Chapter Twenty-one: Kiss

It still is not mine.

I'd like to apologize real quickly for not putting a warning on the last chapter for the foul language (I usually do, don't know why I didn't…). Anyway, I'm sorry if I've offended anyone, I really didn't mean anything by it. There's a bit of language in this one also, just not nearly as bad. Again, I'm sorry. Please enjoy this chapter!

This entire chapter is told through Kailey's point of view.

Last chapter:

"I'm not going to keep this a secret anymore."

They all turned to stare at me, Kailey, each with a different expression. Sirius looked proud, giving me an encouraging grin. Lily looked shocked, though not entirely unhappy about the prospect. I decided that she was just nervous about Harry's reaction. James, on the other hand, looked as though he were deep in thought. I let my gaze rest on his and we held a short staring contest, each waiting for the other to break.

"I can't keep doing this, James," I said quietly, breaking the silence. "Harry is my best friend; I should have been honest at the get-go. I can't stand the look he gets in his eyes whenever the subject of parents are brought up," James winced slightly at that and I knew he couldn't possibly counter what I had said. "And even when I'm Keena and around you two it just hurts me to see it even more. You're her brother, James, and neither of us likes to see you in that much pain over your perfectly healthy son whom is within your grasp," I paused thinking over how odd what I had said sounded out loud before mentally shrugging it off.

"When will you tell him?" Lily asked quietly.

"The same night that we set Sirius free," might as well hit two birds with one stone, after all.

"Then I have one request," James said, looking at me intently. "Let us tell him, let us introduce ourselves. Elude to it all you want, but let us break it to him. You've been more than a good friend to us, Keena an even better sister; let us handle the rest of it."

"You promise not to back down?" I said, looking into his eyes. He nodded.

"Marauder's honor," he said, placing a hand over his heart.

I was running full speed across the grounds and I briefly considered transforming into my animagus before I put the thought to action.

Four legs certainly do make a big difference…

It really was better that I run as a wolf, my fur was black and I blended better with the twilight landscape around me as the sun began to set. I couldn't let the sun set before I reached the tree, however, so I ran faster. The tree was finally within view and I spotted a figure by it, holding a stick. I gave a loud bark to get his attention and he paused and turned as I skidded to a halt next to him and transformed back.

"What are you waiting for? I'm here, poke the knot!"

Remus shook his head and got the tree to freeze and we both rushed in. "I thought you were already with them?"

"Sh," I said, bringing a finger to my lips and gesturing for him to follow me. Just as we reached the stairs there was a muffled sound of someone shouting. Without thinking twice, I broke into a sprint for the…well, I'd done a lot of running that night.

I slammed the door to Moony's room open and took a moment to digest the feeling of déjà vu. "What's going on?" Remus asked, pushing past me into the room, his wand held up.

Ron was half standing half sitting on the musty old mattress, his leg bleeding from a solitary cut on his shin, though it looked painful. Hermione was trying to help support Ron, her hair falling out of its loose ponytail that she had somehow managed to get it into. Sirius was glaring at Scabbers angrily, gripping his wand tightly and he looked slightly insane to be quite honest. Harry had his own wand aimed at Sirius' head and was standing in front of Ron and Hermione so he probably was under the impression that Sirius was glaring at him instead of the rat. In between Harry and Sirius stood Keena, holding up a hand to stop Sirius from doing anything stupid and giving a warning look to Harry.

"Well, from here it looks like Sirius and Harry are ready to commit murder, Ron's in a world of pain, Hermione is confused about a number of things and Keena is just frustrated with the entire situation," I answered with a smirk.

"Damn straight," Keena replied, looking away from Harry. "But you forgot confused,"

"Don't worry about it," I said with a wave of my hand. She shrugged and turned her attention towards Sirius.

"Lower your wand, he won't trust you otherwise,"

"What makes you think him lowering his wand will make me trust him anymore or less?" Harry asked suddenly, his voice angry. "You've been trying to tell me he's innocent, but look what he just did to Ron!"

"Sirius!" Remus reprimanded.

"I'm sorry, but I was aiming for Pettigrew," Sirius said, looking a bit guilty, though he was still glaring at the squirming rat.

"Pettigrew is dead, we already went over this!" Harry shouted.

"No, Harry, he isn't," I said, coming into the room to stand next to Harry and gently getting him to lower his arm. "Let them explain, you'll understand very soon,"

"Can't I just kill him?" Sirius begged.

"No," Keena, Remus and I said in unison. "Harry has a right to know what really happened," Remus added. "Stop glaring at him, Padfoot, you're going to make things far tenser than they need to be,"

"Tenser than they need to be?" Hermione asked in shock. "We're standing here waiting for someone to be murdered and you think it should be less tense?" she was quickly growing hysterical. Maybe I should've gone back farther…

"Hermione, calm down, no one is going to get murdered," Keena said gently.

"The Hell no one is going to be killed!" Sirius shouted. "I've waited for twelve years for this, no one is going to stop me,"

"Sirius," Keena snapped. "You're scaring them,"

"Why shouldn't we be scared?" Hermione continued. "Ron's injured, Harry's your number one target, he's a convicted murderer, you are clearly more confused than I thought and he's a--"

"Hermione, stop!" I shouted. "Let them explain the situation. Please, calmly and civilly, that means you don't do anything stupid, Sirius," I added. He rolled his eyes at me.

"What was Hermione going to call Remus?" Harry asked suddenly and accusingly.

Everyone turned to face Remus who looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. "There is no getting past you, is there Hermione?" he asked, a wry grin spreading over his face. "Might as well start with that then," he added to Sirius and Keena mainly, both of whom nodded. "When I was a very small child, I was…bitten by a werewolf," he said quietly.

Harry looked shocked and made to stand in front of me while Ron fell over onto the mattress with an audible thump. If the look on Remus' face was anything to go by, both of these actions caused him great emotional pain.

"Dumbledore allowed me to attend Hogwarts so long as I stay away from the other students during the full moon. This is where I came those nights. I hadn't expected to make friends but I never planned on telling my secret in any case. My friends, Keena, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew and your dad, Harry, got suspicious of my monthly disappearances. Well, they figured out why I was missing and they decided they were going to risk themselves--"

"Don't make it sound so dramatic," Keena interrupted. "We didn't want him to go off all alone every month so we decided to become animagi. Sirius is a dog, I'm a wolf, Pettigrew is a rat and your dad's a stag," she said, not bothering with past tense for James, though I don't think anyone else caught it.

"Gave each other nicknames too," Sirius put in. "Moony is Remus, I'm Padfoot, you're dad's Prongs, Pettigrew is Wormtail and Keena is Blacktip,"

"Moony, Wormtail, Blacktip, Padfoot and Prongs?" Harry asked recognition heavy in his voice. "You're the creators of the map then?" the three of them nodded. "But what does this have to do with my parents?"

"Not much other than the fact that that's how we know that Scabbers is Wormtail," I answered with a shrug.

"Harry, do remember what the Fidelius charm is?" Keena asked and waited for Harry to nod. "Well, there needs to be a secret keeper in order for it to work. Sirius was the original secret keeper but he thought it was too obvious. He and Wormtail switched the night of your parents' death,"

"No, he admitted to it being his fault they were dead, you heard him," Harry insisted.

"It might as well have been," Sirius answered.

"But you didn't know," I said quietly from Harry's side. "She did,"

He closed his eyes in frustration. "So you all expect me to believe that this Wormtail person is responsible for my parents' deaths? But he's dead already, he killed him!"

"He tried to but Wormtail had his wand up his sleeve," Keena explained. "Ron, Scabbers is missing a toe, right? And you've had him in the family, a wizarding family with ministry connections, for twelve years, haven't you?"

Ron nodded, confused looking, but nodded none the less.

"Do we need more proof or can we get on with it?" Sirius asked, his wand arm twitching in anticipation.

"Prove to me that Scabbers is who you say he is," Harry demanded. "Turn him back into a human before you kill Ron's pet,"

Keena nodded and went over to Ron. "This won't hurt him, trust me, it's been done on me before," she said, taking Scabbers from Ron. Ron paled but let go of the rat all the same.

Wormtail realized who was holding onto his tail and began flailing around even more vehemently than before, biting and scratching at her hand. I felt a prickling and icy sensation going over my hand every time his teeth or claws made contact with her skin. He ended up sinking his teeth in and she and I both gasped out in pain, and grabbed our hands as she dropped him to the ground. Remus had his wand out already and stopped Wormtail in mid-air, levitating him.

"You alright?" Harry asked, looking between the two of us.

"Long as the nasty bugger doesn't have some bloody rat disease," Keena muttered, conjuring a wrap for her hand. "Your hand freeze up?" she asked to me and I nodded. "Where's Snape at any rate?" she added looking around.

"Not coming," I said proudly. She shrugged and turned back to Wormtail.

"Sirius, if I let you do the spell will you just kill him?"

"Probably,"

Keena sighed heavily and aimed her wand at Wormtail before letting out the blasting white-blue light. The rat froze and began morphing, as though in fast forward, into a man. He was unkempt, his hair missing in chunks all along his head. His teeth were yellowed beyond repair and his eyes were squinting and darting around the room looking for an escape. His fingernails were long and brown and his skin looked papery and dirty. The robes he was wearing were tattered and his face was in distress.

"Peter Pettigrew," Sirius spat in disgust.

"S-Sirius, R-Remus, K-K--"

"Don't say my name you wretch," she said maliciously, aiming her wand at his head.

"But you all, you're all here! All my old friends," he twittered nervously.

"All except two key members," Sirius snarled. He had wanted Lily and James to come and scare the living daylights out of Wormtail but they (meaning mostly Lily) had refused.

"B-but you haven't, you've never seen th-the dark Lord, he is, he's--"

"We've all seen him and his destruction, Wormtail," Keena snapped, "Or don't you remember how Mrs. Potter left us? Silly me, you were probably one of the cowards wearing a mask!" Angry red sparks started spitting out of her wand as she grew more frustrated.

"I would, I'd never! To even suggest it," he blabbered.

"You should have thought, Wormtail, that if the Death Eaters did not punish you for what you have done to their leader then we would punish you for what you have done to our brother and his family," Remus informed him quietly, though every syllable held great intensity.

"B-but you wouldn't k-kill--"

Sirius snorted. "If you hadn't been squeaking over there you would've heard that's exactly what we're about to do,"

Wormtail let out a great sob and began lurching around the room, first at the window then at the doors, which were blocked by me and Harry. He grabbed onto the front of Harry's robes and started sobbing at him and shaking him.

"Get your filthy hands off my godson!" Sirius came from behind and threw Wormtail across the floor, letting him land on his back. "You alright, Harry?" he asked without turning around.

"Yeah, thanks," Harry answered, his voice shaking a bit.

"You can't kill him," I said suddenly as the three of them aimed their wands. Sirius turned to stare at me with a wild look in his eyes. "Do you want your freedom or not, Sirius?"

"Give him to the dementors," Harry suggested. "Let him rot with them," he added, glaring at Wormtail.

"Are you sure, Harry?" Sirius asked, turning to face him.

"Yes, I'm sure, if you aren't a murderer then I don't think it's a good idea to start now," Harry admitted. Sirius grinned briefly before turning back to the rat of a man sitting on the ground.

"You're one lucky bastard," he said, shaking his head and aiming his wand at him again.

"Let's get out of here," Keena suggested and Sirius nodded. She conjured a rope and tied Wormtail up, tightly judging by the look on his face. "How do we do this?" she asked, looking directly at me.

"Um…I'm thinking Hermione and I lead the way followed by Sirius and Harry who can help Ron then Keena and Re—Professor Lupin bring up the rear towing that trash," I said, thinking of how it had been done when I was there a few hours ago. Maybe things could go smoother through this time, though I doubted it would be any different at all.

We began making our way out of the Shrieking Shack slowly, due mainly to Ron being hurt. Hermione and I reached the mouth of the tunnel and I reached out, pressing the knot in the trunk firmly. I poked my head out to see that the tree had stopped and we all began to troop out.

"Kailey," Hermione whispered, pulling me aside as we began to make our way to the castle. "Did you use my time-turner?"

"Yeah," I said nodding.

"Then where is it?"

"Huh?"

"It isn't around your neck," she said, pointing.

"No, I suppose it's not," I answered, stretching one arm out towards the trees and I leaned my head against my arm. She frowned and looked to where I was gesturing. "I hope you don't mind," I added. "But we're in need of all the safety we can get,"

"I don't understand, all I see is a st—oh," she paused and I looked over casually to see the stag and a deer. A boy was just emerging between the two, watching us intently it seemed. "Oh!" she covered her mouth in shock.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Ron called from behind us.

"Nothing, I just remembered something to do with an exam is all," she answered quickly, turning to face them. We continued walking and she muttered to me, "Protection from what?"

In response I looked up at the sky. It was still cloud covered, protecting us for the moment. Even if it had stayed that way, once the moon was high enough it wouldn't've mattered. She gasped again.

"You're letting--"

"I'm not letting anything happen, I'm following orders," I replied in harsh but quiet tones. "If it were up to me--"

"Remus!" Keena shouted from behind us in surprise.

We all wheeled around to see Remus had frozen and his face was contorting in pain, his arm beginning to shake violently. He dropped his wand and staggered backwards, clutching at his head, moaning. Keena scooped up his wand and backed away from him, slowly.

"Keep your head, Remus, don't let the wolf win," she said, her back facing us.

He only groaned louder, falling to his knees in agony. "Get away," he growled out through gritted teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. Before any of us could make a further move he let out a piercing cry as the moon was suddenly fully within view. He shifted into the werewolf, quickly as though with energy that had been pent up for too long. His fingers began to bleed as he grew claws and his ears and nose shifted into place and a tail suddenly sprouted. His clothes ripped and within half a minute a fully grown werewolf stood panting in front of us.

He began growling ferociously and suddenly he let out a loud bark. None us of moved but suddenly Wormtail transformed into a rat.

"NO!" Sirius shouted, going for Wormtail but he had brought Moony's attention to himself.

Moony launched through the air but was cut off by a white blur that must have been Blacktip. The two began fighting with one another and I felt dizzy from watching the battle when suddenly I fell to the ground as Moony pinned Blacktip to the ground, gripping her neck in his mouth. She cried out in pain and I gasped at the icy sensation, clutching at my throat. Padfoot came out of nowhere and bowled Moony off of Blacktip and those two began to fight. She stood shakily and ran back into the fray.

"C'mon," I said, pulling at the other three. "You three need to get away from here,"

"We're not going to get very far very fast," Hermione cried, looking at Ron's leg.

I was about to reply when another wash of cold waved over me. I began to shiver and looked over to see Blacktip lying in a heap on the ground, Padfoot trying frantically to get Moony to back off.

"At least try to get away," I said before turning back around and transforming into my animagus and racing into the fray.

Moony was about to knock Padfoot out of the way when I bowled into his side, surprising the werewolf and he grunted.

"Kailey, are you mad?" Padfoot barked as I began battling Moony. Within seconds the fight returned to a two on one battle and we were moving closer to the section between the forest and the lake.

"Coward, you only fight for females," Moony growled as Padfoot and I came closer, though we were both limping slightly.

"At least he doesn't take out his own alpha," I barked in reply, grateful that we were taking a moment to talk; it gave me time to breath.

"You think you can beat me? That she could beat me?" he growled in fury and challenge.

"Moony, this isn't you!" I cried.

He ignored me, lunging again and the biting and scratching continued. Suddenly I felt a giant paw, claws included, collide with my head and I soared backwards towards the lake, half landing in the water on the shore. I groaned and tried to lift my head but my body didn't seem to want to cooperate. Déjà vu I understand but this is ridiculous…I thought furiously. From what I could hear the fight between Moony and Padfoot was still raging but then I heard a new sound. It was feet. Two feet.

Whimpering, I lifted my head up to see Harry running towards me. I growled at him but he ignored me, coming to kneel down beside me. Before I could really bark at him I heard a whine from behind me and looked over to see Padfoot collapsing on the ground. Moony stood tall, growling and snapping angrily at Harry who was about to become a snack. That's when we heard them. Other 'wolves' from the woods were calling. Moony looked torn between staying where he was for only a second before tearing off towards where the howling was coming from.

As soon as I could no longer hear him, I transformed back into a human, wincing at the coolness of the lake water that was soaking through my shoes. Harry helped to pull me into a sitting position and I grabbed my head, feeling the small gash that was on the side of my face.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

I nodded and gestured for him to see about Padfoot, who was now Sirius. The two of them moved back over towards me slowly, Sirius breathing heavily.

"You're too old for this," I joked lightly before sighing. Then I frowned.

"Kailey, please tell me I did not just see your breath," Sirius muttered lowly.

"What would you like me to tell you then?" I asked, suddenly feeling frozen.

Suddenly there was a loud crackling noise and the air seemed to drop into freezing temperatures in a matter of seconds. We looked at the lake to see it turning from black liquid to white ice, starting in the center and migrating towards the edges. Quickly, Sirius and Harry pulled me away from the lake's edge and set me on my feet, though I wobbled slightly. We huddled together and got our wands ready as the dementors began coming into view, swarming around us.

Immediately I began to feel dizzy and my legs shook beneath me.

"Happy thoughts," Harry reminded me, but I could barely concentrate on standing. There were just so many of them. That's when the screaming started in my head. It grew colder and colder and finally I couldn't support myself on my legs and I sank to the ground, shivering. "Expecto Patronum!" Harry shouted but only ended up with a wispy cloud.

"Focus, Harry," Sirius said, raising his wand defiantly. "Expecto Patronum!" his silver wolf shot out of his wand but only managed to chase away a few dementors before it went out, and others quickly replaced them. Sirius swore quietly and produced another patronus, but he was shaking now, trying to keep them up.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry cried again and my world began blacking in and out. More silver mist. It wasn't enough. He tried again and again, but with the same results each time. Sirius meanwhile was growing more and more drained, trying to keep his patronus strong. I looked over at his leg on my left and noted that he had a nasty gash on his leg, probably accounting for his failing to produce a corporal patronus for longer than a few seconds.

I tried to lift my own wand but my arm felt like lead. I settled for leaving my arm on the ground and began chanting the incantation getting a mist that was even less visible than the stuff Harry was producing. Suddenly, Sirius collapsed next to me; a dementor had gotten brave and had knocked through his patronus, letting the backlash hit Sirius full in the chest. Another dementor swooped in through Harry's mist and he too fell to the ground.

Suddenly one of the beasts was directly in front of me, and I could feel its cold, rattling breath on my face.

"No," I breathed, shrinking back towards the other two, my ears were ringing now, with my own screams. "NO!" I screamed as the dementor's clammy, grey hands fastened around my wrists. This was more than just coincidence; this must have been the same dementor.

It was still alive.

I clamped my mouth shut tightly, knowing that it would do no good once the creature was close enough. I didn't understand why I was still awake; maybe dementors had that power too. It didn't matter, all that mattered was I was going to be beyond help in only a few moments, only a few heartbeats.

I closed my eyes and waited.

Jeez, I'm mean but I just had to end it there. So I know I said I wouldn't be able to update again until May…well, take what I said about that last chapter and put it here. I seriously will not be able to update until May now due to my being out of the country. I'm sorry! Okay, now please review! Next will be 22!

:-D