We're almost at the end of book 3! Only two chapters after this one. It feels like I wrote all of this in one week straight (maybe I did—quarantine is messing with my mind hehe) and it feels so bizarre to know that we're almost at the half-way point in Rachel's story. I'm hoping to update again later this week, since I'll likely have more free time now that the new semester has started and we're still getting used to our new classes. Enough rambling, sorry for the short chapter, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 18

The Dementor's Kiss

Rachel had never been part of a stranger group. Crookshanks and Remo led the way down the stairs; Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron went next, followed by Professor Snape, who drifted along creepily and who was held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by Sirius. Harry and Hermione came after Sirius, and Rachel and Lukas brought up the rear.

Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron had to turn sideways to manage it; Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. They edged awkwardly along the tunnel in single-file. Crookshanks and Remo still led still in the lead. Harry went right after Sirius, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. Hermione went next, and Lukas pushed Rachel in front of him.

"You all right, Luke?" asked Rachel shakily, refusing to let go of Lukas' hand.

"Just shaken," Lukas said.

"All of this is crazy," Rachel breathed, and Lukas squeezed her hand.

"It's almost over, Roo," he said. "Tonight, we'll go to sleep, and then we'll have another Hogsmeade trip tomorrow, and then we'll go home and go to America. We'll get to enjoy the Californian beaches, Roo."

"I would love that right now," said Rachel.

"We can go swimming and push Jeremy in the ocean can get a kiddy pool for Alexis and build sandcastles with her, and then the wedding…"

"I'm already imagining it," said Rachel, smiling as she imagined sitting on the beach with her soon-to-be brother-in-law and her older sister and the rest of their family.

It was silent until they reached the end of the tunnel. Crookshanks and Remo darted up first; one of them had pressed his paw to the knot on the trunk, and Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron clambered upward without any sound of savaging branches.

Sirius saw Snape up through the hole, then stood back for Harry and Hermione to pass, followed by Rachel and finally Lukas. At last, all of them were out.

The grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, they set off. Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering.

"One wrong move, Peter," said Lupin threateningly ahead. His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest.

Silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Sirius, his chin bumping on his chest. And then—

A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight.

Snape collided with Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. Sirius froze. He flung out one arm to make Harry and Hermione stop, and Lukas tugged on Rachel's hand to make her stop. Together, they looked at Lupin.

Lupin had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.

"Oh, my—" Hermione gasped. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"

"Run," Sirius whispered. "Run. Now."

Rachel looked with wide eyes. Harry leapt forward to Ron but Sirius held him back.

"Leave it to me—RUN!"

There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin's head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws. Crookshanks's hair was on end again; he was backing away, Remo was hissing and spitting—

As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from their side. He had transformed. The enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. As the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from Ron and Pettigrew. They were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other—

Rachel felt faint as she watched the fight, her hands sweaty, and she only looked away when Hermione screamed.

Pettigrew had dived for Lupin's dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light—and Ron lay motionless on the ground. Another bang—Crookshanks and Remo flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap of ginger and black fur.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "Stay where you are!" Harry shouted, running forward.

Too late. Pettigrew transformed into his rat form. Rachel let go of Lukas' hand and hurried to Harry, looking frantically all over the ground for the rat.

There was a howl and a rumbling growl; Harry and Rachel turned to see the werewolf taking flight; it was galloping into the forest—

"Sirius, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Harry yelled.

Sirius was bleeding; there were gashes across his muzzle and back, but at Harry's words he scrambled up again, and in an instant, the sound of his paws faded to silence as he pounded away across the grounds.

Harry, Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas dashed over to Ron.

"What did he do to him?" Hermione whispered. Ron's eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize them.

"I don't know…" Rachel muttered as Lukas tested Ron's reflexes, to no avail.

"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said Harry. "Come—"

But then, from beyond the range of their vision, they heard a yelping, a whining: a dog in pain…

"Sirius," Harry muttered, staring into the darkness.

Harry set off at a sudden run, and Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas followed, knowing they couldn't do anything for Ron. The yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. They pelted toward it.

The yelping stopped abruptly. As they reached the lakeshore, they saw why—Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head. Rachel shivered and saw a cloud of her breath in front of her.

"Nooo," Sirius moaned. "Noooo… please…"

Rachel saw dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them.

"Hermione, Rachel, Lukas, think of something happy!" Harry yelled, raising his wand. He began to chant: "Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!"

Black gave a shudder, rolled over, and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death.

Rachel grasped around her robes for her wand and when she found it she pointed it aimlessly up at the sky.

"Expecto patronum! Hermione—Rachel—Lukas help me! Expecto patronum!"

"Expecto—" Hermione whispered beside Rachel.

Rachel tried to clear her mind and block out the cold, but she could feel nothing but a strong grip on her heart, squeezing away all her happiness.

"Expecto—" she tried, but it didn't work.

Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas couldn't do it. The dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from them. Rachel saw no way to escape…

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry yelled, the sound making Rachel flinch away. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A thin wisp of silver escaped Harry's wand and hovered like mist before them. At the same moment, Hermione collapsed. Lukas got distracted by this and went down, too, and Rachel tried her best to focus on something happy, but she couldn't do it, and at last, she felt the ground beneath her knees and she dropped her wand, and then she fainted.