A:N This is the penultimate chapter for Revelation, many thanks to all reviewers, I do read them all.
Ginny
May 13th 1995
A strangled yell echoing through Gryffindor tower woke Ginny in the early hours of the morning.
She sat up in bed, her heart pounding. She glanced around her room and noticed that her room mates had been woken as well. Fearing that something was wrong, Ginny leapt out of bed, still in her nightclothes, and charged down the stairs to the common room. As she pounded down the steps she noticed several other girls had also been woken up and had come to investigate.
Ginny wasn't the first girl in the common room, but she wasn't far behind.
"What's going on?" Hermione questioned as she arrived behind Ginny.
"No idea."
Suddenly, a few of the boys piled down the stairs; Ginny recognised her brother, Neville and their room mates.
"Sirius Black! In our room!" Ron was ranting. "With a knife!"
Fearful muttering began to spread in the common room.
"What's going on? Back to bed! Now!" Professor McGonagall snapped, charging in suddenly through the portrait hole.
"Professor!" Ron exclaimed. "I saw Sirius Black. He was standing above my bed. He slashed my curtains!"
"How would he even get in?" Hermione asked loudly.
Ginny flinched at the glare that Ron shot towards Hermione. They obviously still weren't getting on.
"Ask him!" Ron shouted back, pointing at Sir Cadogan.
"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man in here?" said Professor McGonagall, stepping back outside to question the portrait.
"Certainly, good lady!" he exclaimed.
"You did?" said Professor McGonagall. "Did you not ask for a password?"
"He had them all!" the knight replied. "All written on a sheet of paper."
Professor McGonagall stormed back into the room.
"Which person," she said, her voice deadly quiet. "Which abysmally foolish person, wrote down the passwords and then left them lying around?"
There was utter silence, until Neville let out a terrified squeak and raised his trembling hand.
"Mr. Longbottom, wait here. Everyone else to bed. Now!"
Everyone, including Ginny, piled back up the stairs towards their beds. Ginny slipped into her bed and tried to go back to sleep, but she simply couldn't. Her mind was buzzing with what had just happened.
Why was Sirius Black in her brother's room? Why was he even still at Hogwarts? How did he keep getting past the Dementors?
In an attempt to relax, Ginny let her mind drift to other subjects. She counted off the number of essays she currently had to complete. Seven, Eurgh. The amount of work her year were being given had grown to monstrous proportions; enough to even push the Triwizard Tournament to the back of her mind.
An event that dominates the school year, my arse.
She also remembered that she needed to go and see Professor Lupin after their class tomorrow. To her annoyance, he had cancelled all except one of their Patronus lessons since Adam had managed to successfully summon his stag and Ginny still hadn't been able to produce more than large silver ball. Is it suddenly less important or something now that Adam can do it? Ginny thought bitterly. She needed to get him to agree to help her more with it. She always achieved anything she set out to do. Plus she wanted to see what animal her Patronus would be...
The next thing Ginny knew was the sound of her room mates getting out of bed and the sight of the early morning sunshine streaming in through the windows of her room.
Adam
June 14th 1995
The school year rolled on, and Hogwarts soon became abuzz with anticipation for the final task of the Triwizard Tournament, but, when it finally came, it left Adam completely baffled. The judges had invited many visitors to watch the task and the majority of them had come, despite all the security measures in place to stop Sirius Black. With all these visitors expected, Adam couldn't believe that the Third Task, which supposedly showcased the champion's mastery of all fields of magic, was being held inside a maze. No one could see the champions inside a maze!
Cedric Diggory, who was in the lead, had been the first to enter the maze. Viktor Krum had entered shortly after and Fleur Delacour had entered considerably later. According to Professor Dumbledore, the next they would hear or see would be when someone found the Triwizard cup or when one of the champions dropped out.
With the absence of any visible action from the maze, the crowds, who were in the stands normally used for the school's Quidditch matches, soon became restless.
Adam, Ginny and Ron were standing high up in the stands, watching the entrance to the maze. Since Ron's falling out with Hermione, he had taken to tagging along with Adam and Ginny—which was, to be honest, very annoying and vastly reduced the amount of privacy they were able to get.
Adam hoped that Ron and Hermione made up soon.
"Hey guys, fancy getting a snack?" Ron questioned as he pointed down towards the stand's entrance. A man was standing there and he appeared to be selling sweets. "I'm getting bored."
Adam looked at Ginny and she shrugged in response.
"Alright," Adam said.
The trio walked down the stairs to the bottom of the stand and then out of the exit towards the vendor. When they reached the man, Adam realised that they were now standing almost directly below where their seats were.
Adam and Ginny waited patiently, while Ron went and purchased a large parcel of sweets from the man.
"Ron!" Ginny exclaimed when she saw how much he was buying. "How much do you eat?!"
Ron only grunted in response. Once he was finished, the three of them began making their way back towards their seats.
Suddenly Ron stopped and, pushing Ginny out of the way, he ran past them along the outside wall of the stadium.
"Ron!" Ginny exclaimed. "Let's go after him!" she cried, turning towards Adam.
Adam and Ginny charged after Ron. He continued down the outside wall of stand, before suddenly changing direction and charging off into the school grounds.
"Ron!" Adam called out, as he and Ginny finally caught up to him.
"I saw him!" Ron exclaimed when he heard them approach.
"What are you on about?" Ginny demanded, once she had caught her breath.
"Scabbers! I saw him! He's around here somewhere!" Ron said loudly as he began searching frantically in the grass around him.
"So he's not dead?" Ginny asked sarcastically.
"No! Come on! Help me find him."
"Ron, you better apologise to Hermione once we find that bloody rat!" Ginny said coldly.
"This way!" Ron yelled suddenly, just as Adam had begun searching the grass at his feet.
Ron leapt to his feet, and the three of them began running back towards the school. Now he knew what he was looking for, Adam could just about make out Scabbers scurrying along in front of him. As they closed the distance with the rat, Ron dived forward and just, barely, managed to grab hold of the rat who wriggled frantically against his hold.
"I don't know what's gotten into him," Ron commented as he began to get to his feet. "It's as if he's terrified of something. I bet that cat is somewhere nearby!"
Adam noticed that Ron was keeping a very firm grip on the rat who was still struggling wildly to escape.
"Shall we head back to the stadium?" Adam suggested, not wanting to miss the end of the task.
"Alright," Ron replied, as he stuffed Scabbers, who was still wriggling frantically, securely into his pocket and closed it.
They turned around to walk back and froze. Standing stock still in front of them was a large, jet-black dog. The dog growled and a long thread of drool fell from its barred teeth.
They tried to avoid the dog, but it moved with them blocking any attempt at moving back towards the stadium.
"Wands?" Adam suggested as he reached for his wand.
As soon as his hand moved towards his pocket the dog leapt at him. Adam was thrown to the floor, winded. Once he was down, the dog leapt off him and sent Ginny, who was moving to help him, flying with a kick of its powerful back legs.
"Leave them alone!" Ron shouted, pointing his wand at the dog.
The dog charged at Ron and head-butted him in the stomach. Ron fell down, gasping for breath. Before he could recover the dog leapt onto him and its ferocious jaws closed around his arm and it began dragging him away.
Adam recovered first and scrambled to his feet; he ran over to Ginny and helped her up. They paused for a second then, coming to a silent decision, they both charged off in the direction that the dog had gone.
The dog had left a fairly noticeable trail through the grass where it had been dragging Ron. So they followed this trail, which eventually led them to the large willow tree. It was by far the largest tree in the grounds and the students had always been told to keep away from it.
As they approached the tree, Adam spotted Ron, who was still struggling violently, disappearing, as the dog dragged him beneath the roots of the tree.
"Let's go!" Adam called and ran forward. Without warning, something hit him in his side, sending him flying.
He lay there for a second, trying to figure out what had hit him. Then Ginny appeared in his peripheral vision, crawling across the ground towards him.
"The tree hit my face," Ginny grumbled grimly as she helped him to his feet. There was blood trickling down the right side of her face, smeared where she had wiped it out of her eyes.
Adam stared at the writhing branches of the willow tree.
"We need to get past!" Ginny said desperately. "That thing could kill him!"
Adam nodded and darted forward again, determined to get past the flailing branches of the tree. He ducked under one branch and jumped over the next. The third one struck him on his shoulder, sending him crashing to the floor. He lay flat on his stomach hoping nothing further would hit him until he regained his bearings.
Ginny appeared to have had better luck getting through the branches; she was several metres closer to the roots of the tree, crouched on her haunches. Adam watched as she deftly rolled out of the way of an oncoming branch.
Adam crawled along the ground towards the tree trunk. Luckily, he managed, for the most part, to avoid the notice of the tree. Seeing an opening he jumped to his feet and charged forward, sidestepping one branch and then, with a running dive, he dived through the hole in the roots of the tree. Ginny scrambled into the hole just behind him.
"You're awesome, Ginny," Adam said lamely as he felt Ginny land next to him in the dark tunnel.
"My mum made me do ballet when I was little," Ginny said, with a touch of distaste.
Despite the seriousness of the situation Adam couldn't help but laugh.
"Shhh!" Ginny whispered. "It'll hear us! We need to keep moving."
"Lumos," Adam whispered.
By the light of his wand, Adam could see they were standing in a low earthen tunnel with the roots of the tree all around them.
They advanced, hunched over, down the tunnel. Eventually, the tunnel began to rise and Adam could see a small patch of light on the wall ahead of them. The light was coming from a small hole in the tunnel, which seemed to lead into a small room. Adam squeezed through the hole and looked around the room.
"This place is a dump!" Ginny exclaimed, as she squeezed through the hole and saw the dilapidated state of the room.
Adam peered out of one of the boarded up windows, trying to see what was outside.
"I think this is the Shrieking Shack," Ginny said as she also peered out of a nearby window.
A creaking noise sounded from upstairs. They both tensed and Adam felt his heart begin pounding in his chest.
"They're upstairs!" Ginny whispered excitedly.
They began moving as silently as possible towards the only door in the room.
"There's a staircase and another room out here," Adam whispered. "Ready?"
"Let's go!" Ginny whispered back.
Adam and Ginny crept up the stairs and towards the one open door. Peering in, they saw Ron lying sprawled on a dilapidated four poster bed. A dirty, grubby man with torn clothes and a mass of matted dirty hair that hung right down to his elbows was standing over him. The man appeared to be searching Ron, scrabbling around in his pockets and shaking their unconscious friend.
"GET OFF MY BROTHER!" Ginny roared, taking Adam completely by surprise.
A flash of yellow light left her wand and hit the man in the back of the head. He screamed and his hands flew to his face. He spun around and clawed at his sunken, drawn skin as large bats began crawl and take flight from the end of his now bulging nose.
"Arghh!" the man yelled, but, before long, the bats seemed to become only an annoyance to him. He raised a wand, which Adam recognised as Ron's, and shouted. "Expelliarmus!"
With a tug, Adam's wand went sailing out of his hand and straight into the man's. A gasp from Ginny told Adam that she too had been disarmed.
Ginny's response was to charge forward towards the man but, as she ran, he waved Ron's wand and a ball of red slight struck Ginny on the chest. The force of the impact sent her flying across the room, where she landed in the heap against one wall, unmoving.
"Ginny!" Adam cried and dashed across to his girlfriend. He heaved a sigh of relief as he checked her. She was still breathing and looked unhurt.
"Why?!" Adam cried as the man stared at him. "Who are you?" he demanded, positioning himself between Ginny and the man.
"I must have revenge!" the man croaked.
"Y-Y-You're Sirius Black, aren't you?" Adam guessed, his voice trembling with rage and fright. "What has Ron ever done to you?"
"Who the hell's Ron?" Black replied hoarsely. "For that matter, who the hell are you? I'm after Peter. But I don't really want any witnesses," he finished and raised his wand.
He's going to kill me! Adam realised with horror.
The door they had entered through flew shut and locked with a click.
As Black's wand turned towards Adam, he charged forward. Even though he didn't have his wand, he still had his fists. He had to do something! This man would kill him, Ginny and Ron.
Adam leapt at Black, taking him by surprise and managing to tackle him to the ground. As they landed with a crunch, Adam felt several sharp objects penetrate his back. Gasping with pain, Adam looked around and spotted Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, who had joined the fight... apparently on the side of Sirius Black. What the hell was the cat up to?
Adam swatted the cat away with his right arm. It hissed and went skidding across the floor. Black took advantage of Adam's momentary distraction and was able to flip Adam over and press his full weight onto Adam's arms and legs, holding him immobilised.
Black raised his wand to Adam's throat.
"I didn't want to hurt anyone else!" he croaked. "You leave me no choice!"
Adam struggled frantically, but was unable to escape Black's grasp.
Suddenly, with a mighty crash and a hail of sparks, the door to the room burst open. With lightening quick reflexes, Black grabbed Adam and hauled himself to his feet. He restrained Adam with one arm across his throat and Ron's wand pressed into his cheek.
"Sirius!" Professor Lupin's raised voice came through the doorway. "Stop!"
"Stay back, Remus!" ordered Black. Adam felt the wand being pressed harder against his cheek.
"Sirius, I know why you're here," said Professor Lupin, pleading with the man.
Black laughed hollowly. "Nice try. You think I betrayed them!"
"No! Sirius! I know why you're here. I want to help you."
Adam struggled wildly. Snape had been right. Professor Lupin was somehow working with Sirius Black. In response to Adam's struggles, Black closed his arm around Adam's throat, practically cutting off his air supply. Adam felt his body sag as his energy began to fade.
"Sirius! Don't hurt him, that's Ha... Don't hurt the boy!"
"If you know why I'm here, go and get him." Black said, removing his wand from Adam's cheek and pointing it towards Professor Lupin.
Professor Lupin walked carefully over to where Ron was sprawled and, opening one of Ron's pockets, he pulled out the frantically struggling Scabbers. At the sight of the rat, Black seemed to relax.
"Thank god, Remus!" he said and released Adam who collapsed to the floor, gasping. "But how?"
Professor Lupin turned towards Black and smiled slightly. "Sirius," he began. "I'm sorry for doubting you, when I saw Peter on the map..."
Suddenly, without warning, Black lunged for the rat. Professor Lupin tried to pull it out of his reach and both men began to struggle, each trying to get hold of Scabbers.
Seeing both men's distraction and spotting his and Ginny's wands sticking out from Sirius' pocket; Adam joined the fray, sending the three of them crashing to the floor. The two men and Adam wrestled on the floor; Adam was hit across the face by a flailing arm, but eventually his fingers closed around the two wands.
With his wand now in his hand Adam stood up and roared, "STOP!"
"Let me kill him, boy!" Black hissed, becoming suddenly still now he was held at wand point.
"No!" cried Professor Lupin. "Having him alive is the only way to clear your name!"
"I don't care!" cried Black. "There's nothing for me to live for! I failed them and now they're all dead!"
Adam was barely following the conversation. Who had Black failed?
Even though Adam was pointing his wand at him, Black made another grab for the rat. This time he was able to dislodge Professor Lupin's grip on the creature and it leapt out of his hand and began to skitter towards the door.
"Stop him!" Professor Lupin cried.
Out of nowhere Crookshanks appeared and sank one of his claws into the top of the rat's tail, pinning it to the floor.
"Let me kill him!" Black shouted again.
"No!" Professor Lupin shouted. "If you kill him they'll send you back to Azkaban!"
"I told you I don't care anymore! All I want is him dead!"
"Sirius," Professor Lupin said softly. "They're not all dead, Harry's still alive!"
"Don't tell lies about that!" Sirius practically sobbed. "I saw the house, I saw Lily's body! There was no..." Black choked back a sob. "...No way he could have survived that!"
Adam, who had been busy trying to make sense of the men's conversation, was shocked to find that Black somehow had his wand back in his hand. Black levelled the wand at the rat and shot a spell at it.
Immediately, the rat began growing and stretching, and then there was a short man standing in front of them. He had thin, colourless hair and was so short that he was only just taller than Adam. Black immediately charged forward towards the man and pushed him against the wall, holding the wand to his throat.
"My friends," the balding man stuttered. "My old friends,"
Black simply snarled at the man.
"Remus! Stop him, he's going to kill me!" the man pleaded.
"Sirius!" Professor Lupin pleaded. "Don't!"
"Sirius!" The balding man gasped. "Harry's alive!"
"Liar!"
Professor Lupin lowered his head. "Even though I hate to agree with him, it's true."
"He's right here in this room," said the balding man, with what could only be described as a smirk on his face.
Adam looked around the room, but he couldn't see anyone else. What was going on? Was this man trying to trick Black? If so then why was Professor Lupin agreeing with him?
"What?" Sirius exclaimed, his wand faltering.
The little man took advantage of this and, slipping out of Black's grasp, began running towards the door.
Professor Lupin and Black seemed frozen in shock, but Adam, who'd had his wand pointing in that general direction, reacted instinctively.
"Stupefy!"
The ball of red light lanced out from his wand and struck near the doorway. Splinters of wood flew everywhere and the man fell to the floor.
Black immediately spun to face Adam. "How...?" he said softly, as he stared at Adam, making him feel decidedly uncomfortable.
"We're not quite sure," replied Professor Lupin.
"What's going on?" Adam demanded.
"....Harry..." Sirius whispered in awe, his eyes still fixed upon Adam.
"WHAT IS GOING ON?" Adam shouted. He was very unnerved by the conversation the two men were having; if he didn't know better, he would have thought these men believed he was Harry.
"He doesn't know?!" Black exclaimed. "Remus, how could you?!"
"Sirius... I .." said Professor Lupin weakly.
Adam looked around the room, frantically trying to figure out what was happening between the men but then, the man he had just Stunned caught his eye. Something wasn't quite right. The rat-man's body seemed to be shrinking right before his eyes.
"He's transforming!" Adam yelled, realising what was happening.
Black and Professor Lupin's gazes shot towards where the man had been and they both charged out of the room after the rat that was just about to skitter out of sight.
Adam was about to follow them, when he paused. He was torn for a second; he badly wanted to pursue the rat-man. He'd understood enough to realise that the man had somehow managed to frame Sirius Black for his crimes; he needed to be caught. However, Adam didn't want to leave Ginny or Ron, but he knew they'd understand if he did.
He quickly checked on Ginny; she was still sprawled unconscious where she had fallen but didn't appear hurt, other than the slight injury she had sustained from the willow tree. He shook her gently on her shoulder and her head lolled limply from side to side, but she didn't wake. Adam realised that even though he knew how to Stun people, he didn't know how to reverse the effect, or even if it could be reversed before the spell wore off.
Adam slipped Ginny's wand into her limp hand; if she came around she would need it. He then checked on Ron, his condition was identical to Ginny's. Although Adam was amazed to find that even though the dog had been gripping Ron's arm with its teeth his friend didn't appeared badly injured.
Adam weighed up his options; he couldn't wake Ginny or Ron and he certainly doubted he would be able to get either of their unconscious bodies through the tunnel and past the willow tree. So he decided he would follow Professor Lupin and Sirius Black to try to get help.
He left the Shrieking Shack and charged back down the tunnel. Upon reaching the entrance below the roots of the willow tree he clambered back up to the surface. Once outside, he instantly threw himself to the ground in anticipation of an assault by the branches above him, but no such assault came. Taking advantage of the fact that the tree hadn't seemed to have noticed him, Adam ran forward. He spotted two figures ahead of him, barely visible in the dark, and ran towards them.
"Did you catch him?" Adam called as he recognised the figures as Black and Professor Lupin.
"Peter's gone," Black replied, now looking completely defeated.
"We need to go back and help Ginny and Ron!" Adam attempted to instruct the men.
Neither men answered him.
Professor Lupin turned, his face now illuminated as the moon slid out from behind a cloud. He became very still. Then his arms and legs began to shake and fur began to sprout all over his body, his face contorted and stretched and an eerie howl echoed across the field.
"RUN!" Black roared, but Adam was frozen to the spot in terror as the wolf lunged towards him.
Then Black was no longer by his side and the large dog that he had become once again charged. It dived towards Professor Lupin who, by all appearances, had now fully transformed into a werewolf. The dog tackled the wolf and, gripping it firmly around the neck, began to drag it away from Adam who still stood transfixed by the battle raging between the two great creatures.
The wolf fought back furiously against the dog and eventually was able to pry itself free. It slashed with its claws and Adam heard the dog howl in pain as it was sent flying across the grass. Once again, the dog charged at the wolf, managing to get a grip on its neck and the two began to wrestle once more.
Eventually, amongst the sounds of howling and snarling, the two animals, still fighting furiously, faded into the darkness.
Adam stood there in silence for several minutes, realising that Sirius Black had just saved his life by preventing the wolf from attacking him. Then, from the darkness, Adam heard a high-pitched yelping sound; it sounded awfully like an injured dog. He hesitated, he really needed to go and help Ginny and Ron, but if Black was injured Adam needed to help him. Sirius had just saved his life, he couldn't just leave him to be caught by the wolf... or the Dementors.
Adam ran through the dark, following the sound of the yelping. As he pelted through the gloom he was aware that the direction of his run should be taking him towards the lake.
Reaching the lake Adam saw Black lying on his knees by the shore. He was holding his hands to his head.
"Noooooo," he wailed. His entire body seemed to be trembling.
Adam began to feel very cold and his body began to tremble. Looking around, Adam saw a large group of Dementors gliding towards them. He ran towards Black, intending to help him, but the Dementors were moving too quickly and soon they had both of them surrounded.
"Expecto Patronum!" Adam cried, focusing strongly on his memory of himself and Ginny in Hogsmeade. His vision was beginning to darken now and he could vaguely hear screaming as a phantom green light played across his vision.
He fought to control his fear and desperation as his Patronus appeared. The silver stag leapt out of the end of his wand and charged towards the closest Dementor, driving it back. However, Adam noticed it was far dimmer and less defined than it had been in Professor Lupin's classroom. When it attempted to charge a larger pack of Dementors that were attempting to close in on Black, it flickered and faded.
"Expecto Patronum!" Adam gasped again; as he said it, he felt himself, completely involuntarily, fall to the floor.
Once more the stag emerged from his wand and attempted to drive away the Dementors, but there were too many of them and his Patronus alone could not hold them all back.
The last thing Adam saw as he lost consciousness was another bright shape galloping towards him through the sky.
