Where is she?!

[Lord Sanguini Fuilteach]

Sanguini stood off to the side of the doorway, arms folded and looking like the slightest thing could provoke him to start ripping out throats. He glowered ominously at any who dared look his way, and by the time his foot started tapping with impatience, Lucretia had finished her spell.

"Well?" he demanded.

His lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes downcast when she spoke of Ophelia's feelings that she had detected from the cello. He was uncomfortable showing so much emotion around this witch. Anger, that was excusable, but he couldn't bear to show anything deeper, or more sincere.

He stepped forward, and held out a hand to Lucretia. "Forgive me for this," he said, "but it would be much easier if you merely let me see what you saw. English is proving rather difficult for me when I am this angry."

Without waiting for permission, he cupped the back of her head in his palm, and gently pulled her forehead against his. He closed his eyes, and skimmed her surface thoughts and memories, looking for the vision she had seen.

It was confusing ... multi faceted sights of the same thing - Saint Mungo's roof and courtyard garden - moonlight, starlight, and a sensation of freedom ...

He abruptly released Lucretia from his grip and stumbled backward, hissing in realisation. Only one thing could cause such a sight as that for a vampire.

"She flew."

He rubbed at his eyes, and sighed heavily.

"They let her outside, and in desperation for her lost freedom, she transformed. Most vampires can't shapeshift while they are still so young in the blood. I had thought ..."

He growled, annoyed he had been so quick to blame the hospital staff for something they could neither have foreseen, nor prevented.

"She is not here, that much is obvious," he grumbled. "In the space of one night, she could not have flown terribly far. She is almost certainly still on this wretched island, but she could be anywhere - Wales, Scotland, north of England ..."

[Lucretia Black]

Lu slumped down on the chair, half unconscious.
She was trained to counter Legilimency, but this was different, and she felt that her training wouldn't have helped much.

As she regenerated slowly from the experience, Sanguini's words sunk in.

"She can transform? I didn't know. I mean, I saw Dante doing it many time, he does it to spoof people, and somehow I thought it's just a trick he can do."

Rubbing her temples, Lu tried to put her thoughts in order.
"Yes, probably she could be anywhere, but I'd like to believe she's not. I couldn't have Seen her flying, if she wasn't anymore mentally connected to the cello. So, I'd say, she would go to a place she connects with good memories?"

She sighed. "And that could also be the Outer Hebrides for all I know. The shapeshifting into a multitude of bats might rupture the whole cello-good-feeling, and when she re-transforms into human shape again, will she be Ophelia in mind or Sickness?"

[Lord Sanguini Fuilteach]

Sanguini grimaced. He hadn't realised that Ophelia had such a skill.

"All of us can transform, to one extent or another. Usually, one needs to be older in the blood before such a thing can happen. Perhaps she didn't mean to do it. It might have been her desperation for freedom that drove her to it, just as your kind can perform unintentional feats of magic while frightened or stressed."

He sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This makes things much more difficult. She could be anywhere, and we are limited."

He looked at Lucretia, pondering her words. Where would Ophelia go that would make her feel safe, or be connected with good memories? "Castle Fuilteach," Sanguini said. "She must have gone there. It is her childhood home, and she learned to play her cello there. That must be it." He did not even begin to contemplate the house she had committed murder in. It was too unthinkable.

"I can only hope that she will be herself," Sanguini said, something fearful in his voice and eyes as he spoke. "The most important thing now is to find her. Do you have a floo enabled fireplace in your home, Lucretia dear?"

[Lucretia Black]

"Of course I have", Lu answered. "... can vampires feel the comings and goings there? When I'm in my study and a fireplace elsewhere in the house is used, my mind registers it."

She didn't like to upset Sanguini more than necessary, but she herself was afraid of what Sickness could do, and she liked to outrule most of the dangers before they could surprise her.

"If not, you have been visiting Ophelia more than I, do you have had the feeling -ever so slightly- that Sickness can tap into the Magic Ophelia had before she became a vampire?"

Lu opened the door and told Gus to restore the spells around the room.
Then she turned back to Sanguini.
"Anyway, whatever the odds are, we have to start somewhere."

[Lord Sanguini Fuilteach]

"We can sense others of our kind, and hear the heartbeats of humans," Sanguini said. "I would be able to detect her that way."

He paused, and with a gentleness that would surprise anyone who knew the man, he placed his hand on her arm. "Once again, I am in your debt," he sighed. "This is becoming a dreadful habit of yours, Lucretia."

He shuddered. The notion that Sickness could use Ophelia's magic turned his stomach. Bad enough that the creature had ravaged her mind, but if it could access her former magical talents ... Sanguini was loathe to imagine what such a vile thing could do with that much power.

"I certainly hope not," he said in a low voice. "She is bad enough with a vampire as host, let alone with magic at her disposal."

[Lucretia Black]

Lu couldn't help smiling. "Now, stop that. You always bring up the debt part when I'm just helping out friends. I could maybe accept that for creating potions because that's my job, and you can't do it, but you could as well have asked Professor Snape or Silvery. This Seeing into the cello was just a clumsy experiment, as I told you it's not my forte. I am rather surprised we got a small result."

She put the cello back and gathered her things.
"Shall we?"

[Lord Sanguini Fuilteach]

Sanguini's brows furrowed, and he paused mid-step to peer at the witch.

"Friends?" he repeated. Could it be that she referred to him? Surely not. She was friends with his children. Sanguini Fuilteach did not have friends, and even if he did, they would be every bit as monstrous and cruel as he was.

"Yes, I suppose we shall," he said with a little sigh. "Lay on, Macduff!"