The other chosen one
Chapter 9
APOV
Harry and Hermione have been acting weird all morning. Almost like they were planning something. I went to see Uncle Remmy around 9 since Ron was still asleep and Harry and Hermione were nowhere to be found.
"Hi Alexis. What can I do for you?" He asked as I walked into the office and sat down.
"I want to tell Harry about Dad." I said, fully serious for once in my life.
"Are you sure?" He asked, leaning forward on his desk.
"Yes… No… I don't know!" I folded my arms on the desk and rested my head in them. "I want to be honest with him, but I'm scared about how he'll react."
"He might be angry at first, but I'm sure he'll understand why you didn't tell him." He replied, making me look up. "Why the sudden urge to tell him now?"
"Hermione knows. She figured it out at Christmas, then confronted me about it and implied that I am just like him."
"So that's why you were avoiding her for so long." He chuckled. "You're scared that Harry might think the same thing, aren't you?"
"Well… Yeah. You heard him before! He thinks Dad deserves to be handed over to the Dementors." My situation came crashing down on me, causing me to slouch back in my chair. "I can't tell him, can I?"
"I'm afraid not. You know as well as anyone what something like this can do. The only people in this castle who know who your father is are Me, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid and now Hermione. Not even the Minister knows." He replied. He pulled me into a hug. "Don't worry. Everything will work out in the end."
"You don't know that." I muttered.
"I know you. The Alexis I know wouldn't let something like what people think of her stop her from getting what she wants." That made me smile slightly. "Go on. I think Harry has something planned for you."
I left his office, planning on going for lunch when I bumped into Harry in the entrance hall. "Hey." I said with a smile. I saw Hermione sneak up the stairs out of the corner of my eye, which made me slightly nervous.
"You ready?" He asked, making me frown.
"For what?"
"Our date." I smiled wider and placed my hand in his. We walked down to the lake where, under a tree, lay a large blanket with a picnic blanket.
"You did this?" I asked as we sat down.
"With a little help from the kitchen and a certain bushy haired witch." He said with a wink, making me blush. He handed me a plate, filled with all of my favourite food.
We spent the whole afternoon sat by the lake, having fun and eating the wonderful food. We talked about anything and everything before watching the sunset, my head resting on Harry's shoulder and his arm around my waist. Just after it got dark, Professor McGonagall came running out, lecturing us about staying out after dark. She escorted us back to Gryffindor Tower, probably to make sure that we didn't take a detour. Once in the common room, we sat on the sofa, watching the flames of the fire dance as we cuddled.
"Thank you for today." I said. I felt him kiss the top of my head and smiled.
"My pleasure…." He trailed off as Ron and Hermione ran into the room.
"Guys!" Mione yelled, out of breath.
"Where's the fire Mione?" I asked, sitting up as they tried to get their breath back.
"Not funny." She snapped. "It's Hagrid. Buckbeak lost the trial. He's been sentenced to death!"
"What?" I gasped, looking at Harry in shock.
"Malfoy's got to be behind it." Ron said.
"When?" Harry asked.
"Tomorrow. The minister is coming to make sure it's done." Mione said. "There's nothing we can do." We made plans to go and see Hagrid before the minister got here. We knew he'd need all the support he could get.
Once Mione and I got into our dorm, I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed her cheek. "Thank you!" I sang.
"For what?" She laughed.
"For helping Harry with today. It was perfect!" I let go of her and jumped onto my bed, laughing as Jarvis tried to lick my face.
"You really like him, don't you?" She asked as she sat on my bed with me.
"I do. He's the most amazing guys I've ever met!" I exclaimed before frowning. "I was going to tell him about my Dad, but I can't."
"Why not?" She asked with a frown.
"He thinks that Dad deserves to be given the Dementor's kiss." I said.
"What do you think?" She asked, leaning forward.
"I don't know what to think! I only have 2 clear memories of him, and I have a very hard time believing that the man from my memories is capable of killing his best friends and his wife." I sighed, looking down at my hands. "I just don't know what to think. I don't want to lie to him, but I can't tell him!"
"Lexi, I think you need to figure out what you think before you even consider telling anyone else." She said, crawling up the bed and putting her arm around my shoulder. "Let's get to bed. We need to be there for Hagrid tomorrow."
Once the light was turned off, I lay in bed thinking about the events of the day. What had started out as one of the best days of my life had turned into disaster! I couldn't even imagine what Hagrid is going through. It would be like someone telling me that Jarvis would be killed. At that thought, I pulled the dog in question even closer to my chest, kissing his head before finally closing my eyes, trying not to think about what tomorrow will hold.
Xxx
The next day went slowly. The 4 of us were too worried about Hagrid to properly focus on our classes. Hermione even messed up a potion! After dinner, we quickly went to the tower to change before heading down to Hagrid's. The man who greeted us at the door was not the happy man who met us in our first year. This was a broken man with no idea what to do or who to turn to.
"How are you Hagrid?" Hermione asked as we sat around the table.
"I don't know." He answered, his voice lacking emotion.
"Isn't there anything Dumbledore can do? I mean, you did tell us all how to approach a Hippogriff safely." Ron asked.
"He tried. Didn't work." He said. "Great man Dumbledore. He's comin' down when it happens. Says he don't want be on me own." I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and grabbed it, realising what it was straight away.
"Ron? What's Scabbers doing down here?" I asked, handing him the rat.
"Scabbers! I've been looking for you for days!" He exclaimed.
"We'll stay too Hagrid." Harry said, putting a hand on Hagrid's shoulder.
"No. Yeh can't be 'ere. Yeh need ta get back to the castle before they get 'ere."
"Too late for that." I said, seeing Dumbledore, Fudge and an executioner walking towards the hut.
"Go out the back." Hagrid said, ushering us towards the door. We waited behind the pumpkin patch until we saw the 3 go into the hut and ran up the hill, standing just behind the stone statues so that we could still see the hut. We saw the executioner raise his axe, and although we didn't see it connect with anything, the resounding thud was enough of a conformation for us.
"They did it." Hermione gasped as I buried my face in Harry's chest, feeling him burry his face in my hair. "They actually did it." There was a moment of silence, only to be broken by Ron's pain filled yell.
"He bit me!" He yelped as Harry and I pulled away to look at him. "Scabbers bit me!" The rat jumped from his grasp and ran across the grass, Ron close behind, trying to grab him.
"Ron!" We hissed, chasing him, only to freeze when we saw Ron come to a stop with Scabbers in his grasp, under the whomping willow. "Ron! Move!" Harry shouted, only for Ron to point at something behind him.
"It's him!" He said, a look of fear on his chest. "It's the grim." We turned to see a shaggy, black dog behind us. I froze as it started to run towards us, Harry pulling me to the ground just before it jumped over us. We turned to see it snap its jaw around Ron's leg, dragging him to a hole at the bottom of the whomping willow.
"RON!" We yelled, running after him, only to be thrown back by the tree. "What now?" Hermione asked. I looked around and thought of something that we did in muggle studies a few weeks ago.
"Dodgeball." I said, making them look at me in confusion.
"What?" Harry asked.
"You know, that muggle game we did in muggle studies. Same rules apply here. Run, look and dodge." I ran forward, watching the branches and jumping out of the way of where they were going to hit. I managed to get to the hole and jump down quickly, not waiting long for Harry and Hermione to jump in after me.
"How did you know that would work?" Hermione asked.
"I didn't." I replied, pulling my wand out. "Lumos." The blue light filled the tunnel we were in. "Where do you think this leads?"
"Only one way to find out." Harry said, leading the way. I tried to ignore the sickening feeling in my stomach as we walked, but I had a horrible feeling that something was about to happen. Something bad. We reached the end of the tunnel and looked up to see a hole in the roof, Harry quickly jumping up before leaning down to help Hermione and me out.
"We're in the Shrieking Shack." Mione said as Harry helped me to my feet. We put our wands away and followed the muddy paw prints and drag marks up the stairs, walking slowly and carefully. We reached the top of the stairs and saw the marks leading into a room with the door open. We shared a looked before slowly walking into the room, seeing Ron sat on a double bed with blood pouring down his leg.
"Ron." I breathed, jogging to him and kneeling down in front of him.
"Harry! Lexi! It's a trap!" He said, pointing behind us. "He's the dog! He's an animagus!" We turned to see the door close, a man stood behind it who made my eyes widen. The shaggy, black hair was messy and tangled, his skin pale and his eyes framed with black bags. The man who had been absent from my life for as long as I can remember.
"Sirius Black." I heard Harry breath. I turned back to Ron and used my scarf to wrap his leg up with, being careful not to cause him any pain.
"I thought you'd come for you friend." My father said, making me look up at the sound of his voice, the voice that was exactly as I remembered, to see him watching Harry. "You look just like you're father."
"Don't talk about him." Harry snapped. Sirius took a step towards us, making Mione stand in front of Harry.
"If you want to kill them you'll have to go through me." She said, holding her head high.
"No. Only one shall die tonight." He said, making me stand up, glaring at him.
"Then it will be you!" Harry exclaimed, jumping forward before I could grab him. He charged at Sirius, punching him before he could react.
"Harry!" I shouted, jumping after him and pulling him back, putting myself between him and my Dad. "Stop it! Is this what your parent's would want? For you to become a murderer?"
"He deserves it!" He snapped, trying to push past me.
"I don't care!" I shouted, making him stop and look at me in confusion. "I am not going to let you ruin your life because of this!"
"Alexis?" I turned my head to look at Sirius, happy that Hermione stepped forward and grabbed hold of Harry's arm. He lifted his hand to touch my face, but I stepped back before he could.
"Don't touch me." I snapped.
"Alexis-" He tried, taking another step forward.
"No!" I yelled before freezing, catching sight of the necklace around his neck. "Where did you get that?" I asked.
"I saw you wearing it." He replied, putting his hand over the butterfly.
"So you stole it? Why? Why on Earth would you think that was alright?"
"Lexi? What's going on?" Ron asked, looking around in confusion.
"You look like your Mother." Sirius said, ignoring Ron completely.
"Don't. Don't pretend like you care." I hissed.
"Of course I care. I'm your Father." He said, making me tense up.
"He's your WHAT?" Harry and Ron shouted, making me turn to look at them. "Did you know?" Harry asked, looking into my eyes.
"Yes." I whispered, feeling my heart break at the look on Harry's face. The door slammed open and Uncle Remus ran into the room, taking in the sight.
"Remus. My old friend." Sirius said, sharing a hug with him.
"You're helping him?" Hermione asked, stepping forward.
"Hermione…" He started.
"No! I trusted you! I've been covering for you!" She turned to face us, a look of hurt on her face. "He's a werewolf! That's why he's been missing classes."
"How long have you known?" He asked, making Mione turn back to face him.
"Since Professor Snape set the essay." She said, holding her head high.
"Well, you certainly are one of the brightest witches of you age." He said before looking at me and flinching slightly at my glare. "Alexis…"
"You've been helping him." I said, making a statement instead of a question.
"Not at first, but I am now." He replied.
"If you knew what he did, why would you help him?" Harry asked.
"Because he is innocent." He said, still looking at me. "I saw you come down here on the map. But I saw another name on the map. Peter Pettigrew."
"He's dead. The map was lying." Harry said.
"The map never lies. Pettigrew is alive, and he's in this very room." Dad said, pointing to where Ron was sat.
"Me?" He asked, but I wasn't looking at him. I was looking at the rat.
"Wormtail." I said, looking up at uncle Remus. "That was his nickname. He's an animagus?"
"We all were." He said before smiling slightly. "Except for me of course."
I looked back at the rat in Ron's hand, finally putting the pieces together. "Scabbers."
I am so sorry guys! I was planning on updating this a while ago, but I had some issues to work through. I was supposed to be going on holiday today, but my friend bailed on me and I have spent the last month trying to cancel the holiday and process the fact that my best friend is a complete and utter bitch. (Excuse the language)
Hope you have enjoyed this chapter and thank you for the reviews.
Emma