The tunnel led to a wooden ladder, which in turn led to some kind of old wooden house. The floors and walls creaked dangerously around them, as if warning them that the ground underneath their feet could give way at any moment.

Hermione looked around her. "We're in the Shrieking Shack," she whispered. "Aren't we?"

"How?" Eva questioned. "I didn't realise you could even come in here."

Harry took Hermione's and Eva's hands and led them up a rickety set of stairs. Ron's screaming could still be heard from one of the rooms within the building which only motivated them further.

The group paused at the landing, poking their heads inside each of the abandoned rooms systematically. "Ron!" Harry shouted suddenly.

Eva turned around and followed them into what looked like an old bedroom. Ron was sat in the corner, as frightened as ever, with bite marks on his leg and Scabbers in his arms.

Eva gasped. "Holy crap, Ron, you look a mess!"

"The dog, where is it?" Harry asked.

"Harry, it's a trap!" Ron yelled frantically, pointing over their shoulders. "He's the dog, he's an animagus!"

Their eyes slowly followed the trail of paw prints across the room that led to none other than Sirius Black himself. His clothes were completely worn and tattered as he stared at them with wide, manic eyes, those same eyes that had been printed in the Daily Prophet.

"We're fucked," Eva whispered.

Hermione stepped in front of Harry protectively. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too."

Eva nodded and joined her, pulling her wand out of her pocket and aiming it at him. "What she said."

"No," Sirius muttered, "only one will die tonight."

"THEN IT'LL BE YOU!"

Harry shoved them out of the way and launched himself at Sirius, eventually tackling him down to the ground and pointing his wand at his neck. Strangely enough, Sirius proceeded to laugh, as if being threatened was a joke to him.

"Are you going to kill me, Harry?" he asked amusedly.

The fragile wooden doors then burst open. "Expelliarmus!" Lupin shouted, sending Harry's wand flying out of his hand and across the room.

Harry climbed off of Sirius and rejoined Eva and Hermione. Eva honestly had no idea what was happening at this point, nor was she sure if she wanted to know.

Lupin circled threateningly around Sirius, who was still on his back on the dusty ground. "Well, well, Sirius, looking rather ragged, aren't we? Finally the flesh reflects the madness within."

"Well, you'd know all about the madness within, wouldn't you, Remus?" Sirius asked.

To Eva's surprise, Lupin lowered his wand and lent a hand to help Sirius to his feet. The pair quite literally stood there and hugged in the middle of the room, as if completely oblivious to the confused teenagers watching the scene.

"Okay, I am very confused right now, so somebody had better explain to me what the fuck is going on and why my Defence Against the Dark Arts professor is giving Sirius Black a bro hug!" Eva shouted irritatedly.

Lupin glanced over at her with an amused smirk before turning back to Sirius. "Let's kill him!" Sirius hissed.

"No!" Hermione shouted angrily, gaining their full attention. "I trusted you! And all this time, you've been his friend. He's a werewolf!" she accused, pointing a finger at Lupin. "That's why he's been missing classes."

"The plot thickens," Eva whispered.

Lupin paced forwards towards Hermione menacingly. "How long have you known?"

"Since Professor Snape set the essay," Hermione replied.

Eva glanced over at her friend in surprise. "You actually did that essay? I wrote a few words and left it on my desk, never to be seen again."

Sirius laughed manically. "I like this girl."

"Well, well, well, Hermione, you really are the brightest witch of your age I've ever met," Lupin said, impressed at her knowledge.

"Enough talk, Remus, come on!" Sirius shouted suddenly, causing everyone to turn their heads at the crazy man. "Let's kill him!"

Lupin shook his head. "Wait-"

"I did my waiting!" Sirius cried hysterically. "12 years of it! In Azkaban!"

Eva had now fully backed up against the wall with Hermione and Harry. She gripped Hermione's arm tightly, trying to ignore the continuous pain the bite marks on her right arm were causing her.

Lupin looked over at them briefly. "Very well. Kill him." Sirius snatched Lupin's wand from him. "But wait one more minute. Harry has the right to know why."

"I know why," Harry argued, stepping closer to them slowly. "You betrayed my parents! You're the reason they're dead!"

"No Harry, it wasn't him!" Lupin informed him. "Somebody did betray your parents but it was somebody who, until quite recently, I believed to be dead!"

"Who was it then?!" Harry demanded.

"Peter Pettigrew," Sirius spat, his insanity clear by the broad smile on his face as he spoke. "And he's in this room, right now! Come out come out, Peter! Come out come out and play!"

"Expelliarmus!"

Snape appeared in the doorway and Lupin's wand popped straight out of Sirius' hand. Eva was so confused at that moment, but she also felt a weird pounding in her head, which really wasn't helping her concentrate on everyone who was joining in on their conversation.

"Oh, vengeance is sweet." Snape had his wand aimed directly at Sirius. "I hoped I would be the one to catch you."

"Severus-" Lupin began, but was stopped by Snape pointing his wand at him instead.

"I told Dumbledore you were helping an old friend into the castle," Snape said to him, "and now, here's the proof."

"So, do you guys all, like, know each other?" Eva asked. "Or . . ."

"Silence," Snape hissed at her.

Sirius shook his head. "Brilliant, Snape. Once again you've put your keen and penetrating mind to the task and, as usual, come to the wrong conclusion. Now, if you'll excuse us, Remus and I have some unfinished business to attend to!"

Snape shoved his wand at Sirius threateningly. "Give me a reason, I beg you."

"Severus, don't be a fool," Lupin warned.

"He can't help it, it's habit," Sirius countered.

"Sirius, be quiet!"

"Be quiet yourself, Remus!"

"Oh my," Eva sighed, facepalming in the corner. Every year, their group managed to get into trouble. First it was the immortality stone, and then it was the killer snake, and now a group of angry middle-aged men.

"Look at you two," Snape mocked them, "quarrelling like an old married couple."

"Why don't you run along and play with your chemistry set?!" Sirius sneered.

Snape seemed more adamant to kill him now than ever before. "I could do it, you know, but why deny the Dementors? They're so longing to see you," he snarled. "Do I detect a flicker of fear? Oh yes. A Dementor's kiss. One can only imagine what that must be like to endure. It's said to be nearly unbearable to witness, but I'll do my best."

"Severus, please," Lupin protested.

Harry pulled Hermione's wand out of her back pocket and pointed it at Snape. "Expelliarmus!"

Snape flew backwards across the room and straight into an old four-poster bed which crashed on top of him at impact. Eva whistled lowly as a large cloud of dust rose up from that end of the room.

"Harry, what did you just do?" Ron questioned.

Hermione gasped. "You attacked a teacher!"

"Oh, now she cares about school rules," Eva snarked. "Hermione, we must've broken hundreds of rules just getting here."

Harry was still aiming his wand at Sirius and Lupin. "Tell me about Peter Pettigrew."

"He was at school with us," Lupin responded. "We thought he was our friend."

"No," Harry argued. "Pettigrew's dead. You killed him!" he accused Sirius.

"No he didn't!" Lupin stepped in front of Sirius. "I thought so too until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map."

"The map was lying then!" Harry insisted.

Sirius seemed amused at that. "The map never lies! Pettigrew's alive, and he's right there!" He pointed straight in Ron's direction.

"Me?" Ron asked. "He's mental!"

"Well, I always thought the cover story of Ron Weasley was bullshit," Eva joked to relieve some of the tension in the room.

"Not you, your rat!" Sirius shouted.

Ron shook his head, refusing to believe what Sirius was saying. "B-but Scabbers has been in my family for-"

"12 years!" Sirius finished. "Curiously long life for a common garden rat! He's missing a toe, isn't he?"

"So what?" Ron asked.

Harry connected the dots. "All they could find from Pettigrew was his-"

"FINGER!" Sirius interrupted. "The dirty coward cut it off so everyone would think he was dead! And then he transformed into a rat!"

"Show me," Harry demanded.

With a nod, Sirius yanked the squealing rat away from a screaming Ron. He placed the rat down, but as most frightened rodents do, he ran across the room, still making little squeaking noises. Sirius aimed spells at the rat constantly, but it was no use. Each one ricocheted off of the worn and damaged furniture.

Just as the rat jumped into a hole in the wall, the animal transformed, strangely enough into a human. The man was dragged forcefully out from the wall by Lupin and Sirius, and Eva wanted to cringe at how . . . hideous and rat-like he really was. He even had larger front teeth, a balding scalp with a receding hairline, and uncut nails which oddly resembled claws.

Eva snorted. "That was your pet, Ron? This entire time? So every time I cuddled your rat, I was cuddling that man?! That's gross, dude!"

"Remus?" the man asked slowly. "Sirius? My old friends!"

Both Lupin and Sirius were pointing their wands at Pettigrew. Eva still had her wand out and aimed at pretty much everyone in anyway, prepared to Expelliarmus away anyone she needed to. This was shaping up to be a really weird day.

"Harry!" Pettigrew exclaimed, trembling. "You look so much like your father! Like James! We were the best of friends!"

Since Pettigrew was getting way too close to Harry for Eva's liking, she stepped forward, raised her fist, and punched him square in the face. Pettigrew took a few steps back but otherwise didn't seem that bothered.

"Stay the fuck away from Harry, you creep," Eva hissed through gritted teeth.

"How dare you speak to Harry!" Sirius threatened, chasing Pettigrew across the room until they had him cornered around an old piano. "How dare you talk about James in front of him!"

Lupin had his wand aimed at Pettigrew. "You sold James and Lily to Voldemort!"

"I didn't mean to!" Pettigrew whined pathetically.

Eva was lost for words at where this conversation was going. "What the—how can you accidentally sell your own friends to Voldemort, you asshole?!" she yelled exasperatedly.

"The Dark Lord, you have no idea the weapons he possesses, little girl," Pettigrew protested. "Ask yourself, Sirius! What would you have done? What would you have done?!"

"I would've died!" Sirius shouted. "I WOULD'VE DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY MY FRIENDS!"

In panic, Pettigrew dived under the piano and crawled out from underneath it, truly like a rat. Harry was blocking the doorway, but annoyingly he ran straight towards him, yet again.

"Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed!" Pettigrew insisted, whispering into his ear. "Your dad, your dad would've spared me! He would've shown me mercy!"

Sirius and Lupin yanked him off Harry and threw him across the room, again aiming their wands straight at him. "You should've realised, Peter, that if Voldemort didn't kill you, then we would, together!" Sirius shouted at him.

Harry shook his head. "NO!"

"Harry," Lupin sighed, "this man-"

"I know what he is," Harry interjected. "But we'll take him to the castle."

Pettigrew gasped. "Oh, bless you, boy, bless you-"

Rolling her eyes, Eva stepped over and kicked him hard in the face. She was so glad she'd decided to wear quite large boots that morning, since it meant that the impact of the kick was much greater than it would've been in her trainers.

"Shut the fuck up for once in your life, you entitled rodent," Eva spat at him.

"Get off!" Harry snapped when he crawled towards his feet. "I said we'd take you to the castle.

"After that, the Dementors can have you."

Through the tunnel, Ron walked ahead, assisted by Sirius and Harry. His leg was still too injured to put any weight on it, so he hobbled painfully across the uneven dirt ground.

"Sorry about the bites," Sirius apologised. "I reckon that twinges a bit."

"A bit?" Ron repeated in disbelief. "A bit? You almost tore my leg off!"

"And my arm!" Eva added just behind them. "Oh yeah, and just to clarify, you don't have rabies or anything, do you? Nothing personal, but it's not every day you get bitten by a rabid dog who also happens to be a wanted criminal."

Sirius snorted a laugh. "No, I don't have rabies, or any diseases for that matter . . . something about you seems familiar, by the way. What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Eva Infernum," she replied.

"Oh, that's where I know you from," Sirius remembered, "that demon summoning family. Yes, your mother did some work for the Ministry many years ago. You look a lot like her, from the photographs in the Daily Prophet."

Eva drew her eyebrows together. "Um . . . thanks?"

"Anyway, I was going for the rat," Sirius told them. "Snagging you was fully accidental, Eva, you're just so small."

"Again, thanks," Eva muttered under her breath.

"Usually, I have a very sweet disposition as a dog," he continued. "In fact, more than once, James suggested that I make the change permanent. The tail, I could live with, but the fleas, they're murder."

They eventually made their way back to the Whomping Willow outside. Ron sat down on the ground with his leg propped up as Eva and Hermione tended to his injury. In all honesty, Eva had forgotten about hers after the crazy hour or so she'd just endured, and so she didn't even spare it another glance.

While Harry spoke with Sirius, Eva tiredly rested her head on Ron's shoulder. "I really want to take a nap. Can I take a nap here?" she yawned.

"Eva," Hermione playfully slapped her awake, "stop being lazy and help me take care of Ron's leg."

Lupin then staggered out, dragging a frantically pleading Pettigrew along with him. Pettigrew crouched down beside Ron, again forgetting about the concept of personal space.

"Ron! Haven't I been a good friend?" Pettigrew pleaded. "A good pet? You wouldn't let them give me to the Dementors, would you? I was your rat!" He began to pester Eva next. "Oh, and you, pretty little girl, you wouldn't really want me hurt, would you?" He then turned to Hermione. "Sweet girl, clever girl! Surely you won't-"

Using her injured arm, Eva raised her hand and punched him in the nose for the second time that night. "Don't you dare even look at her, you disgusting little coward. If my arm didn't feel like it was about to fall off, I'd be beating you to a pulp as we speak!"

Pettigrew was dragged further away from them by Lupin. He continued to plead for forgiveness and for mercy, both of which would obviously never be shown to him.

"HARRY!"

Eva looked to Hermione confusedly, and then her gaze followed to where she was pointing to. The moon was just rising over the horizon, the bright light reaching Lupin's skin. Eva stood back up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione with her wand at the ready, not that it would do much against a werewolf.

"Remus, my old friend, have you taken your potion tonight?" Sirius asked him as Lupin writhed in pain. "You know the man you truly are, Remus! This heart is where you truly live! This heart! Here! This flesh is only flesh!"

Lupin's wand dropped out of his hand and onto the soft grass by his feet. Pettigrew took the opportunity to pick it up, holding it between his stubby fingers.

Harry raised his wand at him. "Expelliarmus!"

The wand flew from Pettigrew's grip, but that didn't seem to matter to him. While everyone was distracted, he transfigured himself back into his rat form. Harry started after him, but Eva held him back before he did anything he regretted. The filthy rodent ran into the distance once more.

Lupin's transformation continued while he howled in pain. Sirius was thrown off the face of the hill and into the distance. Now, where Eva's teacher once stood, a wolf standing on its two hind legs remained.

"C-come on, let's go," Ron urged as he hopped backwards a few steps.

"Wait," Hermione grabbed Ron's arm, "wait."

"Hermione, now's not the time to be chatting with killer wolves, you know," Eva hissed.

Ignoring her, Hermione edged closer to the whimpering wolf slowly. "Professor?" she asked. "Professor Lupin?"

Suddenly, the wolf threw his head back and howled. Hermione gasped and took a step back. Eva grabbed her friend by the hood of her hoodie and pulled her to her side before she could get herself killed.

"Nice doggy, nice doggy," Ron whined.

Snape appeared from the tunnel underneath the tree, just in time, but apparently not for preferred reasons. "There you are, Potter!" he sneered.

The wolf suddenly roared once more, causing Snape to turn around. Once he saw Lupin in his werewolf form, he stepped in front of the group, shielding them behind him.

The wolf swiped his claws at them, causing the group to collapse to the side. It took Eva a moment to properly notice that it was actually Snape who was on top of her, restricting her oxygen supply.

"Why does everyone always choose to flatten the smallest person here?" she choked out.

Without saying anything, not even as much as an apology, Snape moved off of her, allowing her to roll sideways and regain her breath.

Out of the corner of her eye, a large black dog appeared, more specifically Sirius in dog form. He jumped at the werewolf and, while the pair of mutts fought each other, the others stood up and Snape continued to shield them behind him.

That was when Eva's vision began to blur at the edges. The voices around her became less distinct, and there was a strange lightness in her head.

"I feel . . . I feel faint, I . . ." she muttered.

And that was the last thing she said before everything cut to black.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Hahah, I really loved writing Eva being confused and beating up Pettigrew in this, it just seemed fitting for her personality lmao

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!