Authors Note- Snape does wear a nightcap, and never doubt it.
This chapter was by far the toughest to write so far. Don't be fooled by
the fact the dialogue and description is mostly Rowling's, it was extremely
tough and time consuming to adapt and re-write from Sirius perspective.
Eitherway, I think it's a pretty fun little chapter, and slowly begins to
draw the story to its eventual conclusion.
Also, why is it so hard to write Remus and Sirius as non-gays when they are together? I finally have sympathy for those fluff obsessives. I think I just about pulled it off though......just. No gayness in THIS story! ______________________________________________________
Chapter VII
June 6th 1994
The boy's leg had broken as they had entered the tunnel, making him docile and easier to drag along. Sirius was fast as Padfoot, and soon reached the end, emerging into the dusty and disorderly lounge of the Shrieking Shack. He transformed, and hoisted the moaning boy over his shoulder, heading upstairs into the bedroom. He could hear Crookshanks, the cat, following from behind, and the voices of the other two children in the distance.
In an unequalled sense of triumphant confusion, Sirius threw the ginger boy to the ground next to the bed, and stepped backwards into the shadows. A moment later, Harry Potter and his female companion burst through the door and into the room. Ignoring their brief discussion, Sirius slammed the door and walked back into the light revealing himself fully, for the first time, to the small group.
Sirius, Harry, the girl, the ginger boy and Peter were alone together for the first time.
Sirius grinned delightedly. For a long while now his heart had desired this scenarios occurrence. One way or another, Peter Pettigrew was not going to survive the night.
He lifted the ginger boys wand and croaked "Expelliarmus", uttering his first wand spell in many years. His natural skill was undiminished though and the children's wands flew out of their hands, easily caught by Sirius a moment later.
He stepped forwards, even closer to Harry, staring at his scar and still grinning.
"I thought you'd come and help your friend," he spoke hoarsely. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful.....it will make everything much easier".
Sirius glanced downwards from the scar to the boy's eyes. Lily's eyes.....or a remarkably similar pair anyway. Much to Sirius' surprise, Harry suddenly lept forwards angrily, but was quickly restrained by his two colleagues.
"No Harry!" The girl whispered in his ear.
Sirius looked on bemusedly as the ginger boy staggered to his feet and addressed him.
"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us, too!"
"Lie down, you will damage that leg even more"
"Did you hear me?" The ginger boy replied accusingly. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"
Sirius raised his eyebrow curiously at this strange boy who was willing to give his life.
"There'll only be one murder here tonight." Sirius smiled weakly as he spoke. He lacked the energy to fully embrace the moment, but he knew what was coming and looked forward to it hugely.
"Why's that?" Harry bellowed whilst trying to pull himself free of his friends. "Didn't care last time did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew........what's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"
As the girl again tried to quietly calm him, Harry broke free of her restraint and lunged at Sirius. The next few seconds were a mess of fists and screams. At one point Crookshanks lept into the fray biting and scratching, but by the end Sirius found himself sprawled against the wall breathing rapidly as Harry approached him slowly, with a wand pointing directly towards his chest.
"Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered.
Sirius felt blood running down his nose as Harry stopped abruptly.
"You killed my parents". The boys voice was shaky and he was close to tears.
"I don't deny it", Sirius replied as he made eye contact, "But if you knew the whole story....."
"The whole story? You sold them to Voldemort, that's all I need to know!"
"You've got to listen to me", Sirius quickly spoke, even noticing the urgency in his own voice. "You'll regret it if you don't, you don't understand...."
"I understand a lot better than you think. You never heard her, did you? My mum.......trying to stop Voldemort killing me.....and you did that......you did it."
Reeling from the emotion in the boy's voice, Sirius barely noticed as Crookshanks ran over and leaped onto his chest. A furry barrier between the wand and his body.
"Get off", he murmured, a little annoyed at the cats interruption. Crookshanks didn't move an inch. Sirius ignored the animal entirely and turned his gaze back up towards Harry. The boy had raised his wand fully, frozen and poised to strike at any moment.
The atmosphere was broken by a new sound of barely audible footsteps, only noticeable due to the vibrations they caused in the wooden shack. Nobody moved as the footsteps became louder.
Suddenly, the girl screamed at the top of her voice, placing her hands around her mouth to echo her noise.
"WE'RE UP HERE. WE'RE UP HERE - SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!"
Sirius desperately rolled to the side, sending Crookshanks flying away. Before he could make any sort of escape though, the door flew open in a shower of red sparks and Sirius found himself staring at a scuffed pair of brown leather shoes. His gaze peered upwards from the ground to a shabby grey suit and finally the lined face of Remus Lupin, terribly aged over the last decade but looking alert and ready.
"Expelliarmus" Lupin shouted, and every wand in the room flew into his outstretched hand. Crookshanks crawled protectively back over his chest as Lupin analysed the situation from the doorway.
Then Lupin spoke, in a quiet voice filled with suppressed emotion. "Where is he, Sirius?"
Sirius stared on expressionlessly; trying to figure out what Remus was talking about. Then it hit him, Moony knew the truth. He slowly raised his hand and pointed at the ginger boy on the bed. The boy with the rat.
Everyone in the room simultaneously turned to face the boy.
Lupin meanwhile was muttering to himself incomprehensively "But then....why hasn't he shown himself before now?"
He turned and stared at Sirius as he spoke, trying to read the situation. Then, as though unexpectedly the truth had been fully revealed, his eyes widened. "Unless * he * was the one.......unless you switched......without telling me?"
Sirius nodded at Remus. His friend believed him. He didn't know whether he should feel happy or relieved or sad. His thought processes were again interrupted by a child's voice.
"Professor Lupin, what's going......"
Harry's words were ignored because Lupin was busy lowering his wand and helping Sirius to his feet. Crookshanks fell to the ground, forgotten, as the two men embraced each other like brothers. In that moment of happiness, Sirius forgot about the 12 years that had passed since their last meeting and felt his need for revenge on Peter contagiously passing over to Remus.
The children were still shouting in the background, but their voices were ignored until the girls repeated screams of "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" reached an annoyingly high volume level.
The embrace ended and Lupin turned to face the girl.
"You - you -"
"Hermione"
"- You and him!"
"Hermione, calm down-"
"I didn't tell anyone! I've been covering up for you-"
"Hermione, listen to me please! Lupin shouted pleadingly. "I can explain-"
Harry joined the argument, and began throwing an angry torrent of abuse towards Remus, much to Sirius confusion.
"I trusted you! And all the time you've been his friend!"
"You're wrong!" Lupin replied. "I haven't been Sirius's friend for twelve years, but I am now.....let me explain.
"NO!" The girl screamed, "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too - he's a werewolf!"
Silence filled the room as the realisation of this statement hit those ignorant to Lupin's dual identity. Finally, Remus himself broke the silence in his usual calm voice.
"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione, only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead.......But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."
The ginger boy attempted to sit up again, but fell backwards with a whimper of pain. Lupin made over to help him, but ceased his movement as the boy gasped "Get away from me, werewolf!" Lupin stopped dead and turned to the girl, Hermione, again.
"How long have you known?"
"Ages", she replied "Since I did Professor.Snape's essay."
"He'll be delighted. He set that essay hoping someone would realise what my symptoms meant. Did you check the lunar chart and realise that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realise that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"Both"
Lupin laughed feebly. "You're the cleverest witch of you age I've ever met, Hermione"
"I'm not," she whispered, "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"
"But they already know. At least, the staff do"
The ginger boy sat up fully this time, frowning. "Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf? Is he mad?"
"Some of the staff thought so. He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy.
Harry entered the conversation again, his words an outpouring of emotion and anger. "AND HE WAS WRONG. YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME. He pointed at Sirius, who was now leaning against the four-poster bed with Crookshanks.
"I have NOT been helping Sirius," said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look-"
Lupin handed each wand back to their stunned owners.
"There," he said coolly as he stuck his own wand back into his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"
"If you haven't been helping him," Harry spat with a furious glance towards Sirius, "how did you know he was here?"
"The map," said Lupin. "The Marauders Map. I was in my office examining it- "
"You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously.
"Of course I know how to work it," said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony - that was my friends' nickname for me at school."
Sirius smiled, remembering the more innocent days of childhood and the various adventures of the Marauders.
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"
Lupin began to pace around the room, kicking up dust with his feet.
"You might have been wearing your father's old Cloak, Harry-"
"How d'you know about the Cloak?"
"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it......the point is, even if you're wearing an invisibility Cloak you show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty Minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back towards the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."
"What," said Harry. "No, we weren't!"
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Lupin continued, "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could * he * be with you?"
"No one was with us!" said Harry.
"And then I saw another dot, moving towards you, labelled Sirius Black.....I saw him collide with you, I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow-"
"One of us!" The ginger boy just wouldn't shut up.
"No, Ron," Said Lupin. "Two of you."
Lupin stopped his incessant pacing and stared at the ginger boy, Ron.
"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" He said calmly.
Sirius couldn't help but think of the irony that Peter's animagi was a rat.
"What? What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything. Could I see him please?"
The ginger boy, Ron, hesitated, then pulled a struggling rat from his robes. The animal was thrashing around in desperation. Ron had to seize his tail in order to prevent his escape. Crookshanks and Sirius watched on as Lupin moved closer and gazed intently at the animal.
"What?" Ron said again, "What's my rat got do to with anything?"
Sirius felt compelled to help Remus unleash a decade of rage. He stood and joined the entourage around the rat.
"That's not a rat," he croaked. His mouth felt dry, he wished he could have a drink of water before engaging in his favourite personal fantasy of killing Wormtail.
"What d'you mean - of course he's a rat-"
"No he's not. He's a wizard," Lupin replied quietly.
And now time for the big reveal, Sirius thought contentedly.
"An Animagus," he sighed, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."
TO BE CONTINUED.......
Also, why is it so hard to write Remus and Sirius as non-gays when they are together? I finally have sympathy for those fluff obsessives. I think I just about pulled it off though......just. No gayness in THIS story! ______________________________________________________
Chapter VII
June 6th 1994
The boy's leg had broken as they had entered the tunnel, making him docile and easier to drag along. Sirius was fast as Padfoot, and soon reached the end, emerging into the dusty and disorderly lounge of the Shrieking Shack. He transformed, and hoisted the moaning boy over his shoulder, heading upstairs into the bedroom. He could hear Crookshanks, the cat, following from behind, and the voices of the other two children in the distance.
In an unequalled sense of triumphant confusion, Sirius threw the ginger boy to the ground next to the bed, and stepped backwards into the shadows. A moment later, Harry Potter and his female companion burst through the door and into the room. Ignoring their brief discussion, Sirius slammed the door and walked back into the light revealing himself fully, for the first time, to the small group.
Sirius, Harry, the girl, the ginger boy and Peter were alone together for the first time.
Sirius grinned delightedly. For a long while now his heart had desired this scenarios occurrence. One way or another, Peter Pettigrew was not going to survive the night.
He lifted the ginger boys wand and croaked "Expelliarmus", uttering his first wand spell in many years. His natural skill was undiminished though and the children's wands flew out of their hands, easily caught by Sirius a moment later.
He stepped forwards, even closer to Harry, staring at his scar and still grinning.
"I thought you'd come and help your friend," he spoke hoarsely. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful.....it will make everything much easier".
Sirius glanced downwards from the scar to the boy's eyes. Lily's eyes.....or a remarkably similar pair anyway. Much to Sirius' surprise, Harry suddenly lept forwards angrily, but was quickly restrained by his two colleagues.
"No Harry!" The girl whispered in his ear.
Sirius looked on bemusedly as the ginger boy staggered to his feet and addressed him.
"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us, too!"
"Lie down, you will damage that leg even more"
"Did you hear me?" The ginger boy replied accusingly. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"
Sirius raised his eyebrow curiously at this strange boy who was willing to give his life.
"There'll only be one murder here tonight." Sirius smiled weakly as he spoke. He lacked the energy to fully embrace the moment, but he knew what was coming and looked forward to it hugely.
"Why's that?" Harry bellowed whilst trying to pull himself free of his friends. "Didn't care last time did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew........what's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"
As the girl again tried to quietly calm him, Harry broke free of her restraint and lunged at Sirius. The next few seconds were a mess of fists and screams. At one point Crookshanks lept into the fray biting and scratching, but by the end Sirius found himself sprawled against the wall breathing rapidly as Harry approached him slowly, with a wand pointing directly towards his chest.
"Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered.
Sirius felt blood running down his nose as Harry stopped abruptly.
"You killed my parents". The boys voice was shaky and he was close to tears.
"I don't deny it", Sirius replied as he made eye contact, "But if you knew the whole story....."
"The whole story? You sold them to Voldemort, that's all I need to know!"
"You've got to listen to me", Sirius quickly spoke, even noticing the urgency in his own voice. "You'll regret it if you don't, you don't understand...."
"I understand a lot better than you think. You never heard her, did you? My mum.......trying to stop Voldemort killing me.....and you did that......you did it."
Reeling from the emotion in the boy's voice, Sirius barely noticed as Crookshanks ran over and leaped onto his chest. A furry barrier between the wand and his body.
"Get off", he murmured, a little annoyed at the cats interruption. Crookshanks didn't move an inch. Sirius ignored the animal entirely and turned his gaze back up towards Harry. The boy had raised his wand fully, frozen and poised to strike at any moment.
The atmosphere was broken by a new sound of barely audible footsteps, only noticeable due to the vibrations they caused in the wooden shack. Nobody moved as the footsteps became louder.
Suddenly, the girl screamed at the top of her voice, placing her hands around her mouth to echo her noise.
"WE'RE UP HERE. WE'RE UP HERE - SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!"
Sirius desperately rolled to the side, sending Crookshanks flying away. Before he could make any sort of escape though, the door flew open in a shower of red sparks and Sirius found himself staring at a scuffed pair of brown leather shoes. His gaze peered upwards from the ground to a shabby grey suit and finally the lined face of Remus Lupin, terribly aged over the last decade but looking alert and ready.
"Expelliarmus" Lupin shouted, and every wand in the room flew into his outstretched hand. Crookshanks crawled protectively back over his chest as Lupin analysed the situation from the doorway.
Then Lupin spoke, in a quiet voice filled with suppressed emotion. "Where is he, Sirius?"
Sirius stared on expressionlessly; trying to figure out what Remus was talking about. Then it hit him, Moony knew the truth. He slowly raised his hand and pointed at the ginger boy on the bed. The boy with the rat.
Everyone in the room simultaneously turned to face the boy.
Lupin meanwhile was muttering to himself incomprehensively "But then....why hasn't he shown himself before now?"
He turned and stared at Sirius as he spoke, trying to read the situation. Then, as though unexpectedly the truth had been fully revealed, his eyes widened. "Unless * he * was the one.......unless you switched......without telling me?"
Sirius nodded at Remus. His friend believed him. He didn't know whether he should feel happy or relieved or sad. His thought processes were again interrupted by a child's voice.
"Professor Lupin, what's going......"
Harry's words were ignored because Lupin was busy lowering his wand and helping Sirius to his feet. Crookshanks fell to the ground, forgotten, as the two men embraced each other like brothers. In that moment of happiness, Sirius forgot about the 12 years that had passed since their last meeting and felt his need for revenge on Peter contagiously passing over to Remus.
The children were still shouting in the background, but their voices were ignored until the girls repeated screams of "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" reached an annoyingly high volume level.
The embrace ended and Lupin turned to face the girl.
"You - you -"
"Hermione"
"- You and him!"
"Hermione, calm down-"
"I didn't tell anyone! I've been covering up for you-"
"Hermione, listen to me please! Lupin shouted pleadingly. "I can explain-"
Harry joined the argument, and began throwing an angry torrent of abuse towards Remus, much to Sirius confusion.
"I trusted you! And all the time you've been his friend!"
"You're wrong!" Lupin replied. "I haven't been Sirius's friend for twelve years, but I am now.....let me explain.
"NO!" The girl screamed, "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too - he's a werewolf!"
Silence filled the room as the realisation of this statement hit those ignorant to Lupin's dual identity. Finally, Remus himself broke the silence in his usual calm voice.
"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione, only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead.......But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."
The ginger boy attempted to sit up again, but fell backwards with a whimper of pain. Lupin made over to help him, but ceased his movement as the boy gasped "Get away from me, werewolf!" Lupin stopped dead and turned to the girl, Hermione, again.
"How long have you known?"
"Ages", she replied "Since I did Professor.Snape's essay."
"He'll be delighted. He set that essay hoping someone would realise what my symptoms meant. Did you check the lunar chart and realise that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realise that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"Both"
Lupin laughed feebly. "You're the cleverest witch of you age I've ever met, Hermione"
"I'm not," she whispered, "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"
"But they already know. At least, the staff do"
The ginger boy sat up fully this time, frowning. "Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf? Is he mad?"
"Some of the staff thought so. He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy.
Harry entered the conversation again, his words an outpouring of emotion and anger. "AND HE WAS WRONG. YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME. He pointed at Sirius, who was now leaning against the four-poster bed with Crookshanks.
"I have NOT been helping Sirius," said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look-"
Lupin handed each wand back to their stunned owners.
"There," he said coolly as he stuck his own wand back into his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"
"If you haven't been helping him," Harry spat with a furious glance towards Sirius, "how did you know he was here?"
"The map," said Lupin. "The Marauders Map. I was in my office examining it- "
"You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously.
"Of course I know how to work it," said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony - that was my friends' nickname for me at school."
Sirius smiled, remembering the more innocent days of childhood and the various adventures of the Marauders.
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"
Lupin began to pace around the room, kicking up dust with his feet.
"You might have been wearing your father's old Cloak, Harry-"
"How d'you know about the Cloak?"
"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it......the point is, even if you're wearing an invisibility Cloak you show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty Minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back towards the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."
"What," said Harry. "No, we weren't!"
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Lupin continued, "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could * he * be with you?"
"No one was with us!" said Harry.
"And then I saw another dot, moving towards you, labelled Sirius Black.....I saw him collide with you, I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow-"
"One of us!" The ginger boy just wouldn't shut up.
"No, Ron," Said Lupin. "Two of you."
Lupin stopped his incessant pacing and stared at the ginger boy, Ron.
"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" He said calmly.
Sirius couldn't help but think of the irony that Peter's animagi was a rat.
"What? What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything. Could I see him please?"
The ginger boy, Ron, hesitated, then pulled a struggling rat from his robes. The animal was thrashing around in desperation. Ron had to seize his tail in order to prevent his escape. Crookshanks and Sirius watched on as Lupin moved closer and gazed intently at the animal.
"What?" Ron said again, "What's my rat got do to with anything?"
Sirius felt compelled to help Remus unleash a decade of rage. He stood and joined the entourage around the rat.
"That's not a rat," he croaked. His mouth felt dry, he wished he could have a drink of water before engaging in his favourite personal fantasy of killing Wormtail.
"What d'you mean - of course he's a rat-"
"No he's not. He's a wizard," Lupin replied quietly.
And now time for the big reveal, Sirius thought contentedly.
"An Animagus," he sighed, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."
TO BE CONTINUED.......