Anders Grimalkin was hurting. The pain in his chest was almost unbearable as he kept back his anger and tears at these false and hurtful accusations against his character. Why, he wondered mournfully, was it looking more and more as though he was destined to be blamed for things he hadn’t done?

He sat on the edge of his bed, still wearing only his jeans, and put his head in his hands, miserable beyond belief.

~You could always get your own back.~

It had been a long time, a long, long time since that inner voice had spoken to him. He almost fell off the bed in shock and abject horror. He wouldn’t listen. He KNEW that inner voice. It was that voice that made him do things he didn’t remember. The voice that had been behind every display of petulance and temper he had ever displayed. Terror came into his expression.

He got to his feet and started pacing the room like a caged lion. Had anybody been in the room with him, they would have witnessed a strange sight. Anders began muttering to himself, punctuating every other word with a strange sound that was something between an expletive and a whimper. He paced.

Then he began talking aloud in strange, obscure and broken sentences. "Can’ t…who it…don’t want…" …then he would pause, as if listening to someone’s reply. "No…spell…not allowed…"

He paced. This went on for some time, until finally, and most strangely, Anders flung his back up against the wall as if he could physically back away from the voice in his head.

He let out a shriek of anger and sank to his knees, clawing at his face in desperation. "Get out of my head!" he screamed. Blood began to ooze from the scratch marks he left, leaving scarlet trails down his pale skin. He moaned softly with a combination of the pain and the fear.

But nobody heard him. They were all at the Valentine’s Ball. And as suddenly as he’d started, the struggle seemed to stop.

Anders went limp and got to his feet. Nobody saw a very oddly behaving young wizard wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a vague, haunted expression leave his room and pad softly downstairs in his bare feet. He moved as if On autopilot, his steps hesitant and stumbling. He turned away from the Great Hall and headed for the DADA classroom.

************

~Let’s just give them a little scare, shall we?~ said the voice in Anders head gleefully as he reached the DaDA classroom. ~We let this fellow out, he causes a bit of a scare, then they'll know not to mess with us.~

The fire demon's ambient glow lit up the empty classroom with an ethereal orange light that set the hairs on the back of Anders' neck on edge. He stood in front of the cage and the demon hurled itself against its bindings.

"Hello, my fiery friend," said the DADA Professor in a voice which was his, but…quite unlike his. "You are looking a bit…shall we say, cramped there? How about an exchange of favours?"

The demon stopped its incessant gnashing and stared at the Professor, almost bemused by what it was hearing. Picking up his wand, which he had left on the desk in the classroom, Anders walked around the cage dreamily.

He hadn’t even been aware he knew the words to the spell, but as he stood there before the demon, the words of the demon-mastering spell came to his lips. A spell that was forbidden to him both by the laws of his Art, and By the laws of Azkaban.

The pendant glowed deep orange, matching the glare from the creature's own intensity as one by one the threads of aquanoleum holding it rigid snapped and frayed, until it was released. For the briefest of moments, the eyes of the demon and the eyes of the young DADA Professor met, then the fire demon bowed its head and knelt in submission to its new master.

"A favour for a favour," murmured the Professor, in a strange, hollow voice. "You are free, my demon. Now go play your little games."

As the fiery apparition roared out through the DADA classroom door, burning a hole through the wood, Anders watched it impassively, before turning and striding down the corridor and out through a side door into the night where the snow was falling rapidly now.

He walked straight past Niki and Dylan without even noticing them, and then wandered aimlessly for a while before heading towards the Forbidden Forest.

About halfway across the school lawn, he fell to his knees and howled with some strange inner agony. Eventually, he got back to his feet, and, clad only in his jeans, his feet bare and soon soaked by the snow on the grass, staggered blearily and in a daze toward the Forest.

He didn’t get too far before the cold began to bite into him, but he struggled on, despite the cough that started to rack his already shivering body.

*********

Marvo leads Kat from there hall and down the corridor into the Teachers' quarters, they pass a couple of 'couples' who seem to be getting overly friendly, and are shocked to see Proffer Sprout and the Muggle studies teacher in, well, close contact!

They continue and come to 'his' room and Marvo knocks on the door. And a few minutes with no answer Marvo try's the door and it is unlocked. He opens it, but dose not go in, just looks and sees the room is empty. " Not here. Any ideas?"

"Let's try the DaDA class room."

They head to the classroom to find the door open. "Oh no!" says Kat. Before she can even say what is wrong they hear a load cry outside.

She grab's Marvo's arm and pulls him with her... "Come on! There was a fire demon in the cage in the DADA room, it has gone! I suspect it has gone where that scream was coming from!"

" A FIRE Demon! Here? why? how? Dam! come on!" He rushes after Kat.

**********

Freed from its prison, the demon roared in a blaze of flame down the corridor. It curiously (if such a word could be applied to an entity like that) peered into several classrooms, but found nothing of interest.

Then it heard music. Its simple, yet effective brain put the equation together. Music generally meant people. People generally meant opportunities to wreak havoc. It smirked and took off in the direction of the music.

**********

When they get outside Kat sees Dylan and Niki. "No point asking them - they look as thought they didn't notice anyway." She say's to Marvo. She then sees the footprints. "Look! Someone has been running out here in bare feet! Shall we follow them?"

"Yes, stay close" They follow the footprints and see a man in the snow ahead of them

Kat headless of Marvo's words, run's towards him. "Professor! Are you ok?"

But as she gets closer the most horrendous shouting starts. "Get away! Run away! Bad magic! Run away!" It is the most horrendous squeaky voice.

She stops and backs up a couple of paces to stop the noise. Then she just stands there looking shocked. How could the necklace suddenly change it's mind?

Half-frozen and now coughing violently, the young DADA Professor stared at Kat. Then, as abruptly as the presence in his mind had arrived, it left him to himself. All ability to move forward left him, and he sank onto his knees, coughing so hard that there were flecks of blood around his lips.

When he spoke, it was in a voice barely above a whisper. His eyes swung to Marvo, and that same expression of utter, abject fear flickered into his face. He screwed himself up into a tight ball, whimpering pitifully. "No more, no more..." he muttered over and over.

The pendant around his neck suddenly stopped its orange pulsing and burst with a bright, glaring light that caused the DADA Professor to scream in pain. When the light stopped, the pendant was no longer crystal clear, but a strange, smoky quartz in appearance, and the young man was shaking and sobbing in the snow.

Marvo pulls Kat back. " Keep away from him!" His wand is now visible in his hand. " I KNEW it!"

Kat turns to Marvo. "No, Wait!" She walks forward again, but this time there is no screaming her necklace has stopped. "Whatever danger was there before has gone. Look at him! Something changed!"

"No more what, sir?" Kat asked Anders. This time however she did not try to run closer to him.

"No more...no more..." He continued his chant. Although, WAS that what he was saying? It was hard to tell between the shuddering sobs. It MAY have been 'Nimue...Nimue'. But only MAY have been.

He was still scrunched up into a tightly protective and defensive ball, a position he had learned to adopt very quickly whilst he had been in Azkaban. The young man was clearly sick and delirious and in no condition to answer any kind of question. This state was further emphasized when his position seemed to relax, and still curled up, he lost consciousness completely, the blood from the scratches on his face staining the white snow scarlet.

Marvo holds Kat back not wanting to risk getting closer. " Go for help"

Kat looks at him for a minute. "Don't hurt him."

" Well Well Well. So you finally show your true colours. You'll go back to AZKABAN for this." Marvo doesn't say this with any malice in his voice, he truly believes that Anders has been bad and deserves what he gets.

Kat runs back into the school towards the Great Hall. Somehow she manages to miss the Elemental. She scans the room and spots Dumbledore. She runs up and tugs his robes. After whispering something to him he follows...

"Snape, find Madame Pomfrey and meet me outside!" There is no argument in his voice.

Anyone overhearing might wonder what is going on as Kat hurriedly leads Dumbledore out to where Anders is still unconscious.

*********

Snape, despite his current semi-tipsy state, nodded immediately at the tone in the Headmaster's voice. He headed straight for the hospital wing and collected a surprised Madame Pomfrey.

As they both headed outside into the bitterly cold night, Snape caught sight of Niki and Dylan and sneered a little. "You want more housepoints removed? Indoors. NOW!" With that, he and Madame Pomfrey began looking for Albus Dumbledore and the others.

As they approached the spot where Marvo and Anders were, Professor Dumbledore pace quicken. He moved swiftly to where Anders lay without addressing Marvo and knelt down by him. He seemed deeply concerned about the young professor's condition. He said his name very softly hoping to bring him back to awareness.

He knew the voice. Oh, he knew the voice. It had helped him before, and as it reached through edges of his frail state of awareness, he clung to it desperately. His eyes opened and they were full of a deep-rooted fear.

"P...professor..." he said, through teeth that chattered with the cold. "I..it happened again..." He reached up and clutched at the Headmaster's robes, pulling the elderly wizard down to him. "I can't remember anything," he whispered hoarsely, his eyes wild.

Slow realization seemed to spread over him and he stared from the Headmaster to Marvo, to Kat, and then to the approaching figures of Snape and Madam Pomfrey. He looked back at Marvo and swallowed. "Don't...let them...take me...back there...please..."

Kat moved closer to Marvo, and clutched his arm. That way she could poke him or something if he started to say anything bad. She was worried about what had happened, but had no idea what to do or say. Marvo, who had not moved since Kat let, held her tight, protectively. But said nothing. He just watched Grimalkin very carefully.

The Headmaster placed his hand with a gesture of assurance upon Anders' shoulder in an attempt to calm his fears. "There..there my boy. No one is taking you anywhere except to the Hospital Wing where you will be attended to. You have my assurance of that!" Dumbledore then conjured a woolen cloak that he wrapped around Anders to protect him from the cold.

"Headmaster, what is all this about?" demanded Snape, as he and Madam Pomfrey approached. She immediately detached herself from his side and rushed to help Professor Grimalkin to his feet, fussing over him as she did so.

Snape turned to look at the young Professor very coldly. "I might have known this would have something to do with YOU, Grimalkin. What has he done THIS time, Headmaster?" He took one look at the expression on Marvo's face, and you could have melted rock with the heat of his grim satisfaction. "Ohoh! Something fairly major from the looks of things!" He couldn't contain the glee in his voice.

"Now Severus!" Professor Dumbledore's voice had an edge of warning in it. "We do not know that Anders has done anything. Miss Black and Mr. Ward came across him collapsed in the snow. Apparently she tells me there is also a missing fire demon to be taken into consideration and I suggest that we should now concentrate our efforts on finding where it might be."

He turned to where Madame Pomfrey was assisting Anders, "Will you be able to escort him to the Hospital Wing? Perhaps Miss Black can help while we attend to the other matter."

"Yes, of course, Headmaster," said Madam Pomfrey. The poor DADA Professor was looking decidedly poorly, and she was concerned at the heat that was radiating from his skin. She knew, of course, about his previous condition whilst he had been in Azkaban, and she was moderately certain she was looking at a resurgence of it.

"Your help WOULD be appreciated," she said, directly to Kat. "Professor Grimalkin might look quite skinny, but he's rather...heavy." She said this, because Anders was resting his full weight on her.

" Professor. I suggest you check the cage of the fire demon. From what I know of the defenses used on those things I find it extremely hard to believe it 'escaped' not without any 'help' anyway." He looks to Grimalkin as he says this. He also keeps tight hold of Kat's arm. Non to pleased at the idea of her helping.

"First things first Mr. Ward." said Dumbledore. "We must find where the demon has gone and either recapture it or destroy it before considering how it may have escaped."

" By The Source! Headmaster! It would of headed towards people! The Hall!" He grabs Kat's arm and tries to pull her with him to run to the hall. " Water Spells, or a fire freeze. Do you know them Kat?"

Kat kisses Marvo and whispers. "Sorry, I have to help. If you kick up a fuss they won't believe anything you tell them. Look I'll be ok. The necklace will tell me if he goes funny again. I'll be quick, then I will find you. Unless you offer to help too?" Kat prized Marvo's arm off her, and went over to help Madame Pomfrey.

Marvo lets go of Kat's arm. understanding her need to help. Hr runs very fast towards the hall.

Anders gratefully received Kat's offered arm and, supported between the two of them, found walking a little easier. He coughed painfully from time to time, and had to stop walking in order to get his breath back. There was still blood running down his face from the scratches he'd given himself, but Madam Pomfrey had already discounted those as superficial. It was his lungs she was worried about.

And Anders? He was confused and bewildered, disoriented and in pain. But above everything, he was frightened. No. He was petrified almost rigid with fear. There was a huge blank in his memory, and, try as he might, his recall of the evening was almost entirely zero.

He remembered dancing with Nimue...remembered...McGonagall coming to speak with him...then...then it'd been Albus Dumbledore coaxing him from under his safety blanket of unconsciousness. Limping along agonizingly slowly, he let them lead him to the hospital wing, mumbling his apologies the entire time.

Kat was relieved that Marvo had accepted her going. She helped Anders to the infirmary. "I'm sorry about Marvo, he means well, at least for Nimue." She hoped he didn't take that the wrong way. "So you can't remember anything, sir? Can't you even remember coming out here?"

"Nothing," he said wretchedly. But the mention of Nimue's name seemed to calm him down a little. "I remember dancing with Ni...with Miss Hawkwood...and I spoke with Professor McG..." He broke off as another coughing fit struck him. He pulled the cloak that Dumbledore had conjured around himself more tightly and shook his head angrily until the fit had passed.

They had reached the infirmary now, and Madam Pomfrey immediately forced Anders into a set of robes and piled him into bed with several blankets. She had conjured hot, sweet tea for him, which he accepted gratefully, sipping at it whilst she fussed around getting a potion together for him.

He seemed to start calming down as he drank and looked across at Kat gratefully. "I'm so sorry," he said, miserably. "You must have been so pleased to see Marvo...and then..." He began to cough again.

"Yes I was pleased to see him, and I knew he thought... well... that Nimue was seeing someone. He sort of made a lot of connections and..." Kat left the sentence hanging.

"Well it was really strange when we found you. This necklace has magic in it to warn be about danger and dark magic. When we found you it screamed at me, then you changed somehow and the necklace stopped. Does that make any sense to you? I mean If you stay friends with Marvo then I want to help him accept that, and if I could find something to say to him then..." Again she trailed off.

He shook his head, his damp hair whipping about his face. "No. No sense at all." Sipping again at the tea, his body still shaking, he looked at her speculatively. "I...you really like him, don't you?" He tipped his head, almost shyly onto one side. "I don't think Marvo and I are going to be friends, see. He doesn't like me. He made that clear earlier."

McGonagall's words suddenly came back to him and he gave her a look that spoke of his desperate need for a friend. "I would never do anything wrong with Nimue, you know that, right? If nothing else...please let Marvo know that..."

And then he started to become a little vague and distant again, mumbling something about a fountain and a garden. Madam Pomfrey bustled up and administered a potion, which slowly sent him into a restless, but healing, sleep.

Dreamily, he gazed at Kat. "I never...not hurt anyone..." A faint smile crossed his lips, and he drifted off into sleep, his breathing sounding painful.