Chapter 53

The castle at night was eerie. So dark, and so silent that even the sound of their breathing seemed to echo along the empty corridors. And their steps weren't exactly noiseless, unlike those of the huge black dog that padded before them.

What Ginny feared the most, though, was that Harry might hear her heart pounding erratically or her breath catching whenever he accidentally brushed against her while manoeuvring under the Invisibility Cloak.

An Invisibility Cloak.

And she was currently under it with Harry, their bodies so close that she could feel the warmth emanating from him and she was having trouble paying attention to where they were going.

They had reached the second floor when a low growl from ahead prompted Harry to grab her by an arm and drag her behind a statue. A moment later a dark figure turned the corner, and Ginny realized with horror that it was Snape. In the darkness only his unnaturally white face was visible, the rest of him seemed to blend with the shadows just as well as Snuffles, who had disappeared from sight.

Ginny barely dared breathing, and now she was certain that Harry must be aware of her racing heart. Even if he couldn't hear it, he must feel her pulse throbbing in the wrist he was still firmly holding. Her only comfort right then was that her blush would go completely unnoticed.

Snape had never looked more like a vampire as he crept past them without making the slightest sound, his eyes two terrible pits of darkness scanning the corridor as he went. Ginny truly stopped breathing when he was only a few feet away, and she felt certain that Harry had done the same, his grip on her wrist turning almost painful.

Miraculously, the git didn't seem to suspect anything and he eventually disappeared around another corner. Still, neither Ginny nor Harry moved or breathed too loud for at least another minute, until something brushing against their legs almost made her scream.

"It's just Snuffles," whispered Harry. "Come on, Snape usually patrols all the way to the library before checking the Entrance Hall again."

"I thought Snuffles was going to jump on Snape," she whispered back as they resumed their quiet route, her heart still beating wildly.

"I was hoping he wouldn't be so dumb," replied Harry. Snuffles made a sound like a snort, and once again Ginny wondered if dogs that were familiars could understand their owners the way owls could. Fang definitely wasn't so smart as Snuffles.

Luckily they didn't run into any more teachers on patrol, nor into Filch or Mrs. Norris (poor cat had been a ball of nerves since Snuffles had come to the castle), and the detour they took to avoid Peeves didn't delay them much. Soon they had reached the front doors and slipped outside, where it was a little less dark under the stars and the rising moon.

"Can we take off the Cloak now?" she asked once they had put some distance from the doors into the grounds. Truth be told, she didn't want to restore any kind of distance with Harry, but it was actually uncomfortable to walk so close to another person without more contact, and she also feared Harry would think she was enjoying the situation.

"Better not to, yet. Sometimes Sprout goes to the greenhouses at night. And you never know when Karkaroff might be lurking around. Snuffles!" he called softly, "Whomping Willow."

The dog had been leading the way to the lake, but he stopped at Harry's words and turned to look at him with head tilted, as if puzzled. A moment later he directed his steps towards the Willow.

As she walked invisibly with Harry after Snuffles, Ginny wondered again what Harry's plan was. He had agreed to try to send the dog and the hippogriff —a hippogriff!— to the Burrow, but he had not wanted to risk writing home about it. So Ginny's only guess was that Harry intended to fly the hippogriff himself, carrying Snuffles. In which case Ginny would have to go too, since Harry would never find the Burrow on his own. She had worn her warmest clothes with this in mind, but if she was honest with herself she was a bit afraid and more than a bit nervous. She was so going to be grounded for this. Probably Mum wouldn't even allow her to come back to Hogwarts. And Harry! Wasn't he supposed to drop dead if he tried to leave?

It also puzzled her the direction they were going, since she had expected the hippogriff to be hidden in the forest and yet they were going the opposite way. Straight to the Whomping Willow, which was a really violent tree.

She considered to stop and refuse to move another foot until Harry explained fully what they were doing, but she didn't. She trusted Harry implicitly, and she would do whatever he asked of her no matter how dangerous. Although if his plan was stupid she intended to tell him so and smack him in the head for it.

Snuffles had come to a stop right out of reach of the vicious willow and was now looking at Harry expectantly. Ginny on her part had no idea what to expect so she just waited in silence as Harry drew his wand and raised his arm outside the cloak.

"Wingardium leviosa!" he whispered pointing his wand at a stick lying not so far away.

And then Ginny stared in awe and then shock as the stick flew between the angry branches until it hit the trunk and suddenly everything seemed to freeze. Not a leaf twitched or shook, it was as if the tree had been turned to marble.

"What...?"

"Come on, I'll explain inside," said Harry, taking off the Invisibility Cloak and dragging her forward. Snuffles had already reached the trunk and disappeared through a large gap in the roots.

Harry followed after Snuffles, crawling headfirst into the hole and also disappearing from sight. Ginny stood rooted to her spot, afraid the branches would start moving again and feeling as if she were stuck in the craziest dream, until Harry called out for her, telling her it was all right, that it was safe.

And of course Ginny followed.

She slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel, where Harry was waiting to help her up. He had his wand lit, and Ginny saw Snuffles' eyes flashing a few yards ahead.

"What is this?" she whispered. "Where are we going? How-?"

"Secret passage to Hogsmeade," said Harry, starting to walk at a crouch. Ginny lit her own wand and followed, still not quite believing where she was. "It comes out to the Shrieking Shack."

"The Shrieking Shack?" repeated Ginny in a higher voice that she had intended. It was said that the place was haunted, she really didn't like the idea of going there in the middle of the night.

"Don't worry, it's not haunted," said Harry, sounding amused. "Professor Lupin used to go there to transform every full moon when he was at school, there has never been anything more dangerous there."

Ginny tried to process that. She had never managed to completely assimilate the fact that Professor Lupin was a werewolf. He had been so kind and apparently harmless... But she knew that he had gotten loosed at the end of last year and almost killed someone. Snape had been involved in that, somehow, the same night when Sirius Black had been captured and then escaped. And the same night when Hagrid's hippogriff had escaped his death sentence. She was beginning to think that all those facts were connected, seeing that she was with Harry going to fetch a hippogriff —that must be hiding in Hogsmeade— using a tunnel previously used by a werewolf. How Sirius Black fit in all that, she couldn't yet figure it out, although she knew that the man had been trying to kill Harry all through last year.

She shook her head. Everything always seemed to happen to Harry.

"So... where did you get an Invisibility Cloak?" she asked, sorting through her endless questions and hoping to get some answers.

"It was my father's," came Harry's voice from ahead. "Dumbledore returned it to me in my first year."

"Does Ron know you have it?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Yeah," he said finally. "Hermione too. We used it together a lot of times."

They continued walking in silence for a while. Harry was probably moping about Ron. Ginny was trying to imagine Hermione breaking curfew to go on invisible walks with Harry.

"Do Fred and George know about this passage?" she asked eventually.

"They know it exists, but they don't know how to freeze the Whomping Willow."

"And how do you know that?"

"Crookshanks taught me last year," said Harry.

Ginny frowned. Was he messing with her? That didn't sound like Harry. And Crookshanks was smart, so who knew? She shook her head again. As much as she was pleased that Harry for once was including her in something and sharing secrets with her, she couldn't help feeling bitter at the awareness of just how much had been kept from her. Her own brothers had left her out, as always. Because she was a girl, and because no one would ever forget the Chamber incident and how weak and fragile she had proven to be.

She snapped out of her reverie when the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Snuffles disappeared from sight. Ginny felt nervous again at the prospect of being inside the Shrieking Shack, even though Harry had said it wasn't really haunted. Knowing that it had been the lair of a werewolf during the full moon didn't comfort her much. It actually made her sick to imagine kind Professor Lupin transforming into a bloodthirsty beast. And so close to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade!

Seeing the windows boarded up, the room full of broken furniture, and the stains all over the floor that looked suspiciously like blood only made her feel even more on edge.

"It's really safe," said Harry, who had turned off his wand and was using it now to lit some old candles around the room. Ginny noxed her wand too and knelt to rub Snuffle's ears, feeling a little better with the huge dog so close.

"What now?" she asked when Harry came to sit next to her on the floor, Snuffles immediately taking the chance to lick his face.

"Now I have to tell you something, Ginny. A secret. It's very important, so before I tell you I need your word that you will not tell anyone no matter what."

Ginny held Harry's serious gaze for a moment, and then nodded.

"You have my word," she promised.

He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself.

"All right. Remember Sirius Black?"

Snuffles' ears pricked up, and she too glanced around warily. This wasn't a good place to tell horror stories.

"Yes," she said hesitantly after a moment.

"He's my godfather."

Ginny stared at him with mouth open.

"What? Your own godfather was trying to kill you?" she almost screeched. Snuffles growled at her side, probably annoyed at the high pitch of her voice.

"No!" Harry rushed to say, burying his hand in the dog's fur to calm him down. "The thing is like this: Sirius Black was my father's best friend, along with Professor Lupin and-"

"Professor Lupin was friends with Sirius Black?" exclaimed Ginny again, horrified.

"Yes. Let me finish, all right? They were all best friends, my dad, Sirius, Professor Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. When Voldemort decided to go after my family, they cast a Fidelius Charm to hide from him, and told everyone that Sirius was the secret keeper. So when Voldemort killed my parents everyone assumed that Sirius had betrayed them. But they had actually changed secret keepers without telling anyone. It was Pettigrew who really betrayed them, and then framed Sirius by killing all those Muggles and faking his own death."

Harry made a pause and looked at her for a moment as if to make sure she was following. She nodded, although she wasn't sure she was really following.

"Remember Scabbers?" asked Harry next.

"Hard to forget a rat I knew since I was a baby," she said rolling her eyes despite her perplexity. What had Scabbers to do with anything?

"Right. Well... Scabbers wasn't really a rat," said Harry. "Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew, an Animagus."

Ginny just stared. It was the second time that night that Harry said something absurd with a straight face, and she was seriously beginning to fear that either he had a weird sense of humour that she had never noticed or he was going insane. With all the pressure of the Tournament and almost asphyxiating after the second task she supposed it was possible his brain wasn't working right.

"I'm serious, Ginny," said Harry seriously. "You can ask Ron and Hermione later, or even Dumbledore. Peter Pettigrew could take the form of a rat with one missing finger, which was the finger he had cut off to fake his death."

A shiver ran down her spine. It was true that Scabbers had missed a finger, and it was said that they had only found one finger of the wizard Sirius Black had blown to bits.

"Pettigrew chose your family to hide for over a decade so he could be informed of what was happening in the wizarding world," continued Harry. "Until last year. Sirius saw that picture of your family in Egypt in the Daily Prophet and recognized Scabbers, so he escaped to protect me from him. That's why he was trying to get into Hogwarts last year: to get to Pettigrew. But Pettigrew knew Sirius was after him, so he again faked his death and ran away."

Ginny's mouth was hanging open, but she didn't bother closing it knowing that it would just drop again. She could easily recall that day when Ron had come down from his dormitory with a bloody sheet and accused Crookshanks of eating Scabbers. Was Harry saying that Scabbers —a rat— had staged that? Was Ginny seriously considering this ridiculous story? She knew about Animagi, Professor McGonagall had set them an essay not long ago and she had seen her transform, but Animagi were supposed to be extremely rare and they had to be registered...

Had there been a strange man —a murderer, a traitor, a Death Eater— living as a rat in the middle of her family for her entire life? Scabbers had slept with Percy and later with Ron, Ginny had held him countless times. She felt sick.

"At the end of last year," Harry went on, "Hermione, Ron and I found Scabbers hiding in Hagrid's hut. But when we were going back to the castle Sirius Black intercepted us and dragged Ron and Scabbers here through the passage." Ginny covered her mouth with her hands without conscious thought. So far Harry had made it sound as if Sirius Black wasn't really a crazy murderer, but she couldn't help freaking out a little at the thought of that man attacking her dumb brother for any reason. She looked around, trying to imagine whatever had happened here, wondering if those stains were of Ron's blood. Harry kept talking, "Hermione and I came after them. There was a bit of misunderstanding and explaining during which Snape and Professor Lupin got involved and a few of us considered to kill each other, but what really matters is that Scabbers was forced to transform back, and we met Pettigrew. He confessed everything, but when we were taking him back to the castle to deliver him to the Ministry and clear Sirius' name there was a little incident with a werewolf and the Dementors, and Pettigrew escaped. Sirius was captured, but Dumbledore sort of gave us an idea to rescue him before the Dementors could give him the kiss, and in the end he escaped flying on Buckbeak, Hagrid's convicted hippogriff."

Ginny was still stunned, but Harry's obvious sincerity, the amount of crazy details and especially the mention of several teachers including Dumbledore as witnesses was making hard not to believe the story.

"So he's innocent?" she managed to ask finally. "Sirius Black?"

"Yes."

"And Scabbers... I mean, Pettigrew..."

"He escaped. I suspect he went to meet Voldemort to help him return."

Snuffles growled just as Ginny felt another shiver down her spine. If You-Know-Who returned because of Scabbers she would never forgive herself for stopping the twins from using the rat in that suspicious experiment that blew up half their bedroom.

Her mum would go nuts if she ever heard about this.

She wanted to ask about Snape's and Lupin's involvement, especially the werewolf part, but she was remembering that they had come here tonight for a reason, not just to tell stories. She had already figured out that the fugitive hippogriff Harry had mentioned must be the one that Malfoy had tried to get executed last year, but if Sirius Black had escaped in said hippogriff then...

Was Harry going to take her up on what she had said about harbouring a fugitive for him? Perhaps Ginny should have been more careful with her words. It was one thing to hide a dog or even a hippogriff of questionable origin, quite another to hide the most famous fugitive ever.

"Are we here to meet Sirius Black?" she asked, sounding surprizingly calm.

Harry nodded.

"Yes. I thought you should know who he is before we moved on with this. I'll understand if you don't think it's a good idea anymore."

Ginny wasn't sure what she should be thinking anymore. Harry was family, that meant they had to help him if he needed help —and if there wasn't a damned Goblet preventing it—, but what if helping him got the rest of the family in serious trouble? An enchanted car, a rescued hippogriff, a stolen dog... those were minor offenses. Harbouring Sirius Black was a whole other level of law-breaking.

The man was innocent, though, according to Harry. And he was his godfather. Surely if the rest of her family knew that they would agree to shelter him, especially since Dumbledore seemed to believe him innocent too. Although Percy might be a problem...

"All right," she finally said, calling on her Gryffindor courage or at least on her pretence of it. "Where is he?"

Harry climbed to his feet and offered a hand to Ginny to help her up. Despite the situation her heart couldn't help to give a jump at the touch, as usual.

"There's something else you must know," said Harry as he pulled her back a few feet, leaving Snuffles behind. "Sirius is an Animagus too."

Ginny must be really dumb, because it took her like an entire minute to connect the dots and realize that Snuffles was watching her too intently. She still couldn't quite believe her eyes when suddenly the dog was replaced by the most terrifying-looking person she had ever seen. A tall man dressed in ragged grey robes that might very well be his Azkaban uniform, with shoulder-length matted black hair and a gaunt, sunken face from which haunted eyes stared right at her.

Her mind was spinning, multiple realizations struggling to be acknowledged at the same time. If Snuffles was Sirius Black... Then Sirius Black had been at the bottom of the lake. He was what Harry would miss the most. Sirius Black had bitten Snape and had been tortured by him. Did Snape know who he was? Dumbledore must, if he had been in charge of getting Harry's hostage. Luna had also somehow known that Snuffles wasn't really a dog.

Over and over again, though, Ginny's mind went back to the disturbing thought that she had rubbed this man's belly while he was a dog.