Chapter nine - The Shrieking Shack

Wolf was ready to meet Remus at the Entrance Hall. He told Virginia that he was going out and she wanted to come. But Wolf thought that it was better to keep the place a secret from Virginia, as she might decide to pay him a visit during full moon night, and no one knows what would happen then. He managed to convince her not to come, and after some protests from Virginia, Wolf kissed her and left. He headed to the Entrance Hall and saw Remus waiting for him.

"Am I late?" Wolf asked.

"Only five minutes. What happened?"

"Virginia wanted to come. I had to convince her to change her mind."

"Did you tell her where we were going?"

"Of course not! I don't want her to show up there. She might get hurt you know."

"You're right. Okay, let's go now." Remus said and they walked out of the castle.

The moon was shining in the clear sky. It was almost full. Three more days and their suffering will begin. Although it lasted only one night, but both Remus and Wolf felt that it lasted a lifetime. They walked through the castle grounds until they reached the Whomping Willow.

"Stay back, or you might lose your head." Remus said. He knelt down and walked to the bottom of the tree on four. The tree started waving its branches in all directions. Wolf took a few more steps back. He now understood why had Remus told him to stay back. That tree was mad! Remus reached the spot that made the tree stop and stood up.

"Come on." He told Wolf, who followed him through the hole at the bottom of the tree.

"What is this place?" Wolf asked, as they walked through the small corridor.

"This is a secret passage that me and my friends have found when we were still students. It heads to Hogsmeade's most feared place. The Shrieking Shack."

Wolf felt goose bumps rise on his skin at the mention of the name. "Is it spooky as its name?" he asked.

"Not really. It's just an abandoned house. Professor Dumbledore kept me here during my cycles, and the people of Hogsmeade heard my howls and screams once in a month and they thought that there were ghosts living there."

"That's better to know." Wolf said.

They reached the staircase that took them inside of the abandoned house. It was messy and dusty. Cobwebs hanging everywhere, like every time one of the Marauders came to this place. It had never been cleaned.

Remus noticed strange footmarks on the dusty ground mixed with paw marks. Wolf sniffed the air and looked around, his eyes flashed yellow.

"Wolf, your eyes are yellow!" Remus said.

"Some is in here. I can smell him."

"No one comes here except for me and my friends who are now dead." Remus paused for a moment. "But wait. One of them is still alive." He looked at the paw prints but they didn't look like they belonged to a rat. They were bigger. "And Dumbledore told me that I was going to meet someone here. He didn't tell me that he was an animagus or if he had a pet."

Wolf kept sniffing the air and then looked at the stairs. "He's upstairs and he doesn't smell good."

"Let's go." Remus said and took out his wand. They climbed the stairs and Remus saw the footprints heading to a room on the far end of the dusty corridor. The moonlight made it possible for him to see through the dark corridors. They walked slowly until they reached the room. The door was slightly opened, but it was dark inside.

Remus pushed the door open and walked in. He muttered "Lumos!" and a light flashed out of the tip of his wand. Wolf growled at the sight of a strange man. But Remus stood there staring at him like he has seen a ghost. Or no, he was used to see ghosts; they were all around Hogwarts. He felt like he was hit by a stunning spell. The man stood up from his chair and smiled at him.

"This can't be true." Remus said.

"Hello Moony."

Remus couldn't believe his eyes, and couldn't believe that he has just heard the same voice. Wolf kept staring at them both, with his concentration at the stranger.

"Who are you?" Remus asked after some effort to collect himself.

"What is it Moony? Your memory has been modified or what?" the man asked, his smile turning into a concerned look.

"I asked who are you? And how dare you use the polyjuice potion to turn into my friend?!" Remus raised his wand and prepared to strike.

"Wait! Remus it's really me, Sirius!"

"LIAR!" Remus pointed his wand at him and shouted: "Stupefy!"

But Sirius was faster and he ducked away to make the red flash miss him by an inch.

"What should I do to prove it to you!" Sirius said, his voice rising.

"Sirius is dead! And you are filthy enough to claim yourself as him!" Remus raised his wand again, and before he could say his next spell, Sirius shouted:

"Accio wand!" his wand flew to him and he pointed it at Remus. "Don't make me do it Moony."

"Locomotor mortis!" Remus said.

"Protego!" Sirius replied and a shield appeared in front of him. He pointed his wand at Remus. "Petrificus totalus!"

Remus' body went rigid. He fell on the ground. Wolf stared at him and then turned to Sirius with his eyes flashing in yellow, out of anger.

"You killed him!" He growled at Sirius and jumped at him, knocking him down. Sirius struggled to get out of Wolf's tight grip on his throat.

"I… didn't… kill… him!" he said.

"I'll rip your throat out!" Wolf said, with anger rising in him.

Sirius pointed his wand at Wolf from the side and muttered: "Stupefy!"

Wolf fell to a side, stunned. Sirius got up and walked toward Remus who was lying on the floor his eyes wide opened and staring at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry Moony, I had to jinx you so you would listen." He said and knelt next to Remus. "I know that you think I'm dead. A woman… Well, Snow White came to the Department of Mysteries and brought me back to life. She said only you and Dumbledore would know about me coming back to life." He saw tears coming out of Remus' eyes. Sirius smiled. His friend finally believed him. He stood up and waved his wand at Remus. "Finite incantatem!"

Remus got up and stared at Sirius for a moment. He still couldn't believe his eyes. He was standing there face to face with his best friend who has died a couple of weeks ago.

"Remus, it's really me, you know? Who else would call you Moony?" Sirius said.

Remus thought for a moment. No one except for his closest friends knew their nicknames. Tears flowed down his cheeks and a wide smile formed on his face.

"Padfoot!" he said and they embraced. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you to mate. It's really great to be back." Sirius replied, tears forming in his eyes. But he fought them back.

Remus pulled back and looked at the stunned Wolf. "And what did you do to him?"

"Stunned him, that's all." Sirius said. "He started it. Who is he anyway?"

"A new friend. Will you please remove the spell from him now?"

"Okay." Sirius pointed his wand at Wolf. "Ennervate!"

Wolf shook his head and got up. "Cripes. What happened?" he looked around and saw Remus standing next to the stranger.

"Remus! You're alive!!" he said and jumped at Remus to give him a hug.

"Of course I'm alive Wolf. Sirius would never kill me." Remus said.

"Sirius?" Wolf asked. "Do you mean him?" he pointed his hand at Sirius.

"Yes. Wolf; let me introduce you to Sirius. My best friend." Remus said and turned to Sirius. "Padfoot, this is Wolf. He's from the Fourth Kingdom."

Sirius raised an eyebrow "The Fourth Kingdom? Oh yes! Snow White told me a little about it. It's that fairy tale place, isn't it?"

"The very same one." Remus replied.

"Actually, I was born in the Second Kingdom, but now I spend my time between the Fourth and the Tenth Kingdoms." Wolf said.

"Second? Wasn't that Little Red Riding Hood's kingdom?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. Her grand-daughter, Queen Red Riding Hood III is the ruler now."

"But I never heard about the Tenth Kingdom. Is it a new one?" Remus asked.

"Yeah. Virginia comes from there. She calls it New York." Wolf said.

"That's not a kingdom!" Sirius said in sarcasm. "That's in the United States!"

"She told me about that name, but in the nine kingdoms, New York is known as the Tenth Kingdom. We go there through the Travelling Mirror."

"And how did you get here?" Remus asked.

"Through the Mirror of Magic." Wolf replied.

"Don't tell me you use mirrors to go everywhere." Sirius said.

"Not exactly. But we use mirrors quite a lot. Just like you use wands."

"Moony! Do you know that Emi has a daughter?" Sirius said excitedly. "Snow White said that she's twenty five and she's coming here!"

"She's already at school Sirius. I brought her here." Remus said with a smile.

"How does she look like?"

"Just like her mother."

"Was she the girl with you and Harry at Hogsmeade?"

"You were out?"

"Yes, in my dog form. Now tell me, was that her?"

"Yeah, it was her."

"Blimey. She's quite a hottie."

"Sirius! How can you talk about Emi's daughter that way!" Remus said.

"I didn't say anything wrong. She is beautiful you know."

"Just stay away from her. And don't you dare think about doing something stupid!"

"Me? Doing something stupid? Since when?" They laughed at each other and Sirius patted Remus' shoulder. "I just hope that my name will be cleared soon, so I would be able to meet her."

"Yeah, I hope that too." Remus said.

Suddenly, Sirius noticed that they were standing all this time without realizing it. The only source of light in the room was the moonlight, which came inside through the door, where the window was right in front of it in the corridor.

"Hey, why don't we sit? I just realized that we were standing all this time. And we need some light." He waved his hands in the air and small candle's appeared all around the room. They could see each other's faces more clearly now. Remus noticed the tired look on Sirius' face. He has suffered too much during the time he spent behind the veil at the Death Room. It must've been worse than spending twelve years in Azkaban.

"Was that storm at the Ministry a couple days ago caused by you?" Remus asked.

"It was Snow White. She needed to cause confusion so she would bring me back." Sirius said.

"She's such a noble person." Wolf said. "She helped us save the kingdoms by giving advice to Virginia."

"She was nice. But as secretive as Dumbledore." Sirius said. "She said that I have a hard task ahead, but didn't even give me a clue about what was going to happen."

"The Kingdoms are in danger. And only Lia will be able to help." Wolf said. "That's why we're here."

"We?" Sirius asked.

"Me, Virginia, her father and Wendell." Wolf replied.

"Oh I see. And why did you two come to this place tonight?"

"It's full moon in three days and Wolf is actually a half-wolf." Remus said. "He has his own transformation on a full moon night."

"You turn into a wolf?" Sirius asked.

"Only by instincts. They get sharper, and I act like a wolf, but I don't transform completely into one." Wolf said.

"He also has a tail." Remus said.

"A tail?" Sirius was amazed. "Can you show us?"

Wolf blushed for a moment. He wasn't used to take out his tail in front of people. The only human who saw his tail was Virginia, when they were escaping from the trolls in the Third Kingdom. It was out of his pants by accident and Virginia noticed it. He allowed her to touch it, and she stroke it by the wrong way. Wolf told her that she should stroke it with the fur and not against it. On the second try she did it correctly, which made Wolf sigh in relief. He got up and pulled his tail out of his pants.

"Ahh! This feels much better." He stretched his tail and waved it to the sides.

"Blimey!" Sirius said.

"Why don't you keep it out, instead of hiding it?" Remus asked.

"People don't like wolves." Wolf replied, and Remus remembered that he wasn't a welcomed person between normal humans, too.

"Yes, I know what you mean." Remus said.

"So, Moony, how come we never knew that Emi had a daughter?" Sirius asked.

"She had charms put all around her house and Lia." Remus said.

"And how did you find out about her?"

"McGonagall's magical auto-quill."

"Oh, I see." Sirius said.

Remus told him all about what happened since the first day that he met Lia until this evening's events. Sirius was shocked.

"Voldemort really loves to leave scars on people who would survive his curse." Sirius said. "And how is Harry doing?"

"He's fine I guess. But he can't get over the fact that you're dead. He still says that it was all his fault." Remus said.

"Is he stupid or what? It wasn't his fault that Voldemort played with his brain! Tell him that it's not his fault Remus."

"That's what we all are telling him. But he never listens."

"Just like his father. Prongs never listened to anyone but himself either."

"Yeah, but he listened to you. Didn't he?" Remus said.

"Well, that was different." Sirius said. "Besides, did he notice me at Hogsmeade? I saw him looking at me for a moment and I had to hide."

"So that was you, huh?" Remus said. "Promise that you won't do such thing again."

"I won't promise something that I know I can't do." Sirius replied.

"Okay, just remember not to show yourself to anyone, alright?"

"Piece of cake." Sirius grinned.

Wolf and Remus spent the night with Sirius at the Shrieking Shack. Remus was telling Sirius about Harry and Lia, and Wolf listened carefully, joining the conversation from time to time to ask questions about the two-who-lived. Sirius on his turn, told them about the fight with Bellatrix and the veil where he spent two weeks with other dead people. But to his amazement, he hadn't met Lily or James there. They were supposed to be there if they were dead, but then, he thought that maybe only people who weren't suppose to die at a certain time were the ones who ended up there behind the veil.

All he wanted now was for his name to be cleared, so he would be able to go out freely and see Harry and Lia. Nothing would compare to have both of his best friends' children with him. He was so excited that he didn't notice how Wolf fell into sleep and Remus' eyes were closing automatically.