Arabella had never been part of a stranger group. Crookshanks led the way down the stairs; Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron went next, looking like entrants in a six-legged race. Next came Professor Snape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair as they descended, held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by Sirius. Arabella, Lyla, and Draco brought up the rear.

Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron had to turn sideways to manage it; Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. Arabella could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file. Crookshanks was still in the lead. Arabella went right after Black, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. She had the sneaking suspicion that Black was making no effort to prevent this.

"You two— you two know what this means?" Black said abruptly to the sisters as they made their slow progress along the tunnel. "Turning Pettigrew in?"

"Uh… you'll be free?" asked Lyla.

"Yes..." said Black. "But I'm also — I don't know if anyone ever told you — I'm your godfather."

"Oh, yeah, that," said Arabella. "Yes, we know that."

"Well... your parents appointed me your guardian," said Black stiffly, "on the— on the account of anything happening to them…"

Arabella waited. Did Black mean what she thought he meant?

"I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," said Black more hesitant, "I've heard that they— have been treating you well. But... well... think about it. Once my name's cleared... if you wanted a… you could, I don't know… visit me over the summer holiday…?"

Some sort of explosion took place in the pit of Arabella's stomach.

"Oh," breathed Lyla.

"Well, the thought of visiting you does sound better than seeing Aunt Marge," sighed Arabella with a small laugh.

"Who?" asked Black with a frown.

"She's daddy's sister," said Lyla with a scoff, "never really liked her, if I'm being honest…"

"Oh, but of course, you'd like to stay with them," said Black quickly. "I understand, I just thought I'd —"

"We'd love to visit you," said Arabella with a grin, "It'll be something else though… more people like us in the family, hm? I think Mum and Dad will have a field day…"

"Mhm!" chimed in Lyla. "Have you got a house, Sirius? When can we visit?"

Black turned right around to look at him; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling but Black didn't seem to care.

"You— you really want to visit me?" he said. "You m-mean it?"

"Yeah, we mean it!" said Arabella.

Black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile they'd seen upon it. The difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask.

After a moment's pause, Draco cleared her throat.

"Mr. Black," he began, "do you, um, remember my mother?"

"Course I do," chuckled the man, "I'll admit I wasn't quite close with Cissy, being the family shame and all. Why? Does she talk about me much?"

"Uh, no," said Draco apologetically. "Sorry."

Black only laughed.

"How do you know Draco's mother?" asked Arabella dubiously. "Was she at school with you as well?"

"Yes," said Lupin from the front. "Narcissa Black, as she was once called, was already within her fifth year when we began our Hogwarts journey."

"Black?" gasped Lyla. "That means— that means you two are—"

"Mhm," said Black with another true smile.

"Humph" muttered Arabella

They did not speak again until they had reached the end of the tunnel. Crookshanks darted up first; he had evidently pressed his paw to the knot on the trunk, because Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron clambered upward without any sound of savaging branches.

Black saw Snape up through the hole, then stood back for Lyla, Arabella, and Draco to pass.

The grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, they set off. Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering.

"One wrong move, Peter," said Lupin threateningly ahead. His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest.

Silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Black, his chin bumping on his chest. And then - a cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight. Snape's unconscious body collided with Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. Black froze. He flung out one arm to make the three behind him stop. Arabella could see Lupin's silhouette. He had gone completely rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.

"Oh, no!" breathed Lyla. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"

"Run," Black whispered. "Run. Now."

But Arabela couldn't run. Ron was chained to Pettigrew and Lupin. She leaped forward but Black caught him around the chest and threw him back.

"Leave it to me and RUN!"

There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin's head was lengthening, as was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws. Crookshanks's hair was on end again; he was backing away —

As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from Arabella's side. He had transformed. The enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. As the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from Ron and Pettigrew. They were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other.

Unable to move, Arabella stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. It was Lya's scream that alerted her —

Pettigrew had dived for Lupin's dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light — and Ron lay motionless on the ground. Another bang— Crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.

"Expelliarmus!" Arabella yelled, pointing her own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "Stay where you are!" she shouted, running forward.

Too late. Pettigrew had transformed. Arabella saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on Ron's outstretched arm and heard a scurrying through the grass. There was a howl and a rumbling growl; Arabella turned to see the werewolf taking flight; it was galloping into the forest—

"Sirius, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Lyla yelled.

Black was bleeding; there were gashes across his muzzle and back, but at Lyla's words he scrambled up again, and in an instant, the sound of his paws faded to silence as he pounded away across the grounds.

Arabella, Lyla, and Draco dashed over to Ron.

"What did he do to him?" Lyla whispered. Ron's eyes were only half-closed, and his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize them.

"I— I don't know..."

Draco looked desperately around. Black and Lupin were both gone... they had no one but Snape for company, still hanging, unconscious, in midair.

"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," gasped Lyla, pushing her hair out of his eyes.

"Come on, we've—"

But then, from beyond the range of their vision, they heard a yelping, a whining: a dog in pain...

"Sirius," Arabella muttered, staring into the darkness. She had a moment's indecision, but there was nothing they could do for Ron at the moment, and by the sound of it, Black was in trouble— she set off at a run, Lyla, and Draco right behind her. The yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. They pelted toward it, and Arabella, running flat out, felt the cold without realizing what it must mean -

The yelping stopped abruptly. As they reached the lakeshore, they saw why — Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.

"Nooo," he moaned. "Nooo… please… "

And then they saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them. She spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating his insides, fog starting to obscure her vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them…

"Think of something happy!" Lyla yelled.

Raising her wand, Arabella was blinking furiously to try and clear her vision, shaking her head to rid it of the faint screaming that had started inside it — She forced herself to think of Black, and only Black, and began to chant: "Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!"

Black gave a shudder, rolled over, and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death.

"Expecto patronum!" shrieked Lyla fericuky. "Expecto patronum!"

"Expecto —" Draco stammered, "expecto — expecto —"

But he couldn't do it. The Dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from them. They formed a solid wall around Arabella, Lyla, and Draco, and were getting closer…

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Arabella bellowed, trying to blot the screaming from her ears. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A thin wisp of silver escaped her wand and hovered like mist before him. At the same moment, Arabella felt Draco collapse next to her. Lyla was trembling, her breathing ragged.

"Expecto —" Lyla choked out, "expecto patronum — ex— expecto—"

They both fell to their knees together. Fog was clouding his eyes. With a huge effort, Arabella fought to remember — Sirius was innocent — innocent —

"Expecto patronum!" she gasped.

By the feeble light of their formless Patronuses, she saw a Dementor halt, very close to her. It couldn't walk through the cloud of silver mist the two had conjured. A dead, slimy hand slid out from under the cloak. It made a gesture as though to sweep the Patronus aside.

"No— no—" Lyla rasped. "He's innocent... expecto expecto patronum —"

Arabella could feel the Dementors watching, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around them. The nearest Dementor seemed to be considering her. Then it raised both its rotting hands — and lowered its hood. Where there should have been eyes, there was only thin, gray scabbed skin, stretched blankly over empty sockets. But there was a mouth... a gaping, shapeless hole, sucking the air with the sound of a death rattle.

A paralyzing terror filled Arabella so that she couldn't move or speak. Their Patronus's flickered and died. White fog was blinding her. She had to fight... she couldn't see... and in the distance, she heard the familiar screaming... she groped in the mist for Sirius, and found his arm... they weren't going to take him…

But a pair of strong, clammy hands suddenly attached themselves around Arabella's neck. They were forcing her face upward... She could feel its breath... It was going to get rid of her first... She could feel its putrid breath... Her mother was screaming in his ears... She was going to be the last thing he ever heard — And then, through the fog that was drowning him, she thought she saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter... She felt herself fall forward onto the grass... Facedown, too weak to move, sick and shaking, Arabella opened her eyes with great difficulty. The Dementor must have released her. The blinding light was illuminating the grass around him... The screaming had stopped, the cold was ebbing away…

Something was driving the Dementors back... It was circling around them... They were leaving…The air was warm again…

With every ounce of strength he could muster, Arabella raised her head a few inches and saw an animal amid the light, galloping away across the lake... Eyes blurred with sweat, she tried to make out what it was... It was as bright as a unicorn... Fighting to stay conscious, Arabella watched it canter to a halt as it reached the opposite shore. For a moment, she saw, by its brightness, somebody welcoming it back... raising their hand to pat it... someone who looked strangely familiar... but it couldn't be… She didn't understand. She couldn't think anymore. She felt the last of her strength leave her, and her head hit the ground as she fainted.

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