A New Dawn
Chapter Thirteen,
Betrayer, or Betrayed?
Serena froze to where she was kneeling at Ron's side. She stared at the man before her with wide eyes. He looked different from the last time she had seen him; the way he looked, the crazed way he was looking at Harry.
Harry stood rooted to the spot. He looked from where Black was standing, to where Serena was kneeling. She too seemed shock, but then his anger flared and he didn't give account to the fact that she was just as shocked or angry that Black was there as he, Harry, was.
Ron tried to get up, but Serena pushed him back on the bed. "Stay down, Ron. You'll hurt your leg even more." she said, looking at him.
Suddenly she felt like she was an outcast. Everybody in the room was now staring at her, making her feel rather uncomfortable.
"So," hissed Harry, turning to Serena. "So, you HAVE been in on this the whole time."
Serena, who was trying to do some fast calculating, shook her head. "No," she said, her voice coming out barely above a whisper. "No, I haven't. Harry, you've got to listen to me, I had nothing to do with this!"
"Yeah, right!" snapped Harry. "You've been planning this for a long time, I can tell. Probably from the time that he," thrusting his thumb towards Black, who was looking at the scene with furrowed brows. "broke into the Gryffindor common room."
Serena, who had now started trembling shook her head again. "You're wrong, Harry." she said, softly. "I have had nothing to do with this whatsoever. You have to believe me."
Harry did not take into account that her eyes were shining with tears, that she was trembling like a scared fox, cornered in its hole, with a riffle held up to it. He did not notice anything but how he was feeling at the moment; his whole body felt like it was on fire; white-hot anger bubbled up inside of him, and he glared at Serena with a glare full of hatred that, had she not been too shocked to move, she would have fallen back a step. "I haven't got to do anything," he hissed. "I have believed you from the start, and for what? To be lied to, to be tricked? THIS MAN BETRAYED MY PARENTS!"
"Expelliarmus!" croaked Black, pointing Ron's wand at them. "Now, young Potter, I will not have you threatening my daughter with that, and I will not have Serena retaliating."
Harry and Serena turned towards him as he took a step forward. He didn't look anything like Serena remembered him looking. "I thought you'd come and help your friend." he hoarsely said. His voice sounded like he had long since used it. Looking at Harry, he smiled a crooked smile. "Like father like son. Brave of you. I half expected you to run and tell. I'm thankful. This way it'll be a lot easier."
Harry's blood boiled and he suddenly wanted to cause Black excruciating pain for what he did to his, Harry's, parents. He wanted to cause Black the pain he caused Harry's parents, the pain he, Harry, felt every time a dementor got near him. He wanted to make Black pay for those poor Muggles he killed, and poor Peter Pettigrew.
He was about to attack when two pairs of arms wrapped around his own. He looked around and saw that Ron was now standing up and holding onto his arms and then looked at Serena, who had momentarily closed her eyes and some diamond tears fell down her cheeks. When she opened them up, she looked at Black. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to go through us first." she said slowly, not breaking eye contact with the man standing before her.
Black digested this for a moment before looking her straight in the eye. "You believed me," he croaked again. "When I came to you, you believed me. However, if you stand by your friend, whom stated rather plainly that he wanted nothing more to do with you during his ranting and raving, other than your father, whom you know had nothing to do with said friends' parents murder, I do not hold it against you."
Serena stood in a mix of emotions, looking at the ground.
Black turned to Ron. "You should lay back down; you'll hurt that leg even more."
"Did you hear her?" asked Ron, staring at Black. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"
Black looked at Ron for a moment before answering. His eyes flickered over Harry and Serena. He smiled mentally. Just like his daughter, to stick up for somebody who had, moments before, insulted her beyond repair. "There'll only be one murder here to night," he croaked, raising an eye brow.
Harry struggled against Ron and Serena, who held on tighter. "No, Harry, stop," panted Serena, from effort of holding him.
"What's wrong, Black?" spat Harry, glaring at Black. "Being around all of those dementors made you soft? But, you didn't care last time, did you? You didn't care when it was all those Muggles, or Peter Pettigrew! It didn't matter to you then!"
"Harry!" whispered Ron, sharply. "Shut up!"
Harry struggled more at this. "HE KILLED MY PARENTS!" he shouted, breaking free of Serena and Ron's grips. Harry's blood was boiling. He hated the man before him, worse than ever before, if that were possible. In his white-hot anger, Harry had forgotten all about magic- he had forgotten that he was only a thirteen year old kid, scrawny, short, with the appearance that he had been starved, whereas Black was a full-grown man at his full height. All Harry knew for certain was that he wanted to cause Black pain- he didn't care how, he didn't KNOW how, but he wanted to make Black pay for what he did. The thought that he might get hurt just as badly, or worse penetrated his agered mind only for a moment. He didn't care. He simply did not care how much pain he got in so long as Black got what he deserved.
Serena and Ron watched in horror as Harry charged at Black. However, it seemed that Black was in shock- perhaps it was the thought of Harry doing something so stupid, but Black did not raise the wands in time- Harry's left hand gripped Black's shrunken wrist, forcing the tips of the wands away as Harry did the only thing he could think of and let his other hand collide with the side of Black's face and the two of them fell, backward, into the wall.
Serena pushed Ron back on the bed just in time for him to dodge a stray stream of sparks, just to be hit herself. "Ow, oh, hot, hot, hot!" she screamed, falling down to the ground, holding her arm where the sparks had hit. It began bleeding instantly; blood poured from her fingers as she tried to stem the flow a bit. She whimpered in pain. She had not sustained an injury this bad ever and if she was being honest with herself, she didn't like it very much.
"Sere," gasped Black.
Harry felt Black's shrunken wrist twist madly, trying to get away, but he held on fast, his other hand hitting every part of Black it could find.
But, Black's free hand found Harry's throat... "No," he hissed. "I've waited too long-"
The fingers tightened, choking Harry, his glasses being knocked askew.
"No," wailed Serena, trying to stand up, but couldn't for the pain. "Stop!"
Then Serena and Ron saw Hermione's foot swing from seemingly out of nowhere. Black let go of Harry with a grunt of pain; Ron, in immeasurable pain found the strength in him to throw himself on Black's wand hand and Harry heard it clatter to the ground.
He fought free of the jumble of bodies that now surrounded Black and saw his and Serena's wands rolling across the floor.
He dived at them, but- "Argh,"
Crookshanks had jumped in and was now clawing Harry as if there was going to be no tomorrow. Harry threw the ginger cat off of him, but Crookshanks now darted toward Harry's and Serena's wands.
Harry aimed a kick at the cat while screaming, "OH, NO YOU DON'T, YOU LOUSY CAT!"
Crookshanks leapt away, hissing and spitting, but Harry paid no mind as he snatched his and Serena's wands and turned around. "Get out of the way!" he snarled at Hermione and Ron, who decided that they didn't need telling twice as they lunged out of the way as fast as they could, Hermione snatching up her's and Ron's wand that had been forgotten in the corner.
Hermione looked frightened; her lip was bleeding and she was panting heavily. She looked horror struck at Serena, who now had blood spilling over her hand down onto the floor, tears of pain streaking her face. Hermione's own eyes stung as she realized that she, Hermione, was just like Black... she had betrayed her own friend, and now she was hurt, frightened and probably friendless at the moment.
Ron had collapsed on the four poster bed that was in there; his face was pale white except for the stream of blood that was coming from just above his eye brow. He, like Hermione was also panting heavily, holding his leg and moaning in pain.
Black was sprawled at the bottom of the wall. He was breathing rather shallowly as he watched Harry come nearer, with his wand at the ready.
Harry fell short just above Black, his wand pointing straight at Black's heart, unwavering, unflinching, prepared and ready. He was really going to do this...
"Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered.
Harry looked down at him. His nose and lip was bleeding and a bruise was just starting to appear where Hermione had kicked him. He glared down at Black, hatred reflecting in his eyes. "You killed my parents," he said, his voice shaking slightly with the emotion of everything that had gone on, but his wand was unaffected by the shakiness of his voice. "And you just caused your daughter lots of pain. Is that all your good for, causing pain?"
Black's eyes flickered towards Serena, who was going pale from all the blood she was losing, which had now covered the better part of her robes and a good part of the floor, back up to Harry, with an almost pleading look. His eyes appeared sunk in from all those years in Azkaban. "I don't deny it," he replied very, very quietly, just above a whisper. "But, if you knew the whole story, the one Sere tried to tell you earlier..."
A furious pounding began in Harry's ears. "The whole story?" he repeated with a bitter little laugh. "The whole story? I'll tell you the whole story. You sold them to Voldemort. That's the whole story. That's all anybody in this room needs to know, and it's certainly all I need to know."
"You have got to listen to me," said Black, and in his voice rested a note of urgency. "I promise you'll regret it if you don't... You don't understand the whole thing..."
Harry voice shook more now than it ever had before. "I don't understand? I don't- I understand a whole lot better than you think I do." his eyes were starting to sting and he was getting mad at his show of emotion. "You never have to hear her, do you? My mum screaming in agony, protecting me from Voldemort, trying to bargain with him, to stop him from killing me. You NEVER have to hear that!"
Before either of them could say, or mutter another word, Serena slid herself over to where Black was sitting and stared up imploringly at Harry. "Harry," she began, rather calmly after having her arm gashed open and after all of the rotten things Harry said. Her eyes were watery too, and there were tears running down her cheeks. "Harry, I've stood by you for three years now, I've supported you and I've encouraged you, but now I can't do that. If you want to kill dad, than you're going to have to kill me, too."
Harry stared down at her and Black, the grip on his wand tightening, his wand arm shaking slightly now. He didn't care... Why should he care? If she was going to stand in the way, than so be it, he would have to deal with her, too.
"What are you doing?" Black asked Serena harshly, trying to push her out of the way, but she wouldn't budge.
She looked at him. "You were right earlier, dad. I should have believed you from the start, but I didn't." she said. Then, getting a determined look in her eyes, she stood up, Black's wand in hand, and pointed it at Harry with her good arm. "As I said before, Harry, you'll have to kill me to kill him."
Harry raised his wand even more, but next second it went flying, and hit Ron's broken leg. He yelped in agony as it went bouncing off.
Serena whipped towards the door and stood, momentarily shocked again. There were two people standing in the doorway; one female, one male. The male pointed his wand at Harry and hissed, "Stupifey!"
And, Harry was blasted into the wall. "That, I believe, young Potter, is our job." hissed the male.
"Harry!" moaned Serena, looking at the stunned figure of her best friend. Then she looked at the two, who were advancing on Black, who had just managed to pull himself into a sitting position.
One of the girls went over to the stunned Harry, nudged him with her foot, then trampled on his nose (AN: Yup, I did get this from the 6th book.), breaking it, leaving Harry unable to do anything, as he was still unconscious.
Serena cringed as blood started spurting out of Harry's nose as if it were a water fountain. Her eyes filled with hot tears as she glared at the girl that did it.
"We have been looking for Black for a very, very long time." hissed the male advancing on Serena, his wand pointed at her heart, just as Harry's had been on Black.
He was about to say a spell, undoubtably to stun her, or worse, but was unable to as Serena had drawn Ron's wand as fast as she could, pointed it at him and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"
And, with that, Serena's older brother, fell over with a loud THUNK.
Mina turned on Serena. "What did you do that for?" she yelled, looking at Josh's unconscious body. "We're your family, not him!"
Serena looked coldly at Mina. "You were supposed to be my sister," she said, once again barely above a whisper. "You were supposed to support me and help me through this, you said you would. I never would have believed that it was you that started spreading this about the school; I never would have believed you capable of seeing somebody suffer like that. I never would have believed you capable of destroying my life like that."
Ron looked up and gaped. "But, I thought that it was-"
"We were both wrong, Ron." said Serena, but her eyes and Ron's wand were still on Mina. "They made it look as though Hermione had spread the rumors, and stuff, and they did a good job. Then, they made Hermione make up with me, by apologizing and telling me how sorry she was, when in reality they only wanted the dirt, so to speak, on me. She was playing spy the whole time, and I fell for it, at first. Then Luna told me what might be going on, and it was then that I deducted that they had spread the story that I was Black's daughter around the school; I just couldn't do anything to prove it because I didn't have any evidence to support my case."
Mina looked at the tip of Ron's wand, which was pointed at her unshakily and looked up at her sister. "You've been watching too many detective shows," she hissed.
Serena shook her head. "No, I haven't, I've just got brains." she replied, then, upon noticing Mina's hand grab for her wand, petrified her as well. "And how they managed all of this, you ask? By communicating with my mother through the fire place in the teachers lounge. They wanted to do it undetected, and the teachers only went there every so often, so they figured it as safe a place as any to conspire against us. They never would have figured all of this out if Mummy wasn't holding their hands and telling them in the simplest instructions how to pull it off."
Serena turned to Sirius. "Mother wanted you out of the picture so that I would momentarily forget about you and go back to the way we were living before, which begs the questions why and how? After studying it out for long periods of time I finally figured it out; I figured out that it was Peter Pettigrew who had actually done the betraying and that it was not indeed you who had betrayed Lily and James, but I had yet to figure out why my parents were still in league with Pettigrew, after all, they had been Lily and James's friends, too, hadn't they?"
Just as Black was about to speak, Serena held up her hand to stop him and went to kneel over Harry, who was no longer stunned; the spell, not being a very strong one in nature, had worn off. Then she turned to Black and handed him Ron's wand. "You can help him, right?" she asked, grimacing as she noticed all the caked blood on Harry.
"Certainly," replied Black, pushing her gently out of the way. He pointed the wand at Harry's nose and muttered some spell that Serena was sure she had never heard before. Then, noting that he was still stunned, Black did the counter-curse for the spell and then Harry was able to move again. He sat up, looking around at everybody, slightly dazed and confused.
"Wha happened?" he asked, his voice slurring slightly.
Serena giggled in spite of herself. "Well, let's see, you were stunned, Mina stepped on your nose-"
"Yeah, that I knew." interrupted Harry, his hand instinctively going up to his nose.
Serena shook her head. "Then-"
But, before another word was spoken, the door to the room burst open again and in walked Professor Lupin. "Were they meant to be stunned?" he asked quickly, pointing to Josh and Mina, who were now sitting up. Then, "Expelliarmus!"
Serena nodded. Then her wand and Harry's wand flew out of their hands. So did the two Hermione were holding. Lupin caught them without a second thought, staring at Black, who had moved away from Harry and was now sitting down against the wall again. Serena went to join him. Josh and Mina were now stunned again.
Harry stood, feeling empty. He hadn't done it. The one thing he had wanted to do, he hadn't. Black was just going to be handed back to the dementors.
Noticing his look of misery, Serena scooted away from Black, who had put his arm around her, which had now dropped, she went to Harry and pulled him down to sit by her.
Harry was lost in thought and then next thing he knew he was on the ground, sitting next to Serena, who had her arm around him and was watching Lupin intently.
Lupin was staring at Black. Then, in a tense voice, he spoke. "Where is he, Sirius?"
Okay, I know this is a rather dumb place to leave off on, but I've gotta. I've gotta figure out how I'm gonna do the rest, but rest assured it's gonna be different. Anyway, R&R and tell me what you think. I'm sorry if I confused you, by the way. It'll all make sense in the next chapter or two... And, I've got my reasons for wanting you confused... Anyway, hope you liked this chappie!