Chapter Five: Trapped
Harry returned to his bed, shaken and pale. However, as soon as Harry's head hit the pillow, he passed into a deep sleep. Before he knew it, he was dreaming...
*** Harry found himself in the middle of the grounds at Hogwarts. He could see the Whomping Willow not too far off, moving its branches, but there was no wind. Harry realized he was sitting on a swing, so it was only natural to begin swinging.
He looked to his left and saw Sirius swinging merrily next to him. Next to Sirius, Harry couldn't see perfectly but it was Remus Lupin, Harry's favorite DADA teacher and best friend of Sirius. He too was sitting on a swing and drinking from a mug. Beyond him, someone else sat on a swing, someone with black hair.
"Harry? What do you think of the weather?" Lupin asked.
Harry looked at the sky. The large puffy clouds moved to the west slowly and lazily. He noticed that the clouds even formed recognizable shapes. One looked like a dragon, another looked like a castle.
"Isn't the sky fascinating? It's like it's alive...watching over us..." said a voice.
"I can't see..." interrupted another, more cold and chilling voice.
Harry turned to his right to see Madam Margerite in her glowing white robes. Her purple eyes were gazing into the sky and she was sitting on an unmoving swing. "' I can't seem to find-"
"Did you lose something?" Lupin asked sipping from his mug.
"I seem to have misplaced Sirius Black. I can't find him anywhere. Harry...tell me where he is."
"He's right here, next to me." Harry answered without hesitation.
"Is he? He must be hiding because I don't see him." Margerite said to him, never letting her gaze leave the sky.
"You're just not looking in the right place." Lupin smiled.
"Maybe. But I know Harry will show me. And if not him, then Hermione will."
"I told you, he's right here." Harry said looking to Sirius who continued to swing with a large grin across his face.
"Harry, how could you betray your godfather so quickly?" said a rather shocked voice.
"Betray?" Harry asked as he stopped swinging.
Suddenly everything became fuzzy and started going black.
"Sirius, where are you?" Harry called, spinning around as his dream faded. "Tell me where you are!" He called again. "SIRIUS!" He yelled as he jolted awake. ***
He looked about his empty room, trying to catch his breath. Warm yellow light streamed through the window along with the sound of chirping birds. He had little idea what time it was. It felt to him like it was late morning...
"Hogsmeade!" He gasped, jumping out of his bed.
Harry had told Sirius that he would be waiting for him at the shrieking shack. If Sirius was still in the area, he would be putting himself in great personal risk to see Harry. If anything happened, he would never forgive himself.
He dressed quickly and gave the Gryffindor portrait hole a hard shove open, ("Be careful! Are you trying to knock me off the wall?!?" Yelled the fat lady.) He bolted down the hallways and into the Great Hall. It was empty and showed no sign of anyone being in there recently. Harry feared the worst as he threw open a large oak door to the outside of Hogwarts. To his surprise, Hermione was sitting on the stone steps, alone.
"Hermione? What time is it? Is everyone at Hogsmeade" He asked frantically running to her side.
She did not answer.
"Hermione?" He kneeled down in front of her. He could not see her face, it was buried in her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs.
He put his hands on her shoulders as she lifted her head up to look at him. Her eyes were bright red and tears streaked her rosy cheeks.
"What's wrong? What's happened?" He asked, gripping her tighter.
"It's still early." She squeaked. "The students just left. If you run, you'll catch up." She sniffed as she wiped away her tears.
"That's great! But what's wrong?"
"Oh Harry!" She burst out into sobs again. "It's all my fault!"
Harry felt his heart skip a beat. "Tell me, what did you do?"
"I tried Harry. Really, I did. But she was waiting for me. She was there and I couldn't get away."
"Who?"
"Madam Margerite. She said she wanted to talk briefly. She said, if I didn't, failure to cooperate with Azkaban authorities would mean I'd be brought before the Ministry of Magic and face charges on suspicion of consorting with the accused, or something like that." Hermione trailed off.
"But she can't do that!"
"She said it would be out of her hands so...I talked."
"About?"
Everything!" She began sobbing loudly.
"You didn't!"
"I couldn't help it! I tried to lie but she knew. She twisted my words around until I got caught in my own lies. I don't know how she did it. She just kept asking questions. Before I could stop myself, I had told her everything." She grabbed his arm and gave him a look of utter sorrow. " I told her everything."
Harry's jaw dropped as he felt his heart break in two. In the next few moments, he saw very little. He was running down the path to Hogsmeade as fast as his legs could carry him. The sound of laughing and talking grew louder in front of him as he approached the group of students headed towards the town.
"Harry! Harry, wait!" He turned to see Hermione sprinting towards him. "You can't just go rushing into this." She said, trying to catch her breath.
"It's too late for plans. I've got to warn Sirius now!" He whispered hoarsely.
"Yes, go do that but what if Margerite sees you and follows you?" She moved in closer and spoke in a low whisper. "You could lead her right to Sirius. So, I'll find Madam Margerite and distract her for as long as I can. I'll try my best to get her to talk in the Three Broomsticks. While we're there, you find Sirius. Now you'll have to go around the outside of the town to avoid being seen by anyone so don't leave the shrieking shack till you see Margerite and I enter the bar." With that, Hermione gave him a shove to get going while she left to look for Margerite.
Harry nodded to her then began running blindly through the back streets of Hogsmeade. He reached the shrieking shack and scanned the open area. There was no sign of Sirius. Harry could only hope that Sirius had not received the letter or was already gone.
Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. From that moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion. He turned to see a large black dog barking quietly at him from an alleyway. It was unmistakably Sirius, but he didn't move. Harry felt faint from his shallow breathing but he didn't move from the spot. He noticed Hermione and then Madam Margerite move away from the crowd and into the Three Broomsticks. Though he could see her clearly, Hermione did not dare even glance in his direction. When the door closed behind them, everything changed back to moving at normal speed again. Harry cautiously moved toward the dog. It turned and began trotting away. Harry followed.
Harry felt like he was being led through a maze of buildings as the dog took turn after turn through the dark byways of Hogsmeade. He even began to doubt this was even Sirius, just some dog that was wandering through the streets. Finally, it stopped in front of a row of connected homes. Everything looked very simple and nothing seemed to stand out. It was dark with the way the walls towered over the narrow path but Harry noticed a wood door that we would have missed had the dog not stopped in front of it.
He raised a nervous fist after glancing around for anyone who might be watching him. He rapped quietly and listened intensely for the sound of anyone inside. The door immediately swung open and the dog slipped in. Harry too quickly entered and the door was shut quietly and locked. Remus double-checked the door, to make sure it was shut and took a seat at a small table. He tapped his wand against a candle, which not only lit that one, but all the tiny candles that sat about the room. Harry adjusted to the low light and got a good look around.
It was a small house but cozy, minus the fact that it lacked much furniture other then a table and two chairs. A large fireplace took up the wall to Harry's left and it looked like it was scarcely used as large cobwebs hung from it. It was stuffy and the room smelled funny but it felt more like a home to Harry then the Dursley's house ever did.
The black dog changed into Sirius who took a seat on the floor in front of fireplace and motioned for Harry to sit in the empty chair.
"I got your note. Too bad I was too late." Sirius sighed.
"You have no idea." Harry said. "It gets even worse. Madam Margerite tracked down Hermione this morning. Hermione told her everything. She knows you're here and you have to leave right now. Hermione is distracting Margerite up town. But I don't know how long she'll be able to hold her off. You both have to leave."
Both Sirius and Remus remained quiet as they thought. They gave each other a look and nodded in silent agreement.
"I'll leave and send word if I find somewhere safe. Remus, are you sure?" Sirius said, rising and walking over to the table.
"Yes. I'll stay and keep watch."
"Keep watch of what? You both have to leave." Harry said with a hint of confusment.
"Harry, there's a reason why we are still here." Remus began. "Do you know there have been sightings of Sirius? It's been all over the papers."
"Yes."
"What they don't know is that bodies have been found." Sirius added.
"I don't understand." Harry gulped.
"It wasn't Sirius who was spotted. It was Wormtail, you know Peter Pettigrew. We don't know why he's been skulking around Hogsmeade but whatever the reason, it isn't save for you Harry. That's why we've stayed for as long as we have. And that's why I'm not leaving." Remus took a sip from a cracked coffee mug before continuing. "Actually I was prepared if something like this happened."
Remus stood and began pacing in front of the fireplace. He stopped after a couple moments and turned to Sirius. "You best be off now. Take Harry and leave out the back door-"
Suddenly, a loud bang on the door made the three of them freeze.
"Open up! This is Margerite Adler from the Azkaban Authorities. Open up immediately or I will be forced to break open the door." She yelled forcefully.
The sound of her voice sent such a violent shiver up Harry's spine, he though he was going to collapse on the spot. Luckily Sirius had grabbed him from behind and got him moving. Remus motioned for them to go as he opened a cupboard door and began rummaging through it.
Sirius pulled Harry through another room and too a small magically locked door. He took Harry's wand and tapped it three times. The door opened silently and they slipped out into the daylight. Just as Sirius closed the back door, they heard a loud bang. The front door must have been blown open. Sirius motioned for Harry to go one way while he would go another. He gave Harry a final pat on the shoulder before running out of sight.
Harry made his way through the twisting labyrinth of houses, trying his best to find a way out. Seconds ticked by as he ran into dead end after dead end. Suddenly, he heard a scream. Then another. Before he knew it, there was an uproar all around him. He followed the sound to the main street of Hogsmeade. There was a crowd circling an alleyway not too far from the shrieking shack. A hand grabbed his shoulder and he spun around to see it was Hermione.
"Harry what happened? I was trying to get her to talk in a back room but she noticed you out the window. I couldn't hold her for long. She followed you and then I lost her...did you warn Sirius? Is he safe?" Hermione trailed off as she and Harry watched as the crowd split.
A limp body, floating in the air, tied at the hands and feet came from the alleyway, followed closely by Margerite, holding her wand up and directing the person.
Hermione let out a squeak that was really intended as a scream but was caught in her throat. The floating body was indeed Sirius.
A/N Hey! How's everyone doing? I just wanted to say that after chapter five, there might be a long wait before I post the next chapter. I'm going back to school and so I won't have anytime during the following week to write anything. Sorry to do this at such an important part in the story but it can't be helped.
One thing I forget to mention was that when someone's having a dream I put *** before and after the sequence. I should have mentioned it earlier, I didn't want to confuse anyone!
Ok finally, I just wanted to thank everyone who left reviews! Your comments are really appreciated and very helpful. Thanks a lot!!
Harry returned to his bed, shaken and pale. However, as soon as Harry's head hit the pillow, he passed into a deep sleep. Before he knew it, he was dreaming...
*** Harry found himself in the middle of the grounds at Hogwarts. He could see the Whomping Willow not too far off, moving its branches, but there was no wind. Harry realized he was sitting on a swing, so it was only natural to begin swinging.
He looked to his left and saw Sirius swinging merrily next to him. Next to Sirius, Harry couldn't see perfectly but it was Remus Lupin, Harry's favorite DADA teacher and best friend of Sirius. He too was sitting on a swing and drinking from a mug. Beyond him, someone else sat on a swing, someone with black hair.
"Harry? What do you think of the weather?" Lupin asked.
Harry looked at the sky. The large puffy clouds moved to the west slowly and lazily. He noticed that the clouds even formed recognizable shapes. One looked like a dragon, another looked like a castle.
"Isn't the sky fascinating? It's like it's alive...watching over us..." said a voice.
"I can't see..." interrupted another, more cold and chilling voice.
Harry turned to his right to see Madam Margerite in her glowing white robes. Her purple eyes were gazing into the sky and she was sitting on an unmoving swing. "' I can't seem to find-"
"Did you lose something?" Lupin asked sipping from his mug.
"I seem to have misplaced Sirius Black. I can't find him anywhere. Harry...tell me where he is."
"He's right here, next to me." Harry answered without hesitation.
"Is he? He must be hiding because I don't see him." Margerite said to him, never letting her gaze leave the sky.
"You're just not looking in the right place." Lupin smiled.
"Maybe. But I know Harry will show me. And if not him, then Hermione will."
"I told you, he's right here." Harry said looking to Sirius who continued to swing with a large grin across his face.
"Harry, how could you betray your godfather so quickly?" said a rather shocked voice.
"Betray?" Harry asked as he stopped swinging.
Suddenly everything became fuzzy and started going black.
"Sirius, where are you?" Harry called, spinning around as his dream faded. "Tell me where you are!" He called again. "SIRIUS!" He yelled as he jolted awake. ***
He looked about his empty room, trying to catch his breath. Warm yellow light streamed through the window along with the sound of chirping birds. He had little idea what time it was. It felt to him like it was late morning...
"Hogsmeade!" He gasped, jumping out of his bed.
Harry had told Sirius that he would be waiting for him at the shrieking shack. If Sirius was still in the area, he would be putting himself in great personal risk to see Harry. If anything happened, he would never forgive himself.
He dressed quickly and gave the Gryffindor portrait hole a hard shove open, ("Be careful! Are you trying to knock me off the wall?!?" Yelled the fat lady.) He bolted down the hallways and into the Great Hall. It was empty and showed no sign of anyone being in there recently. Harry feared the worst as he threw open a large oak door to the outside of Hogwarts. To his surprise, Hermione was sitting on the stone steps, alone.
"Hermione? What time is it? Is everyone at Hogsmeade" He asked frantically running to her side.
She did not answer.
"Hermione?" He kneeled down in front of her. He could not see her face, it was buried in her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs.
He put his hands on her shoulders as she lifted her head up to look at him. Her eyes were bright red and tears streaked her rosy cheeks.
"What's wrong? What's happened?" He asked, gripping her tighter.
"It's still early." She squeaked. "The students just left. If you run, you'll catch up." She sniffed as she wiped away her tears.
"That's great! But what's wrong?"
"Oh Harry!" She burst out into sobs again. "It's all my fault!"
Harry felt his heart skip a beat. "Tell me, what did you do?"
"I tried Harry. Really, I did. But she was waiting for me. She was there and I couldn't get away."
"Who?"
"Madam Margerite. She said she wanted to talk briefly. She said, if I didn't, failure to cooperate with Azkaban authorities would mean I'd be brought before the Ministry of Magic and face charges on suspicion of consorting with the accused, or something like that." Hermione trailed off.
"But she can't do that!"
"She said it would be out of her hands so...I talked."
"About?"
Everything!" She began sobbing loudly.
"You didn't!"
"I couldn't help it! I tried to lie but she knew. She twisted my words around until I got caught in my own lies. I don't know how she did it. She just kept asking questions. Before I could stop myself, I had told her everything." She grabbed his arm and gave him a look of utter sorrow. " I told her everything."
Harry's jaw dropped as he felt his heart break in two. In the next few moments, he saw very little. He was running down the path to Hogsmeade as fast as his legs could carry him. The sound of laughing and talking grew louder in front of him as he approached the group of students headed towards the town.
"Harry! Harry, wait!" He turned to see Hermione sprinting towards him. "You can't just go rushing into this." She said, trying to catch her breath.
"It's too late for plans. I've got to warn Sirius now!" He whispered hoarsely.
"Yes, go do that but what if Margerite sees you and follows you?" She moved in closer and spoke in a low whisper. "You could lead her right to Sirius. So, I'll find Madam Margerite and distract her for as long as I can. I'll try my best to get her to talk in the Three Broomsticks. While we're there, you find Sirius. Now you'll have to go around the outside of the town to avoid being seen by anyone so don't leave the shrieking shack till you see Margerite and I enter the bar." With that, Hermione gave him a shove to get going while she left to look for Margerite.
Harry nodded to her then began running blindly through the back streets of Hogsmeade. He reached the shrieking shack and scanned the open area. There was no sign of Sirius. Harry could only hope that Sirius had not received the letter or was already gone.
Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. From that moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion. He turned to see a large black dog barking quietly at him from an alleyway. It was unmistakably Sirius, but he didn't move. Harry felt faint from his shallow breathing but he didn't move from the spot. He noticed Hermione and then Madam Margerite move away from the crowd and into the Three Broomsticks. Though he could see her clearly, Hermione did not dare even glance in his direction. When the door closed behind them, everything changed back to moving at normal speed again. Harry cautiously moved toward the dog. It turned and began trotting away. Harry followed.
Harry felt like he was being led through a maze of buildings as the dog took turn after turn through the dark byways of Hogsmeade. He even began to doubt this was even Sirius, just some dog that was wandering through the streets. Finally, it stopped in front of a row of connected homes. Everything looked very simple and nothing seemed to stand out. It was dark with the way the walls towered over the narrow path but Harry noticed a wood door that we would have missed had the dog not stopped in front of it.
He raised a nervous fist after glancing around for anyone who might be watching him. He rapped quietly and listened intensely for the sound of anyone inside. The door immediately swung open and the dog slipped in. Harry too quickly entered and the door was shut quietly and locked. Remus double-checked the door, to make sure it was shut and took a seat at a small table. He tapped his wand against a candle, which not only lit that one, but all the tiny candles that sat about the room. Harry adjusted to the low light and got a good look around.
It was a small house but cozy, minus the fact that it lacked much furniture other then a table and two chairs. A large fireplace took up the wall to Harry's left and it looked like it was scarcely used as large cobwebs hung from it. It was stuffy and the room smelled funny but it felt more like a home to Harry then the Dursley's house ever did.
The black dog changed into Sirius who took a seat on the floor in front of fireplace and motioned for Harry to sit in the empty chair.
"I got your note. Too bad I was too late." Sirius sighed.
"You have no idea." Harry said. "It gets even worse. Madam Margerite tracked down Hermione this morning. Hermione told her everything. She knows you're here and you have to leave right now. Hermione is distracting Margerite up town. But I don't know how long she'll be able to hold her off. You both have to leave."
Both Sirius and Remus remained quiet as they thought. They gave each other a look and nodded in silent agreement.
"I'll leave and send word if I find somewhere safe. Remus, are you sure?" Sirius said, rising and walking over to the table.
"Yes. I'll stay and keep watch."
"Keep watch of what? You both have to leave." Harry said with a hint of confusment.
"Harry, there's a reason why we are still here." Remus began. "Do you know there have been sightings of Sirius? It's been all over the papers."
"Yes."
"What they don't know is that bodies have been found." Sirius added.
"I don't understand." Harry gulped.
"It wasn't Sirius who was spotted. It was Wormtail, you know Peter Pettigrew. We don't know why he's been skulking around Hogsmeade but whatever the reason, it isn't save for you Harry. That's why we've stayed for as long as we have. And that's why I'm not leaving." Remus took a sip from a cracked coffee mug before continuing. "Actually I was prepared if something like this happened."
Remus stood and began pacing in front of the fireplace. He stopped after a couple moments and turned to Sirius. "You best be off now. Take Harry and leave out the back door-"
Suddenly, a loud bang on the door made the three of them freeze.
"Open up! This is Margerite Adler from the Azkaban Authorities. Open up immediately or I will be forced to break open the door." She yelled forcefully.
The sound of her voice sent such a violent shiver up Harry's spine, he though he was going to collapse on the spot. Luckily Sirius had grabbed him from behind and got him moving. Remus motioned for them to go as he opened a cupboard door and began rummaging through it.
Sirius pulled Harry through another room and too a small magically locked door. He took Harry's wand and tapped it three times. The door opened silently and they slipped out into the daylight. Just as Sirius closed the back door, they heard a loud bang. The front door must have been blown open. Sirius motioned for Harry to go one way while he would go another. He gave Harry a final pat on the shoulder before running out of sight.
Harry made his way through the twisting labyrinth of houses, trying his best to find a way out. Seconds ticked by as he ran into dead end after dead end. Suddenly, he heard a scream. Then another. Before he knew it, there was an uproar all around him. He followed the sound to the main street of Hogsmeade. There was a crowd circling an alleyway not too far from the shrieking shack. A hand grabbed his shoulder and he spun around to see it was Hermione.
"Harry what happened? I was trying to get her to talk in a back room but she noticed you out the window. I couldn't hold her for long. She followed you and then I lost her...did you warn Sirius? Is he safe?" Hermione trailed off as she and Harry watched as the crowd split.
A limp body, floating in the air, tied at the hands and feet came from the alleyway, followed closely by Margerite, holding her wand up and directing the person.
Hermione let out a squeak that was really intended as a scream but was caught in her throat. The floating body was indeed Sirius.
A/N Hey! How's everyone doing? I just wanted to say that after chapter five, there might be a long wait before I post the next chapter. I'm going back to school and so I won't have anytime during the following week to write anything. Sorry to do this at such an important part in the story but it can't be helped.
One thing I forget to mention was that when someone's having a dream I put *** before and after the sequence. I should have mentioned it earlier, I didn't want to confuse anyone!
Ok finally, I just wanted to thank everyone who left reviews! Your comments are really appreciated and very helpful. Thanks a lot!!