*A/N: Uhh…yeah. R&R please!*
Chapter 9. Of Journeys and Mud.
Unaware of the exciting murmurs spreading in the kitchens and among all Hogwarts' house-elves, Sirius was explaining to a very intent Ron and Harry what he and Lupin had done over the summer. "Well, you know we had to deal with"—his disgusted look indicated extreme displeasure—"Snape. But that wasn't for too long, as he was mostly following the Death Eaters and Lupin and I couldn't attend for the obvious reasons. Instead, we went through all Europe, searching for classmates who would listen to us. You know that couldn't be easy; who in their right mind would trust an escaped convict and a werewolf?
"But surprisingly enough, the first person we tried to convince agreed almost immediately. You've heard of Mundungus Fletcher; he was one of our closer friends. When we explained what was going on, he agreed to help us and to also recruit others. This was in London, shortly after the summer term started. Even though we wanted to stay and talk to him, it was more important to have as many allies as possible, so Lupin and I left two nights later on the Knight Bus.
"In Paris, Lupin managed to lose his way on the Metro since he can't speak French." Sirius seemed highly amused by this; evidently something interesting had happened. "We were to meet Alice, but ended up at the Notre Dame asking passing tourists where the Eiffel Tower was. In retrospect, it was actually quite amusing, as we could see the Eiffel Tower from where we were, but anyway…. Eventually, someone stopped to help us. Of course, it was a Ministry wizard sent by Dumbledore to retrieve us. After giving Lupin a long lecture on being excessively proud of his navigational abilities, the wizard left us in front of the Tower, where a person stood in front of us.
"Lupin seemed slightly…overexcited to see Alice, who blushed when he hugged her." Sirius giggled a little more, remembering school days with her and Lupin. "Alice took us back to her hotel, where an extra room in our name was already set up. We decided to rest after our wonderful day at the Notre Dame, and in the middle of the night, I noticed loud thumps on the wall. They seemed to be coming from Alice's room, so we ran in…and saw…." Sirius turned red, possibly in anger, but probably not. "Alice was talking to her boyfriend. They were slightly drunk, and he'd thrown the bottle against the wall. Of course, this was too much for our wonderful Master Lupin, who fainted.
"I told Alice not to worry, and dragged him back to my room, but that was when I remembered…I'd left the key in Alice's room. So we sat out in the hallway—Lupin woke up after a few minutes, of course—and waited for Alice to open the door. Instead, Arabella Figg walked out. Remember that old lady who lives near you? Arabella's her daughter. At any rate…it seemed Arabella had used Polyjuice Potion or something to change into Alice, and she seemed quite intent on speaking with us. Remus, being himself, was extremely disappointed to not see Alice anywhere, but he was relieved she wasn't dating anybody." Sirius snorted—that Lupin. Always trying to impress Alice even though she never would have dated him. Anyway…
"Arabella smiled strangely at us, although at the time we didn't suspect anything. After all, Alice had served as an Unspeakable, and you know how that goes. Assuming the best, Lupin and I agreed to come to her manor, where a small colony of house-elves awaited us. To our surprise, they dragged us down to the cellar and warned us not to move. I don't think they wanted to harm us or anything, but you know how house-elves will be." Briefly, all three of them imagined Hermione's stern lecture, and shuddered. Collecting himself, Sirius explained how he and Lupin had escaped through a tunnel—"Wasn't it intelligent of Arabella to have her cellar built with dirt walls close to ground level. Now, of course, Lupin insisted on finding Alice before anything worse happened. That's where we came to Wales…and…all I'm going to say is, I pity Muggle dogs—does either of you know what 'neutering' is? It sounded quite unpleasant." Harry, having a slight knowledge of these things thanks to Aunt Marge, attempted to stifle his laughter. Evidently, there were many disadvantages to turning into a dog.
"Let's go down to the commons room, shall we?" Ron interrupted, wondering why Harry seemed so amused. Probably wasn't best to ask, however; maybe he'd seen Ron's uncomfortable fall out of his bed. As they walked down—Sirius as a dog, of course—someone covered in mud ran towards them and knocked all three over, Harry being at the bottom. Instantly on guard, he pulled out his wand, only to discover he couldn't move much while pinned under two people much larger than he. Meanwhile, the strange figure, face hidden by shadows from the firelight, pulled out a wand, and began saying arcane words. 'This can't be any better than Azkaban,' Sirius thought as a shape materialized out of the smoke exuding from the wand.
*A/N: Whee…I'm back….Wonder who the 'stranger' could be? Wait…I know the answer…never mind. I think I'll retreat back to the safety of my closet now.*
