Disclaimer; Nothing in this fic belongs to me, They belong to J.K Rowling. Only Jessica belongs to me, partly.
Chapter Six; the Truth, Part Two
The look of the man in front of them weren't a pretty one. A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black.
"Expelliarmus!" Jessica shouted at him and Ron's wand flew out of his hand.
"Jessica..." He said and tried take a step closer.
"No." Jessica said to him, not taking away her wand. It had hit her suddenly that he could still have been the bad guy, but mostly it was because the sight of him frightened her a little.
"Jess..." He said again. "You don't understand."
"Don't call me Jess, Sirius, you know that." She answered him angry. James was the only one who was allowed to call her Jess.
"Don't try to get her on your side." Harry suddenly said. He was standing next to her, also holding his wand out at him, like Hermione on his other side. "You killed my parents!"
Sirius's sunken eyes turned toward Harry. "I don't deny it." He said very quietly.
"Did you change secret keeper?" Jessica asked. "Is that why he's still alive?"
"What?" Harry's eyes suddenly turned toward her, he didn't understand.
But Jessica ignored him; her eyes steady on the man in front of her. "Did you?"
"Yes, but I didn't know that he were in league with Voldemort." Sirius explained. "If I'd known..."
"They need to know the whole story." Jessica continued. "I need to know..."
But at the moment came another sound. Muffled footsteps were echoing up through the floor... someone was moving downstairs.
"WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione screamed suddenly. "WE'RE UP HERE... SIRIUS BLACK... QUICK!"
The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and Harry wheeled around as Remus came hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. His eyes flickered over Ron, lying on the floor, over Hermione, cowering next to the door, to Harry and Jessica, standing there with their wands covering Sirius, and then to Sirius himself.
"Expelliarmus!" Remus shouted.
Jessica's wand flew once more out of her hand; so did Harry's and the two Hermione was holding. Remus caught them all deftly.
"No Remus, give me back!" Jessica said with such a hard and angry emphasis that her wand came lying right back to her.
Remus's eyes lingered on Jessica just for a few seconds before he walked over to where Sirius stood.
"Where is he, Sirius?" he asked.
Sirius's face was quite expressionless. For a few seconds, he didn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raised his empty hand and pointed straight at Ron.
"But then…" Remus muttered, staring at Sirius so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "… why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless" Remus's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Sirius, something none of the rest could see, "...unless he was the one… unless you switched… without telling me?"
Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Remus's face, Sirius nodded.
"Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on...? Jessica?"
His eyes turned toward Jessica, who had moved away from then, she were standing in between them, as if she didn't know which side she were on.
Remus had lowered his wand, as had Jessica, but Remus stood next to Sirius, his front toward the three teenagers.
"Hermione…"
"…you and him!"
"Hermione, calm down…"
"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you…"
"Hermione, listen to me, please" Remus shouted. "I can explain…"
Harry could feel himself shaking, not with fear, but with a fresh wave of fury.
"I trusted you," he shouted at Remus, his voice wavering, out of control, "and all the time you've been his friend!"
"You're wrong," Remus said. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now... Let me explain…"
"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, and he wants you dead too... he's a werewolf!"
There was a ringing silence. Almost everyone's eyes were now on Remus, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.
Jessica had now moved all the side with Sirius and Remus. Her eyes glued at Hermione, she couldn't believe that Hermione of all people would carry such a prejudice.
"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione." Remus said. "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." An odd shiver passed over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."
Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain. Remus made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, "Get away from me, werewolf!"
Remus stopped dead. Then, with an obvious effort, he turned to Hermione and said, "How long have you known?"
"Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay…"
"He'll be delighted," Remus said coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant… Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"Both," Hermione said quietly.
Remus forced a laugh.
"You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."
"I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"
"But they already know," Remus said. "At least, the staff does."
"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf," Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"
"Some of the staff thought so," said Remus. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy..."
"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME, YOU LIED TO ME!"
He was pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand. Crookshanks leapt up beside him and stepped onto his lap, purring. Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg.
"I have not been helping Sirius," said Remus. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look..."
He separated Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner; Harry caught his, stunned.
"There," said Remus, sticking 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 said, with a furious glance at Black, "how did you know he was here?"
"The map," Remus said. "The Marauder's 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," Remus said, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony... that was my friends' nickname for me at school."
"But wouldn't that mean...?"
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Jessica, 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?"
He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at 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…" Remus said, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still 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 toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."
"What?" Harry said. "No, we weren't!"
"Yes, we were..." Jessica told him.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Remus said, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"
"No one was with us!" Harry said.
"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black… I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Womping Willow..."
"One of us!" Ron said angrily.
"No, Ron," Remus said. "Two of you."
He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over to Ron.
"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he said evenly.
"What?" Ron said. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything," Remus said. "Could I see him, please?"
Ron hesitated, and then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise.
Jessica also saw the almost dead looking rat, he was still squealing: "let me go, let me go".
Remus moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers.
"What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"
"That's not a rat," Sirius croaked suddenly.
"What d'you mean... of course he's a rat..."
"No, he's not," Remus said quietly. "He's a wizard."
"An Animagus," Jessica said, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."
XXX (This was where I originally wanted to end last chapter... But I didn't) XXX
Angry and shocked accusations broke out from the three teenagers, saying that they were mental. And from Harry came the accusation that Sirius killed Pettigrew.
Sirius, who had been having his eyes glued at the rat found this opportunity good to try and get the rat away from Ron. But failed by getting dragged away from Ron and back to the bed by Jessica.
Both Remus and Jessica convinced him that it was best to explain before killing Pettigrew. That he owed Harry the truth.
First Hermione pointed out that Pettigrew's name had not been on the list over registered animagi. To answer that Jessica asked her if she'd seen Sirius's name on the list.
Remus ignored Jessica's comment and continued with the story, the story of how he came to Hogwarts, became friends with Sirius, James and Peter and later formed the marauders. He told them about how his three fellow marauders and Jessica had managed to make themselves animagi and could now join him around full moon. Just Jessica interrupted and said that she never joined them for that; she thought they were idiots for what they did.
Later he came into the subject of Snape and what Sirius did toward him whilst they were in school, something that set Jessica into a slight angry mood.
During the whole time had Jessica remained by Sirius's side whilst he sat on the bed, she sat next to Ron in the middle of the bedside. Ever since she had dragged Sirius back to the bed, her hand had remained with his.
It felt strange to feel his older hand in hers; his hand had always been bigger than hers, but now it was even bigger, but it made her feel safer.
Remus continued his story, he, like earlier mentioned, took up the prank that Sirius had played on Snape.
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Harry said slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"
"That's right," a cold voice sneered from the wall behind Remus.
Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing directly at Remus.
Hermione screamed. Sirius leapt to his feet, releasing Jessica's hand. Harry felt as though he'd received a huge electric shock.
"I found this at the base of the Womping Willow," Snape said, throwing the cloak aside, careful to keep this wand pointing directly at Remus's chest. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you…"
Snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did… lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."
"Severus..." Remus began, but Snape overrode him.
"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Sirius into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout..."
"Severus, you're making a mistake," Remus said urgently. "You haven't heard everything... I can explain... Sirius is not here to kill Harry..."
"Two more for Azkaban tonight," Snape said, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this… He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin… a tame werewolf..."
"You fool," Remus said softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"
BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape's wand and twisted themselves around Remus's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Sirius started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Sirius's eyes.
"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."
Sirius stopped dead. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred.
"Snape..." Jessica had walked over to Sirius.
"And Miss Potter... I think that this enough to get you kicked out of school." Snape smiled evilly at the fact.
"If that is the case... I'm taking you with me in the fall." Jessica said with confidence in her voice as she spoke. "I can tell Dumbledore what you did."
Snape's eyes flickered down to Jessica's for just a flick of a second, then back up to Sirius.
"Go ahead, that was a long time ago." Snape said, but there was a tint of fear in his voice.
"Okay then." Jessica said. "Then I can tell Harry a little secret about you and... her." Jessica finished with a slight arrogant grin on her face.
When Jessica said this Snape's eyes turned drastically down to Jessica's face, fear struck over his face. His eyes never leaving hers.
Sirius took this moment as a perfect opportunity to act, he hit Snape's wand hand away from his face, closed the gap between them and pushed Snape hard on the chest so that he stumbled backwards into the wall and dropped his wand.
Jessica raised her own wand and swung it against Snape, who instantly froze and fell forward down onto the floor.
"Oh..." Hermione said and put her hands over her mouth. "You attacked a teacher." She said in chock.
"Well, let's just say that I went momentarily insane." Jessica muttered to herself.
"What did you do to him?" Harry asked, also staring at the frozen body of Severus Snape.
"I stunned him." Jessica answered. "It's kinda nice to see that I'm not the only one who hasn't grown up during these past 17 years." She then turned around toward Remus and flickered with her wand again and the ropes disappeared from him.
"Thank you." Remus said and straightened up, rubbing his wrists where the ropes had been. "This was a very pleasant interruption."
"Speak to yourself." Sirius muttered.
"Let's continue, shall we?" Remus said and stood up.
"I'm still not sure if I believe you." Harry said, his face seemed to have gotten over the chock of seeing his teacher being stunned in front of him. Now his face seemed determinate to what he had just said.
"Well then, I think that it's time that I give you some proof." Lupin said and turned toward Ron. "You... Give me Peter, please. Now."
The next twenty minutes or so were very interesting and intense. Sirius told them the story of how he managed to break out of Azkaban and get his way to Hogwarts.
Seeing Peter filled Jessica with wrath, but at the same time it all made sense now. It made her both sad and angry that someone she had considered a friend were the reason that she didn't have a brother anymore, that she almost constantly felt empty and emotionless.
She as completely in for helping then killing him, right there on the spot, it was like she had lost her sense of ethics and sense of reason.
But Harry on the other hand were the only one thinking straight, he told them not to kill Pettigrew. To take him back up to the castle, to prove that Sirius were innocent. Why hadn't Jessica thought of that?
So, now they set back to the castle.
The first ones to come out of the tunnel were Sirius, Harry and Jessica. After them would Ron, Remus and Pettigrew come and Hermione slightly after them. Ron, Remus and Peter seemed to have trouble getting through the tunnel since they were tied together, plus that Ron had a broken leg.
Snape's unconscious body had they floated by magic back through the tunnel, now he was lying on the ground.
"You know what this means don't you?" Sirius said to Harry. "Turning Pettigrew in?"
"You'll be free." Harry answered. Over the last hour had Harry's behaviour toward Sirius improved quite a lot. Jessica smiled to herself; she knew where this conversation was going.
"Yes..." Sirius continued slowly. "And, I don't know if you know this, but... I'm your godfather."
"I knew that." Harry said, on the look of his face could Jessica see that he also knew where this was going.
"Well, your parents appointed me your guardian..." Sirius said stiffly. If anything happened to them..."
Jessica walked forward toward them; this was the appropriate time for her to interrupt.
"Sorry Sirius, but I already beat you to it..." Jessica said. "I talked to Dumbledore about it since I'm Harry's... Aunt, I do have some rights to him, since I'm over seventeen, and all that."
"When did you speak to Dumbledore about this?" Harry asked.
"About two weeks ago." Jessica answered.
"And... What did he say?" Sirius asked her eager to know.
"He still has to go to the Dursley's." Jessica muttered.
"What?" Harry interrupted chocked. "Why?"
"He didn't mention." Jessica lied. "Anyway, but you only have to stay there about two weeks... Then you'll be staying with me the rest of the summer." She smiled. "And Sirius of course, since he doesn't have anywhere else to go once he's free."
Harry also smiled. "It sounds great." This idea made him happy, even though he had to stay with the Dursleys for two weeks.
Sirius smiled too, for the first time in what seemed to be a very long time. From behind them, Ron, Remus and Pettigrew came up from under the tree.
"One wrong move, Peter," Remus said threateningly ahead. His wand pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest.
Silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Jessica, Harry and Sirius turned around toward them. And then...
A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight. Remus, Pettigrew and Ron had stopped abruptly. Both Sirius and Jessica froze on the spot, they understood better them the rest what was happening.
You could see Remus's silhouette. He 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."
But Harry couldn't run. Ron was chained to Pettigrew and Remus. He leapt forward but Jessica caught him around the chest and threw him back.
"Leave it to me... run!"
There was a terrible snarling noise. Remus'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...
As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from Harry's 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.
Jessica stood there, she tried so hard, really hard, but she seemed to be unable to transform. No! She thought to herself. She couldn't just stand here and watch Sirius get killed.
Harry stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. It was Hermione's scream that alerted him...
Pettigrew had dived for Remus'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 flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.
"Expelliarmus." Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Remus's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "Stay where you are!" Harry shouted, running forward.
Too late. Pettigrew had transformed. Harry saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on Ron's outstretched arm and heard a scurrying through the grass.
There was a howl and a rumbling growl; Harry turned to see the werewolf taking flight; it was galloping into the forest...
"Sirius, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Harry yelled.
Jessica rushed forward and took a hold of Ron, so that he wouldn't fall down on the hard ground. Ron's eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, she could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize her.
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 and Hermione dashed over to Ron and Jessica.
"What did he do to him?" Hermione whispered.
"I don't know…" Harry answered.
Jessica looked desperately around. Sirius and Remus both gone… they had no one but Snape for company, still lying, unconscious, on the ground.
"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," Harry said, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Come..."
But then, from beyond the range of their vision, they heard a yelping, a whining: a dog in pain…
"Sirius," Jessica muttered, staring into the darkness, panic rising in her body.
She had a moment's indecision, but there was nothing they could do for Ron at the moment, and by the sound of it, Sirius was in pain... She had to help him, she couldn't lose him.
Harry set off at a run, Jessica cursed after him. It was so like to to run toward the danger without thinking.
"Damnit James, why can you never use you head!" She called out into the darkness with gritted teeth. She didn't even realize what she had just called him. "Hermione, Get to the castle... Get help! Any help at all!"
Then she released Ron and also ran ater Harry and toward the yelping sound.
The yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. She ran toward it, she started to feel the cold without realizing what it must mean...
The yelping stopped abruptly. As she reached the lakeshore and Harry, they saw why... Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.
"Nooo," he moaned. "Nooo… please…"
And then they saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them. He spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating his insides, fog starting to obscure his vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them...
Jessica ran over toward Sirius, trying to help him up on his feet they needed to get away from the open ground. There was no way that they could fight off this many Dementors. But all of Sirius's strength seemed to have left him, the Dementors affect on him were too strong.
"Sirius, c'mon, we need to get you away from here..." Jessica said, practically dragging the half dead Sirius along she felt the Dementors affect on her as well. Tears started to build up in her eyes.
"No..." Sirius moaned. "There's no escape... Get away while you still have the chance... Don't let them get you too" His voice was so weak. He tried to push her away but, just dragged them both to the ground.
"I can't lose you." Jessica sobbed through the tears, now streaming down her cheeks. "I already lost James." Her voice now also weak, the last part came out as a bare whisper. She tried to stand up, to walk over to Harry and him to cast a patronus. She knew that she could cast a full body patronus, but at the moment it seemed impossible. There was so much sadness in her mind.
She pulled out her wand; she could see the Dementors so close. She was going to lose everything, everyone. Once she had walked halfway over to Harry, she could feel her knees buckle and she collapsed down onto her knees. She felt so weak, she felt so empty without James. She couldn't breathe; it was like she was being suffocated by an invisible pillow.
She tried to think, to get back her strength, but all she could think and hear was this melody she had heard once, it was such a beautiful melody she had heard when they had been on a family vacation in Greece. She was seven years old. She remembered the woman playing that melody on a flute. She closed her eyes. Only concentrating on the beautiful melody in her head
She knew that death was coming for her, and she embraced it. She felt herself losing balance and she hit her head hard on the stone ground as she lost consciousness.
A/N; Since I live in Sweden we won't get hold of the book (Breaking Dawn) until tomorrow, so I have been keeping myself busy by writing this chapter, I know that it seems like a cruel ending but I just couldn't resist. in this chapter are there much copied from the book, but it has still been a challenge writing these two last chapters, it's harder to wroite like this than you may think.
I hope that you enjoy and review the chapters, and thank you all my wonderful reviewers, you are the best.
review!!