."

She backed away from him as she spoke. Puzzled, he didn't at first comprehend what she was doing – did she mean to attack him after all, and was giving herself some room to wave her wand? – but then he saw the rail behind her, the drop. His heart leaped into his throat. 

"Jane! Stop!"

"I told you at Hogsbrook that you should have let me go," she said. "That it would be better …"

Her back bumped the rail. 

"Don't do it, Jane."

Facing him, she clambered backward onto the rail like she was scaling a ladder. 

"Come down from there." 

He stepped toward her and she held out a hand to ward him off. He took another step, regardless. 

"We'll think of something," he said. "Say that you escaped –"

"No!" she said sharply. "I won't let you sink to my level. I won't let you lie for me."

"I don't care! No one would have to know!"

"He would know." She nodded her head toward Snape. "He's heard everything we've said. It's done, Harry. I'm done."

She turned and jumped.

"Accio!" Harry yelled. 

The Summoning Charm yanked Jane off her feet and brought her sailing toward him. He caught her in his arms.

"No!" she said. "No, Harry, let me go!"

"I'm not going to watch you die!"

Her palm cracked across his cheek in a ringing slap. "Let me go!"

Stunned, he allowed her to slip from his grasp. Jane was up like a shot, but Harry was quick enough to grab the back of her robes. She whirled on him like an enraged cat, but her furious fighting was hampered by a storm of tears. 

As they struggled, they trampled over the prone, immobile Snape and crashed into telescopes. Harry wrested Jane away from the edge again. They tripped over Snape a second time, and both sat down hard. 

Before Jane could scramble away, Harry rose up on his knees, pressed her shoulders against a section of low stone wall, and put his face so close to hers that their noses and foreheads were nearly touching. 

"Listen to me, Jane," he said intently. "I am not going to let you do this. I've lost too many people already. I lost my parents. I got my godfather killed, and Cedric Diggory too. I nearly got Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna killed. So if you expect me to let you jump off this tower, you're wrong."

Her dark eyes welled up and overspilled. "But they were all good people," she whispered. "You know what I am, what I've done."

The words stabbed him like knives. "I know," he said, his voice hoarse. 

"I shouldn't have made you a part of this," Jane said. "I shouldn't have let myself get close to you. I never thought it'd hurt this much."

Harry closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Jane's. He felt torn in two. 

Half of him was horrified and repulsed by what she had done, by the cold and calculating economy and deviousness with which she had murdered Nott, Crabbe and Goyle … the quick-thinking scheme that had ended Devona Stormdark's life. She was as merciless a killer as any Death Eater, no matter what her reasons. 

The other half believed her when she said that their friendship had been genuine, that she cared for him. She hadn't lied to him, either … had never told him a lie. He had embraced her, kissed her, and even now in the wake of everything, was drawn to her so strongly that it made him ache to think about it. 

How could he ever hope to reconcile such conflicting reactions? 

"It'll be all right," he said, as much to himself as to her. "Somehow. You'll see."

She brushed her fingertips down the side of his face, hesitantly, as if she expected him to twist away in revulsion. "I am sorry," she said. "I hope you believe that."

"I believe it." He leaned into her touch. 

"You are the only real friend I've ever had," she said. "Maybe … someday … you'll be able to forgive me."

He opened his eyes and gazed into hers, seeing only trust and remorse and deep emotion. 

"I hope so," he said. He curled his hand around the nape of her neck as he'd done outside of Dumbledore's office, intending to kiss her again. 

But the rustle of robes stopped him as Snape, whom he'd forgotten, got laboriously to his feet. The Full Body-Bind had worn off.

Jane gasped in dismay.

Harry turned, setting himself between her and Snape. 

"Stand away from her, Potter," Snape said. He had recovered his wand, and aimed it at Jane. 

"Leave her alone," Harry said. 

"Oh, no you don't, boy. None of your tricks, none of your prevarication, none of your last-minute worming out of trouble. You won't get out of this."

"Harry hasn't done anything wrong," Jane said, getting up and stepping in front of Harry. 

"But you have, Miss Kirkallen," Snape said softly. "As you surmised, I heard every word. Your entire confession. Mr. Potter considers himself an expert at helping people avoid their due comeuppance, but I'm going to personally ensure that this time, justice is done!"

"I said, leave her alone," Harry said, drawing his wand. 

Snape regarded him with cold amusement. "Are you in such a hurry to ally yourself with a murderer? This time, Potter, you cannot possibly argue her innocence, as you did with Sirius Black. There will be no clever solutions courtesy of Miss Granger's quick wits, no special reprieve from Dumbledore."

"He won't," Jane said. "I am guilty, Professor."

"You don't have to admit anything to him, Jane!"

"And in my own House," Snape marveled, ignoring Harry's outburst. "Betraying even your own classmates? Murder? Treachery? Poisoning? Lies? Unforgivable Curses? You were correct, Miss Kirkallen. You are more Slytherin than I knew. I could almost be proud of you, if not for your woeful choice of love-interests."

"I don't want your pride!" Jane said through gritted teeth.

"The very viper in our midst," Snape said. "In a nest of vipers, that's saying something."

"That'll do, Severus," Lupin's voice said from behind them. "We'll take it from here."

Lupin and Tonks were standing there, both with wands in hand. Tonks was in a modified version of her Head of Security guise, still with the iron-grey hair and the military bearing but with her own youthful features. 

"What are you going to do to her?" Harry asked, now setting himself between Tonks and Jane. 

"She's under arrest," Tonks said. "By order of the Ministry of Magic."

**

Concluded in Chapter Thirty -- Cage of Flame.