CHAPTER 14 – AS HANSEL AND GRETEL

Sirius's conscience faded in very slowly. A roaring and moving substance reached his neck, and he sometimes felt something pinching him. He could hear noises and smell something disgusting and sour.

Rats. Sirius opened his eyes and realized he was drowning in some sort of pool that was full of rats. The rats' weight prevented him from moving. He wasn't at the circular chamber anymore, but in a large, damp place that was illuminated by a weird reddish light. It was a large subterranean cave, as high as a cathedral.

He heard a disgusting sort of laughter and saw Wormtail's shot and broad shadow, motionless at the edge of the hole.

"Whoa, isn't it arrogant Mr. Sirius Unpleasant Black who fell into my trap for the second time?"

"Peter... you're so different from the last time I saw you. If it's coming correctly back to my mind, you begged me not to kill you, then."

"And things change, don't they, Sirius? The saddest thing is that you're gonna die as a turncoat. Not redeemed, dirty, forgotten and hated as an idle dog. Isn't it ironic? I, vile, mediocre Wormtail, am alive and own a repute that I don't deserve.... you, who was always so noble and full of admirers all over Hogwarts, is considered as loathsome as the worst of the murderers."

"When I get out of here," said Sirius, "I won't repeat my mistakes... I hope your corpse will be enough to show everybody who the scoundrel were... to top it all off having this mark and this new arm. Is this a gift from your master?"

"My master honours those who are loyal to him. Where is your dear mentor?"

"Wormtail, I'd like to know... all these pomp isn't here just because of me, aren't I right? You have never been worried about it, you were always way much more worried about running away from me..."

"Actually, what matters," said Wormtail, "are those little friends of mine who are keeping you company. They're the key."

"You look so happy between your peers."

"Sirius, those rats you despise are going to destroy London."

"What?" asked Sirius mockingly, "Are they going to nibble at it until it falls?"

"It's taken me a year to improve a perfect plague to kill Muggles. And I've put it on these rats. Each one of them is able to suck the vital energy of ten Muggles... I'll slacken them in London as soon as I get rid of you and I'll summon my master to see the destruction I'm going to arouse... but before it all, I'll catch Harry Potter. Pity you won't be here to see it, Sirius..."

"I always thought Voldemort was the most insane guy ever and now I see you're worse than him..."

"In some hours when my rats have sucked all your energy, your irony will no longer exist, Sirius."

"I don't feel anything, you asshole. There must be something wrong about your rats."

"Since wizards' energy are different from Muggles', the rats take more time to kill them. I shall give them a helping hand... Cru..." Wormtail couldn't finish the word, for a large white shape emerged from the shadows and jumped onto him. Before he could even think of how it could have happened, the paw of an enormous Siberian tiger was against his throat.

The tiger turned into Sheeba, who was making pressure against his throat. In her right hand, her wand was just above Wormtail's chest, right on his heart.

"Oh, Wormtail, you don't have a clue of how is it good to seize your neck and be aware that you have a Dementor's Kiss in your destiny..."

"Er... Sheeba..." he gulped, "get off me, I didn't mean to..."

"Oh, yeah, you meant it... you always wanted to screw up Sirius's life, didn't you? Jealous were you, as you always were jealous of James too, eh? You were jealous even of Remus... you would give anything to change places with him, be a werewolf, wouldn't you? You always wanted any kind of power, even if it was a curse."

"Sheeba, be merciful, please."

"How do I get Sirius out of that place?"

"Be calm, I'll tell you."

At this very moment, Sirius, who had been laughing until then, saw a hooded shape getting closer to Sheeba's back. It was the other Death Eater.

"Sheeba, look behind you!"

There wasn't enough time. Before Sheeba could do anything, the Death Eater disarmed her and took off his mask, revealing his face.

The face of Severus Snape.



**



Harry, Ron and Hermione saw lights in the horizon. It was really cold up there. Ron felt reluctantly excited with the sensation of his body rubbing against Hermione's... Hermione, however, was trying not to take cognizance of the times she felt the shivers when Ron's breath lightly heated up her neck... Harry, who was in the driver's place, couldn't think of anything for much time... it had happened some times before... he was fighting against the idea of something bad happening to Cho Chang. He was afraid she was in much danger.

The motorcycle was getting closer to London really quickly. The thought of getting in trouble if Muggle people saw them using the Dogtorcycle popped into Harry's mind and, with Hermione's help, he covered what could be covered with his Invisibility Cloak. It didn't get all hidden, but it was better than nothing. They passed before the Big Ben and could see what time it was: ten o'clock in the evening.

"Right, can you smell Sirius?" Harry asked the vehicle.

The motorcycle roared in response and dove, making Hermione close her eyes firmly and grasp Ron's arm, which passed past her waist until getting to Harry, tightly. Nothing prepared them to what came next: the motorcycle landed on a crowded street and sped up, running between the cars as a bullet, but it seemed they turned aside as it passed. Harry had already seen it somewhere else. Oh, yeah, it was like being at the Knightbus, but even faster. Deja vù again.

The Dogtorcycle entered a subway station, apparently not caring that the stairs didn't fit motorcycles (7 feet motorcycles, no way)... they got surprised that nothing happened to the vehicle; everything just turned aside. "This definitely won't come out well," said a terrified Ron Weasley as the motorcycle entered a tunnel.

But the Dogtorcycle uplifted and started rolling on just a wheel, for its passengers'despair; they were screaming, really afraid. When they could see lights in the end of the tunnel, their screams got even louder and sounded more terrified, and the fact that a moment before it would be impossible not to clash against the subway, the motorcycle entered a lateral tunnel that sprung up as it in magic, didn't make them feel much better, it continued rolling even faster until it skidded into a crumbling in the wall. The three of them fell onto the floor. Hermione fainted. Ron leaned out onto her, and she muttered, "I'm okay, but I think I'm going to throw up."

"Only you?" said Ron, "Guess what Harry's doing this very moment?"

After some minutes, they stood up and looked at the Dogtorcycle, who sped up and perished various times.

"Okay then, you mongrel," said Ron, "You brought us to a blind alley."

"It's not a blind alley," Hermione replied, "I saw Sheeba coming here, in the Eye of the Tiger... it's a barrier as Platform 9 ¾... after that, the image faded away."

"So let's get in here now," said Harry as he ran towards the barrier and passed through it. Ron and Hermione did the same right next him.

Hermione noticed that her own Eye of the Tiger also turned off on its own. When they got right in front of a door, there was a message: Follow the Instructions.

"Sheeba left this note, I guess," said Harry, "she probably knew we would come for them."

They went downstairs and find similar notes that had things such as Impedimenta written on them, and they repeated them and disarmed hexes that they sometimes they hadn't even seen. They got to the place with the two corridors very quickly. There was a note, in which:

"FIRST GO RIGHT – ACT UNAFFECTEDLY INSIDE THE GREEN DOOR AND GET OUT BY THE CLOSET'S DOOR"

"Great," said Ron cheerfully, "She left us instructions."

"As it in Hansel and Gretel's story," said Harry, grinning.

"What story?"

"Never mind," said Harry, as he remembered that in Hansel and Gretel, the witch was evil.

They got into the green door and there was a Muggle man cleaning the room.

"Hey, you're going to ruin my cleaning! Isn't it enough that a madman left a bomb here this afternoon?"

"It's all right," said Harry, "We just want to get into the closet."

The man watched as they got into the closet and shook his head, "Hey, you cannot enter..." and he opened the door and realised the three teenagers had simply vanished.