half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize them.

"I don't know...."

Amelia walked over, back in her human form, clutching at her injured arm.

"Your arm," Hermione gasped. Amelia took her hand away from her arm to wave Hermione off, but this seemed to make her more worried becouse Amelia's hand was dripping blood.

"I'll be fine," Amelia said, applying pressure to her arm. "I'm not in pain, adrenaline rush. See, my leg is shaking?"

Harry looked desperately around. Black and Lupin both gone... they had no one but Snape for company, still hanging, unconscious, in midair.

"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes, trying to think straight. "Come --"

But then, from beyond the range of their vision, they heard a yelping, a whining: a dog in pain....

"Sirius," Harry muttered, staring into the darkness.

He had a moment's indecision, but there was nothing they could do for Ron at the moment, and by the sound of it, Black was in trouble --

Harry set off at a run, Hermione and Amelia right behind him. The yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. They pelted toward it, and Harry, running flat out, felt the cold without realizing what it must mean -

"This is not how I wanted my Thursday night to go!" shouted Amelia.

The yelping stopped abruptly. As they reached the lakeshore, they saw why -- Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.

'Nooo," he moaned. 'Nooo... please...."

And then Harry saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them. He spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating his insides, fog starting to obscure his vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them....

"Herrnione, think of something happy!" Harry yelled, raising his wand, Amelia doing the same, blinking furiously to try and clear his vision, shaking his head to rid it of the faint screaming that had started inside it --