Cat, Rat, and Dog
"But Siria, she's full of it!" Hermione exclaimed and rolled her eyes for at least the fourth time. Wordlessly, Siria mouthed to Ron for help. He nodded to Siria.
"Hermione, let's at least tell Sirius." Ron suggested. Siria beamed at him.
"Yes! 'Mione— we can just tell Sirius. He can decide what to do with it from there!" said Siria. She looked expectantly at Hermione, who sighed.
"Oh, fine." she caved in and the trio headed down to the entrance hall.
The entrance hall was full of a small amount of students heading for early dinner. Hermione peered outside, onto the grounds and dashed out "Crookshanks!" She called. Ron and Siria ran after her. Siria's heart sank. The rat problem was far worse than Sirius had led her to believe. Crookshanks was surrounded by rats.
"Bloody hell," Ron groaned. He and Siria pulled out their wands. Siria, lost for something else, started turning them into snuffboxes. "It's not enough!" Ron told her. Siria looked around. Hermione was now circled by rats. She was blasting them left and right, but they pushed her toward the Whomping Willow.
"Siria!" Ron shouted. Siria looked from Hermione to the Willow then to Ron. "We have to do something!" The Willow's branches swung and swept around it.
"I—" Siria pointed her wand at a cluster of rats furthest from Hermione "Bombarda!" As if a small bomb had gone off, they were blasted to bits. Ron looked wide-eyed at Siria then to Hermione and the Willow.
The Whomping Willow had stopped moving as if stunned. Hermione was gone. The rats fled down the base of the Willow. Ron dove to follow and Siria tackled him to the ground. In the short moment they spent closing in on Hermione and the rats, the Willow seemed to regain itself. They tried to roll from its reach, but the Willow knocked Siria's wand from her hand. "Lumos!" She called and dove for her illuminated wand.
"Crookshanks!" Ron called. Crookshanks stood on the trunk of the tree; his large eyes on Ron and Siria. He pressed a knot of the trunk and the Willow paused. "Run!" Ron told Siria, as they sprinted into the base of the Whomping Willow.
Ron and Siria blasted the rats they past on their way through the twisting, low ceilinged tunnel. "Where are we going?" Ron cried after Crookshanks's bottlebrush tail.
"Hermione!" Siria called. They continued to run after the ginger cat, until they were at a small opening. Ron and Siria nodded to each other and burst into the room with their wands at the ready.
(Book: B3, 337 it's a small room of the Shrieking Shack and obvious that ghosts haven't wrecked it)
From upstairs, red light flashed then green then purple. Ron dashed up first with Siria on his heel. Hermione was pinned down behind a door and firing blindly at a very short man, hardly taller than Siria and already shorter than Ron (B3, 266). Together, Ron and Siria pointed their wands at the short man and shouted "Expelliarmus!" The man froze and his wand shot from his hand. Ron rushed him and knocked him to the ground while Siria grabbed the wand. She placed it in her hand, beside her own and pointed both at the man on the floor.
"Pettigrew…" Siria's voice was barely a whisper and seemed to scrape its way out of her throat. The shrunken appearance of a man who had lost a lot of weight in a short time, the grubby skin, the pointed nose, and tiny, watery eyes (B3, 266) left nothing to be questioned. At the end of her wand was the person responsible for her parents' deaths. Tom Riddle could have searched forever and never found them, if not for Peter Pettigrew. Siria bit back the gasp that escaped her.
Peter Pettigrew raised his arms in silent surrender. Ron rose to his feet and pointed his wand down at Pettigrew as well. He placed an arm on Siria's shoulder. "Let's get out of here." Siria's head seemed to tremble as she shook. "We can bring him up the castle." Ron tried to reason. Hermione crept from the doorway and tugged on Siria's arm.
"Siria, please." Hermione whispered. Her brown eyes pleaded with Siria, who didn't look away from Pettigrew.
"Listen to her," Pettigrew's voice was squeaky but raspy, like a broken chew toy.
"He killed my parents." Siria's teeth chattered and her wand shook. She couldn't cast a spell if she tried, but wanted to more than she ever had. Hermione and Ron exchanged a look.
"Killing him won't bring them back." Ron reminded her.
"Yes, yes!" Pettigrew urged. Ron glared at him.
Inside, she knew Ron was right. Siria was painfully aware that Pettigrew's death wouldn't bring back James or Lily Potter. She tried to remember the girl who told Professor Trelawney that the dementors fled— that Pettigrew lived. She tried to remind herself that he deserved to spend the rest of his days, rotting in a cell, surrounded by dementors and his worst memories. It was just so tempting to end him. Crookshanks rubbed against the back of her legs and peered up at her. Siria clicked her tongue, but lowered the wands.
No sooner had her hand stilled, footsteps pounded on the stairs and approached quickly. Siria and Hermione kept their wands on Pettigrew while Ron turned to see who arrived. "Snuffles!" Ron cried in shock. Siria looked over her shoulder to see the large, shaggy black dog turn into Sirius Black, with Remus Lupin behind him. "You're Snuffles!" Ron exclaimed in disbelief. Sirius ignored him.
"You DARE approach her!" Sirius shouted at Pettigrew, with his wand drawn.
"Sirius, Siria is owed an explanation" Remus tried to reason.
"I know Pettigrew gave them up to Tom!" Siria snapped. She raised her shoulders and head and mirrored Sirius's posture, down to how his wand made a line toward Pettigrew's throat. Pettigrew wiped his nose like a rat cleaning its face.
"But we need to know if he was the one," Remus looked to Sirius.
"Or we could just kill him." Sirius said it so coldly that Hermione and Ron stepped back. Siria looked to Sirius, her wand still at Pettigrew. She placed her free hand over Sirius's wand.
"Killing— Killing him won't— won't bring back James or Lily. It— it'll only make— make my dad a murder!" Siria stammered. Her eyes filled with tears and she fought to blink them back.
"Listen to her, Sirius— listen—" Pettigrew let out a harsh squeak when Remus pointed his wand at him.
"Silence!" Sirius barked at Pettigrew.
"Ron, Hermione" Remus jerked his head for them to stand behind him. Ron took hold of Siria's sleeve. She kept her wand pointed at Pettigrew, but allowed herself to be led behind Remus.
"The longer you talk, the longer you stay out of Azkaban." Sirius told Pettigrew, who trembled on the floor.
"No!" Pettigrew cried and writhed as if in pain on the floor. He clutched his head and cried. "No! No! No! Don't send me back, Sirius, Remus, please!" Sirius flicked his wand in a circular motion and pale, yellow flashed into Pettigrew. He screamed. Hermione turned her face away.
"Talk!" Sirius demanded.
"I— I got out." Pettigrew told them. Ron looked to Siria in disbelief and mouthed "Really?"
"We know." Remus replied in a flat tone. "How?"
"Bellatrix," Pettigrew seemed to almost whisper the word at Sirius, who froze. Siria had heard the name before, but couldn't place it. "She saw you, last year" a twisted grin crossed over Pettigrew's face. It exposed his blackened teeth. "That dirty hound, Sirius— hound." Pettigrew broke into a squeaking, raspy laugh. It was more chilling than Tom Riddle's in the Chamber of Secrets.
"He's mad" Ron whispered to Hermione and Siria. Siria could only nod. People told her Azkaban was a terrible place and she had felt first hand how terrible the dementors were. She needed to know why he did it— why Pettigrew would wait twelve years to come after her.
"You're a dirty hound, Padfoot and I'm a dirty rat." Pettigrew's twisted grin remained in place. His eyes rolled from Sirius to Siria. Sirius stepped over to block Siria from Pettigrew's view. "The guards though I was gone the moment I transformed— they couldn't feed on the emotions of a rat."
"There were precautions" Sirius growled down at Pettigrew. Pettigrew turned his hands to show his nails or remaining ones. His hands were harsh and calloused with some blackened nails and some torn off.
"Just small enough for a rat" Pettigrew laughed. Hermione shuddered.
"And then you swam," Sirius tsked. He had a scowl on his face that made Pettigrew tremble.
"What about Halloween?" Remus asked.
"With the wand from Ollivanders, it was easy. It should have been easy." Pettigrew wiped his face in the same rat-like manner. "But you taught her, didn't you?" Pettigrew squeaked.
"No." Sirius growled a genuine, dog like growl. Pettigrew squirmed on the floor. "She fought you on her own."
"Clever girl— sweet girl, just like James and—" Pettigrew shrieked as another blast of yellow shot from Sirius's wand.
"Don't you dare speak to her!" Sirius barked.
"Stop!" Hermione screamed. Siria placed her arm on Hermione's shoulder.
"It's enough, Sirius." Remus told him. "We know how he escaped and that cast the Imperius Curse—" Ron gasped and looked horror struck at Siria. "Peter, why come after Siria?"
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" Pettigrew whispered the name in his raspy, squeaky voice. "He wants proof— proof of my loyalty." Siria gasped, appalled.
"I was a token!" She shouted at him. "If you think I'd prove your loyalty, you're wrong! I'd—" Remus swept Siria off her feet by lifting her from her armpits. In a grumble, she finished, "I'd beat Tom again."
Sirius looked to his daughter-to-be. All the anger in his face was gone. "Siria, you are the only person who has the right to decide." (B3, 376). She nodded. Remus placed her back down.
"The James and Lily you've described, I—" Siria's voice cracked, Hermione placed her hand on Siria's shoulder. "No. I don't want you two to become murders for this…" she shuddered in place of the word she couldn't find to describe Peter Pettigrew.
"Very well," said Lupin and thin cords shot from his wand; in a moment, Pettigrew was bound and gagged (B3, 376).
"If you transform, we will kill you" Sirius told Pettigrew (B3, 376). Siria gave a single nod to acknowledge. Pettigrew squirmed on the ground. Sirius summoned up two heavy manacles, which he used to bind Pettigrew to himself and Remus. With Crookshanks at the lead, the six of them headed back through the twisting tunnels toward the Whomping Willow.
"You know," Siria dragged along, "You could have told me Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus."
"So you could have rat based nightmares on top of it all?" Sirius asked and shook his head. Siria shot a look to Hermione, who looked away.
"I haven't had them in awhile." she defended.
"I wasn't about to start them back up." said Sirius. Siria sighed and returned her focus to the twisted tunnels.
Half way through, the greasy voice of Snape snapped "What are you doing?"
"Move aside, Snivellus," Sirius barked back. "We're taking Pettigrew to the castle."
"Oh, no need to go that far, Black." Snape smirked. "There are dementors at the ground entrance."
"No!" Siria cried from the back of their line. "He's going to the castle— unless he tries to escape." She wanted him to pay for his actions, but didn't know how to be certain he did. All Siria knew was being an empty shell would leave him unable to remember that he was reason James and Lily Potter were dead.
Sirius placed his hand on Snape's shoulder and pulled him into a whisper. Snape's face contorted and he jerked away, but led them back. Crookshanks climbed out first, followed by Snape. To Siria's surprise, Snape helped pull Hermione, Ron, and herself from the tunnel. Hermione and Ron cast "Lumos" into the darkness. It was another partly cloudy, cool June night. Snape helped Remus pull himself, Pettigrew, and Sirius from the tunnel.
(Book: B3, 380-382 Remus Lupin transforms into a werewolf, which results in Sirius turning into a dog to fight him off and in Peter Pettigrew turning into a rat.)
Snape jerked Siria's arm the moment she stepped to run. "Stupid girl, what can you do for him?" he asked. She raised her other arm to hit him, but Hermione beat her to it. Hermione kicked Snape, square in the back of his right knee and he buckled to the ground. His grip fell from Siria and she bolted toward the yelping, with Hermione and Ron behind her.
"That was amazing!" Ron shouted as they reached the lakeshore, but they had no more time. Sirius had caught Peter and pinned him to the ground, but at least a hundred dementors were headed for them.
(Book: B3, 382-385 the dementors overcome them, but Siria sees something chase them off just as she blacks out)