Chapter 5: Trouble with the Fat Lady

When I came back to Sirius without a dead Peter, he was…slightly miffed. Not at me (I hope), but at the fact that Peter was still alive. He paced back and forth in the old house (he called it the Shrieking Shack) and cursed under his breath.

"We'll have to try something else," he muttered. I meowed back. Man, I wished I could talk.

Sirius walked up the stairs and then back down, scratching his chin. "I'll have to kill Peter myself."

I meowed back, Of course you do. Revenge is so much better when you do it yourself, isn't it?

"How could I get into the castle…" he murmured. "There's the secret-passage by the…no, I think that's sealed off. The one-eyed witch… that might work. I could get to Honeydukes as a dog, and then… today's Halloween? While everyone's at the feast… yes."

I meowed softly to say, Can I come with you?

Sirius looked over at me and smiled for the first time since I had seen him. "Hey," he said, sitting on the couch, "It's not that you didn't do well. I appreciate you helping me."

Again, looking from another person's point of view, Sirius would've seemed crazy, talking to a cat. But I liked it.

We left about an hour later.

"The kids should be almost gone from Hogsmeade, so we can sneak into Honeydukes. And everyone should be at the feast by the time we get into Hogwarts, so no one will see us." Sirius said. Then he shrunk down to the size of a big black dog.

We trotted out of the tunnel together. It almost felt like back when the Potter's were alive, and we would wander around the house together. For a second I forgot we were setting out to sneak into the Hogwarts castle and kill the backstabbing rat Peter. It felt like we were just going on an excursion to the bathroom where we would hide in the bathtub.

But no. Because of Peter, we couldn't have that anymore.

Sirius led the way down the road to this Hogsmeade place. It was a long, winding dirt road that lead through the Forbidden Forest. A little further past the edge of the Forest, it turned to the right and led to a small village with shops and a few houses. It wasn't as colorful or busy as Diagon Alley, but it felt less stressful and more relaxed.

Sirius led us into a store called Honeydukes. It was awesome.

The shelves were stacked with all kinds of weird candies like Chocolate Frogs (real frogs…?), Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (what do they mean by every flavor…) and even something called a Cockroach Cluster (how in the world did they come up with that?). It even smelled great. And I was sure if a mother let her kids stay in here to long, they would either get diabetes or a tooth ache. Probably exaggerating, but… man, there was a lot of candy.

The sound of footsteps came from upstairs. Sirius ran to the back of the store. I followed. We bolted down into the basement. He crouched by a certain spot on the floor, then he turned into a human again. If a cat could sigh in exasperation, I would have. But I can't, so I meowed reproachfully instead.

He just shook his head and used his new posable human fingers to pry open part of the floor. He gestured for me to get in. So, I did. He climbed in after me and shut the floor, then turned back into a dog.

What do ya know? We were in another tunnel. It was much like the Whomping Willow passage, but it was slightly cleaner.

We travelled down it for about an hour, until Sirius finally stopped and turned human. He took a wand out of his pocket and said, "Dissendium," as he tapped his wand on the wall of solid rock he had stopped at. It slowly slid open. Sirius hurriedly changed into a dog and stepped into the corridor. Apparently, we had just come out of a giant hump-backed witch. Nice.

We crept down the corridors and around the castle until finally we were back at the Fat Lady's portrait (entrance to the Gryffindor common room). Sirius glanced nervously around and then barked at the Fat Lady.

"Merlin's beard!" she exclaimed. Then her expression softened. "How did you get in here, little doggie?"

I could've sworn I saw Sirius roll his eyes.

He barked again, and the Fat Lady giggled. "Well, aren't you cute?"

Sirius growled and then turned into a human. The Fat Lady screamed.

"You?! What? How…" then she screamed again.

"Well? Can I come in?" Sirius asked impatiently. Good plan.

"No! I…" the Fat Lady was still shocked.

"Balderdash! Dilligrout! Wattlebird!" Sirius said urgently, glancing surreptitiously up and down the corridor. "Gardyloo! Bumfuzzle!?"

Sirius sighed in annoyance and turned into a dog again. He growled and slashed the portrait viciously as the Fat Lady turned and fled. Pieces of portrait fluttered down to the ground gracefully as Sirius barred his teeth and the Fat Lady ran away screaming shrilly.

Suddenly there was the sound of distant murmuring. Sirius barked as if to say, Stay here! I'm going through that giant witch tunnel thing.

I sat there obediently. In a few minutes, the whole corridor was flooded with Gryffindors who muttered suspiciously and confusedly. No one noticed me.

"Why is no one going? I've still got homework! Unfortunately…"

"Ouch! Back up, you just stepped on my foot!"

"Move! I can't see!"

"Neville! Did you forget the password again?"

"I did not!" came the indignant voice of Neville, probably.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" Long-and-Gangly asked curiously.

"Let me through, please," someone said pompously, "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password—excuse me, I'm Head Boy—" then his voice became sharper. "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

"What's going on?" Sister of Long-and-Gangly asked. (I actually liked her. Don't get the wrong idea with the name-calling. I just have no clue what her name is. Jenny, maybe? I forget.)

Waiting for this Dumbledore dude seemed to take forever. If he was really as smart as people said, would he be able to figure out that those slashes were dog slashes? Did he know Sirius was and Animagus? Could he somehow magically trace him back to the Shrieking Shack? Would he take Sirius back to Azkaban? What would they do if they caught him? (On a completely unrelated note, can cats hyperventilate? Because based on how worried I was and how fast I was breathing, it seemed like I would.)

But finally, famous Dumbledore showed up. Three other people were running quickly towards him. Teachers, probably. One was some guy with really greasy hair, another the witch that had given Hermione her Time-Turner, and the other one was Remus.

Hold up.

How long had he been here?

"We need to find her," Dumbledore said, "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" someone cackled. A tiny man was floating in the air, looking very pleased.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly. Peeves's smile faltered.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir. Dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful. Poor thing."

"Did she say who did it?"

"Oh yes, Professorhead. He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

A/N: I remember when I read that part for the first time, I was so shocked. I even remember my heart rate increasing. Hehe.

Anyway, hoped you liked that chapter! Don't forget to review! :P