Ron dashes after Scabbers, and catches him underneath the Whomping Willow.
Harry, Hermione, and Bloom are frantically gesturing for him to get away from there, when he goes absolutely still and points behind them.
There's a massive, black dog standing there - the one from Bloom's crystal ball.
It leaps straight over Harry, and drags Ron underneath the tree.
Harry, Hermione, and Bloom try to keep him from getting dragged under, but it's no use.
Ron lets go of Harry's hand, sacrificing himself - even as Harry tells him not to.
The Whomping Willow seems to realize they're there, and starts attacking them.
When it gets to Bloom, she raises her hands and lets her magic stream out of her.
It's not fire that hits the willow, she's controlling it.
She orders it to stop attacking, put Harry and Hermione down, and leave them alone - it does all three obediently.
Harry and Hermione just stare at Bloom, who's looking at her hands in wonder.
She looks at them, and says "I, uh, didn't know I could do that. Let's go!"
They all get down the tunnel, and Bloom makes a fireball in a hand and floats it in front of them.
Hermione says "You have to teach me that someday. I'll get it eventually."
Bloom laughs and says "Deal. After we graduate from Hogwarts, and everything settles down, I'll teach you anything you want to learn, Hermione."
The tunnel is long and snaking, and Bloom has a very bad feeling about where it leads.
Hermione asks "Where do you suppose this goes?"
Bloom quietly says "I have a hunch, but I really hope I'm wrong."
They make their way through the crude passageway, ducking dangling roots that are hanging from the ceiling - and then they start smelling familiar smells mixed with the smell of dirt and leaves.
Hermione takes a deep breath through her nose, and asks "Is that…candy I smell?"
Bloom and Harry take a whiff as well, and both exclaim "Chocolate!"
Bloom says "We must be right beneath Honeydukes!"
They all look at one another, and take off forward - Bloom knows for sure that this leads to the Shrieking Shack.
When they get inside, the place hasn't been touched for decades - except for the trail going through the dust.
It looks like somebody dragged something through it - like Ron was dragged by the pants at his ankle by a giant dog.
They get to a door with light coming from under it, and Bloom lets the fireball die.
She puts her head to the side of the door, then motions for them to stand back.
She points her wand at the door, and lets a fireball shoot out that blasts it off its hinges.
Ron is sitting on an old chair, clutching his bloody foot.
How he got on a chair with that foot is beyond Bloom, and she whispers "Where's the dog, Ron?"
She places her hand on Ron's ankle, and it mends before their eyes - skin and muscle re-growing over bite marks - but slowly.
Ron says "He's the dog, he's an Animagus…"
Bloom looks over Ron's shoulder, and sees a trail of dog prints leading to a pair of absolutely filthy feet.
She follows the feet to the legs, and the legs to the body, and the body to the face of Sirius Black.
She immediately whips her wand out, and Harry and Hermione do the same.
Bloom gets between Black and everyone, and says "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to go through me to do it."
Sirius doesn't look like he could kill a fly, in all honesty.
He looks like a skeleton, and there's something in his eyes that's hard and cold - either sanity or insanity.
Black studies all of them, then says "No, only one will die tonight."
Bloom glares at Black, fire lighting in her eyes, and says "And that'll be you, sucker!"
They hear footsteps at the door, and Black wheels around, edgy beyond belief.
Bloom takes the chance to read his aura, something that started last summer.
She thought she was going crazy, seeing ghosts above people's heads, but she noticed they always spoke the truth even when the person they were under was saying something different - she figured that out when the stuff the auras were saying always came true.
Bloom looked it up in her spellbook, and read that an aura will always tell a person's true intentions, good or bad.
It's something that only the most powerful of people can do, which makes sense to her - she's supposed to be the most powerful of anyone.
As Black turns back, he regards Harry cautiously - Harry's wand is shaking violently.
"Going to kill me Harry?"
"Yes."
Harry's voice has never held so much anger, not even for the Dursleys.
Just then, the door crashes open to reveal Professor Lupin.
The four kids are relieved, but he ignores them completely.
He and Black are locked in a staring contest, and Lupin says "Looking a bit ragged, are we Sirius? Finally, the skin reflects the madness within."
Black laughs and says "You'd know all about the madness within, wouldn't you Remus?"
The two men look at each other for a moment more, and the tension is so thick Bloom could burn it right then.
Suddenly, the two embrace like brothers - or very old friends.
Harry and Ron are shocked, right along Bloom and Hermione.
Harry yells "I trusted you! I believed in you! And all this time you've been his friend!"
Hermione yells "And that's not all, he's a werewolf! That's why he's been missing classes!"
Harry and Ron stare at Lupin, dumbfounded. Black howls, bitterly amused.
Lupin asks "How long have you known?"
Bloom answers "Since Professor Snape gave us the lesson on Werewolves and Animagi."
Ron and Harry turn to stare at her as well, but she keeps her eyes on the two men.
Lupin says "You really are the two most gifted students in all my classes."
Bloom answers "Hermione's the smartest witch in this age."
Sirius says "Enough talk, he dies now! If you won't do it with me, Remus, I'll do it alone!"
"Wait, Sirius."
Sirius stares at him for a moment, like he can't believe that, then says "I've done my waiting for twelve years in Azkaban! Trust me, you wouldn't have lasted a week!"
The two eye each other, and Lupin nods.
Bloom says "You want Harry, you'll have to fight me first!"
Bloom stands in front of Harry, and Lupin tries to disarm her - she loses her wand and hits him in the chest with her own spell, a fairy spell.
Hermione says "And Bloom's the strongest."
Ron adds "She's been able to wordlessly duel since last year. And that's with her wand."
Harry yells at Sirius "You betrayed my parents! You sold them out to Voldemort!"
Sirius says "That's a lie! I never would have betrayed James and Lily!"
Bloom's eyes flash orange when she realizes he's telling the truth.
Remus says "Someone else betrayed your parents Harry. Someone in this very room. Someone who I believed until very recently to be dead."
His eyes find Ron, who gulps and takes a step behind Harry and Bloom.
Sirius says "He's as good as dead."
Harry asks "What are you talking about? There's nobody here!"
Black smirks and says "Oh, yes there is…"
He moves past Bloom and Harry, to face Ron and in a cruel sing-song voice, croons "Come out, come out Peter. Come out and play…"
Ron gulps and says "You've gone mad! My name's Ron!"
He backs away from Black's demented gaze, and Harry's gaze is drawn from Ron's gaze to his hands - where Scabbers is squirming and twisting violently.
Bloom sees as well, and starts to explain.
Before she can get two words out, a new voice yells "Expelliarmus!" and Lupin and Black's wands are knocked from their hands.
Everybody turns to see Snape standing in the doorway, smiling smugly.
"Oh, revenge is sweet. How I hoped I'd be the one to catch you."
Lupin tries to reason with Snape, but the Potions professor was already convinced Lupin was helping Sirius all along.
Sirius says "Brilliant! And, as usual, dead wrong. Now give us our wands back, Remus and I have a bit of unfinished business to tend to."
Black approaches Snape, who holds his wand up to Black's neck.
"Give me a reason, I'm begging you."
Lupin says "Don't be a fool, Severus!"
Sirius smirks and says "He can't help it - its old habit by now."
"Quiet, Sirius!"
Snape's the one smirking now, and says "Listen to you two, quarrelling like an old married couple. The creature and the criminal."
Black huffs in annoyance, but freezes when Snape says "Witty as ever, I wonder if you'll be so irreverent when I turn you over to the Dementors."
Sirius whirls around, looking like he might do anything to keep that from happening.
"Do I detect a flicker of fear? One can only imagine what it must be like to endure the Dementor's Kiss. It's said to be unbearable to watch, but I'll do my best."
Snape's eyes harden, and he gestures to the door. "After you."
Suddenly, the door slams shut and a rush of syllables escapes from Bloom's mouth - followed by a blast of orange energy from her hands.
Snape hits the wall and is unconscious instantly.
Bloom yells "Nobody's going anywhere until we sort this mess out!"
Ron, Harry, and Hermione have never seen this side of Bloom, but they suppose it fits with her powers.
Hermione says "Bloom, you just attacked a Hogwarts teacher."
"It's a sleep spell Hermione, he won't remember a thing after leaving the school."
Bloom flexes her hand, and her wand flies back into it.
She points it at both men, and says "You mentioned a Peter. Say his full name now."
Lupin and Black both stare into the gaping mouth of her dragon-wand, wondering exactly what kind of damage it can do.
Sirius says "Pettigrew. We went to school with him - we thought he was a friend."
Harry says "Peter Pettigrew is dead, he killed him!"
Harry's pointing at Sirius now, and Lupin says "That's what I thought as well, until Bloom here asked me if I knew if his ghost was wandering the halls."
Sirius says "The Map. You have the Map."
Harry says "The Map was lying."
Sirius says "The Marauder's Map never lies. And it's never tricked either. Peter Pettigrew is alive, and he's right there."
He points at Ron, specifically Ron's hands.
"M-me? Its lunatic…"
Black says "Not you, idiot. Your rat."
"Scabbers? He's been the family pet for-"
"Twelve years? An awfully long life for a common garden rat. He's missing a toe, isn't he?"
"So?"
Bloom says "All they could find of Pettigrew was his…"
Her gaze softens as she realizes, then she focuses on Scabbers.
Her eyes get huge, and she yells "Charmix!"
She's surrounded by fire she produces for an instant, and comes out with her skirt, haler top, and butterfly wings.
Sirius and Remus stare at her in shock, but she lifts Scabbers up into the middle of the room with a spell and forces him to reveal his true form - a short, fat man with thinning hair and grubby hands.
AN: Yeah, too bad I can't Photoshop - the look on Sirius and Remus's faces was priceless. Bloom's worked hard to keep her cover intact, it's worked - and it works fantastically for shocking the socks of people because of that. Want to see what happens next? Updates coming soon!