Greetings, Wizard and Witches from across the globe and welcome to the next chapter of The Potter And Kent Chronicles: Cruel Angel Thesis.
I hope your going to enjoy it as much as I had been writing it and now on to the review.
girani4: Ayup, it should be obvious who is who. And I thought it was random enough for Alex to say. Yeah, I am first going to finish he original PAKC before even working on it. Don't want to be the guy who begins something and then not finish it.
Now it's story time, which opens how I feel right now.
The euphoria that Gryffindor finally won the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week. Even the weather seemed to be celebrating; as June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry, and all anybody felt like doing was strolling onto the grounds and flopping down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake.
But they couldn't. Exams were nearly upon them, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows.
Even Fred and George had been spotted working; they were about to take their Ordinary Wizarding Levels or O.W.L.s for short. Percy was getting ready to take his Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests or N.E.W.T.s for short, the highest qualification Hogwarts offered.
As Percy hoped to enter the Ministry of Magic, he needed top grades. He was becoming increasingly edgy, and gave very severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the common room in the evenings. In fact, the only person who seemed more anxious than Percy was Hermione.
Harry, Claire, Alex, Ron and Neville had given up asking her how she was managing to attend several classes at once.
Their second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken.
A sort of obstacle course outside in the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new boggart.
"Excellent, Harry.", Lupin muttered as Harry climbed out of the trunk, grinning, "Full marks."
Flushed with his success, Harry hung around to watch Claire, Alex, Ron, Neville and Hermione.
As expected Claire did the obstacle course flawlessly, Alex did great as well, Ron did very well too until he reached the hinkypunk, which successfully confused him into sinking waist-high into the quagmire, the same mistake Neville made as well.
Hermione did everything perfectly until she reached the trunk with the boggart in it. After about a minute inside it, she burst out again, screaming.
"Hermione!", Lupin said, startled, "What's the matter?"
"P-P-Professor McGonagall!", Hermione gasped, pointing into the trunk, "Sh-she said I'd failed everything!"
It took a little while to calm Hermione down. When at last she had regained a grip on herself, she, Harry, Claire, Alex, Ron and Neville went back to the castle.
Alex, Ron and Neville was still slightly inclined to laugh at Hermione's boggart.
Harry, Alex, Ron and Neville's last exam was Divination. Hermione's, Muggle Studies but Claire was already done with her exams.
As her friends took their exams, Claire was wandering aimlessly through the hallways, wondering what she should do until she came face-to-face with Filch.
"What are you doing here?", Filch snarled suspiciously.
"I go to school here.", Claire said.
Filch, his jowls quivering unpleasantly. "Sneaking around on your own. Why aren't you in class, taking exams like the rest of your nasty little friends?"
"Because I am already done with my exam.", she said, before she continued to walk.
She climbed down the staircase, thinking vaguely of sitting down at the lake when a voice from inside one of the rooms said, "Claire?"
Claire doubled back to see who had spoken and saw Jeager, looking around his office door.
"What are you doing?", Jeager said, though in a very different voice from Filch.
"You know the usual stuff.", Claire said, "Undermining the system."
"Hell yeah! Fight the power!", Jeager said with a smile, "Why don't you come in? I've just finished the last Combat Exam, so fancy a cup of tea?"
"All right.", Claire said following Jeager into his cooling office.
"Sit down.", Jeager said, taking out two cups.
But she didn't, she noticed a pictured frame standing on the coffee table. It depicted two people, a boy and a girl roughly the same age as Claire is now. The boy with the long hair was obviously a younger Jeager, while the girl next to him had long black hair, covering one of her light blue eyes.
"Nice hair, Professor.", Claire teased upon seeing the younger Jeager with long hair.
"Hey, it was in style back then.", Jeager said, handing her a cup and taking the photo from her.
"Who's that girl?", Claire asked.
Jeager looked with a nostalgic look at the photo, "That's my sister."
"She's beautiful.", she noted.
"Yeah... Yeah... she was.", he mumbled.
His tone of voice, reminded Claire of the same way Margaret would talk about Elizabeth. Deciding to change the subject, Claire asked about the privet combat lessons.
"How did you know about them?", Jeager asked.
"Harry told me.", Claire said.
"I see... From what Harry told me, and from word around the school, you two do spend a lot of time together.", Jeager noted, "Pardon my curiosity but are you two?", wiggling his little finger.
"What?... Oh no!", she said quickly, feeling her cheeks light up, "He's great and all, but we are just friends."
She drank a bit of tea and watched the few pictures Jeager had hanging on the wall. Most of them had Jeager in them, sometimes with people she recognized, like with Snape or Flitwick.
"That was taken three years ago when we went to the Weird Sister's concert.", Jeager said, gesturing to the photo as he began to explain.
"The one where you head-butted a security guard, bum rushed the stage and dedicated a song to your mother?", Claire asked, remembering the story Snape had told.
"The very same!", he laughed, "But that's all people seem to remember. But nobody seem to remember the fact that Flitwick was crowd surfing. Or Snape was headbanging like he was in some sort of metal band."
He continued to explain events and who the people where in the pictures with him.
"...And that one was taken in Poland, with Geralt, Yennefer and their adopted daughter Ciri.", Jeager finished with a nostalgic chuckle, "Whole lot of mess that adventure was... Maybe I should visit them next summer."
"Say, Professor. I have another question, not related to the pictures.", Claire said, putting her now empty cup down on the coffee table, "Is the training your giving Harry only exclusive to him or..."
"Let me guess.", Jeager said, crossing his legs, "You want to take those extra Combat Lessons as well?"
"How did you know?", she asked.
"Because your very similar to Elizabeth.", he explained.
"You knew my mother?"
"I knew her very well.", Jeager said, "As Margaret might have told you, I was already a professor for two years before your mother and your aunt went to Hogwarts."
Before dinner that evening, Harry told them about the strange encounter that happened with Professor Trelawney. Which they all found unnerving but didn't speak as they had tea with Hagrid. Celebrating the end of exams.
"I bet you all that I will have over three hundred percent on my Divination exam.", Alex boasted.
"How?", Neville said, "All you have been doing is absolutely nothing during class or doing any of the homework."
"I read the book from front to cover the night before.", Alex said, resting his arms behind his head, "I am pretty sure I will be fine."
Bustling around making tea, Hagrid picked up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug, but he let out a surprise grunt.
"Hey Ron, isn't this yours?", Hagrid asked, he carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table.
"Scabbers!", Ron said blankly, "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"
He grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. He was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free himself.
"It's okay, Scabbers!", Ron said, "No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!"
The sun was already setting behind the three's when the six of them set off back toward the castle, by the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them.
"Scabbers, keep still.", Ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest. The rat was wriggling madly. Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket, "What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still!"
Scabbers was plainly terrified. He was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Ron's grip.
"What's the matter with him?", Neville asked.
Harry suddenly froze in place, Claire was about to ask what was going on but she had seen it as well.
Stinking toward them, his body low to the ground, wide yellow eyes glinting eerily in the darkness, Crookshanks. Whether he could see them or was following the sound of Scabbers's squeaks, Claire couldn't tell.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned, "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"
But it was too late, the rat had bitten Ron's finger, slipping between his clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. In one bound, Crookshanks sprang after him, with Ron not far behind.
The remaining five hurried after them, they could hear his feet thundering along ahead and his shouts at Crookshanks.
"Get away from him! Get away! Scabbers, come here!"
There was a loud thud.
"Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat."
Alex, having the longest legs, almost fell over Ron; they skidded to a stop right in front of him. He was sprawled on the ground, but Scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump.
But before they could say anything, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws. Something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow, an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog.
Before wands could be drawn, the dog had made an enormous leap and the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward, he seized a handful of the dog hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll.
Then, out of nowhere, something hit Alex so hard across the face he was knocked off his feet again. He heard Hermione shriek with pain and fall too.
Claire took out her wand and said "Lumos!"
The wandlight showed her the trunk of a thick tree; they had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop them going nearer.
And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots. Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight.
"Ron!", Neville shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again.
All they could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground. But a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; Ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight.
"Claire... We've got to go for help..." Hermione gasped, she was bleeding too, the Willow had cut her across the shoulder.
"We don't have the time.", Claire said, "That thing's big enough to eat him."
Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles.
"If that dog can get in, so can we.", Harry panted, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but he couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows.
"Oh, help, help," Hermione whispered frantically, dancing Uncertainly on the spot, "Please..."
Crookshanks darted forward. He slithered between the battering branches like a snake and placed his front paws upon a knot on the trunk.
Abruptly, as though the tree had been turned to marble, it stopped moving. Not a leaf twitched or shook.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione whispered uncertainly, she now grasped Alex's arm.
"How did he know?...", Neville said.
"Question for later.", Claire said, "Come on and keep your wand out."
They covered the distance to the trunk in seconds, but before they had reached the gap in the roots, Crookshanks had slid into it with a flick of his bottlebrush tail.
Once they had slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from the wands.
"Where's Ron?" Hermione whispered in a terrified voice.
"Tis way.", Claire said,, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks.
"Where does tis tunnel come out?", Alex asked.
"I don't know... It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it...", Harry said, "It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade..."
They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks's tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes.
And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Instead a patch of dim light through a small opening.
Alex being the tallest, raised his wand to see what lay beyond.
It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up.
Alex glanced at Hermione, who looked very frightened but nodded.
The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway.
"I think we're in the Shrieking Shack.", Claire said looking around.
"Well tis place doesn't look ominous or anything.", Alex said, his eyes fell on a wooden chair near them. Large chunks had been torn out of it; one of the legs had been ripped off entirely.
"Ghosts didn't do that.", Harry said slowly.
At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. The five of them looked up at the ceiling. Hermione's gripped Alex arm.
Quietly as they could, they crept out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs.
They reached the dark landing.
"Nox.", they whispered together, and the lights at the end of their wands went out. Only one door was open. As they crept toward it, they heard movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring. They exchanged a last look, a last nod.
Wand held tightly before him, Harry kicked the door wide open.
On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of them. On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron.
Harry, Claire, Alex, Neville and Hermione dashed across to him.
"Ron! are you okay?"
"Where's the dog?", Claire said.
"Not a dog, he's an Animagus." Ron moaned, his teeth were gritted with pain, "It's a trap!"
With a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them.
A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin.
It was Sirius Black.
And that's a wrap, hope you enjoyed it.
Many thanks to everyone who read, review, favorite or follows this story, you beautiful bastards.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day, don't forget to leave a review if you liked my work and I hope to see you ladies and gents, next time.
Mischief Managed.
