Chapter 26- In which Severus scowls

Harry just shrugged. Dean, Seamus, Neville and Ron left. Harry continued reading but he blinked more and more each time. The words were getting blurrier and blurrier. The pillow he was propped against was getting softer and softer and in no time Harry was lost in dreamland.

A soft pop was heard and with a smirk a squeaky voice said, “Now, where do you keep your father’s cloak Harry?”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 27- Be the wolf

When Remus came out of his room, he paused and frowned. Sirius was seated at the couch. One arm was resting on his knee and the other was propped up by his elbow, resting on the other knee. His face was resting on his fist and he was staring dejectedly at a stack of parchments.

“Padfoot, what’s wrong?” Remus asked sitting next to Sirius worried.

“Harry’s essay,” Sirius mumbled.

“That bad?” Remus winced.

“No,” Sirius cried desperately, “It’s perfect! How could he do this to me?”

Remus really tried to sympathize as he saw his friend’s pained face, but he just couldn’t resist.

“That’s awful Paddy. The nerve of handing you a perfect essay. Kids nowadays have no respect whatsoever. No consideration. Cheeky little bugger!”

“This isn’t funny Moony,” Sirius hissed glaring, “What am I going to do now?”

Remus sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “It’s the last week of term and afterwards he’s not allowed to do magic. It would be pointless to start now. So tell him he’ll have to wait until September.”

“And then?”

“And then Paddy you can’t postpone anymore. Sorry,” he said sympathetically.

Sirius slumped back on the couch miserably. Remus chuckled lightly. Sirius looked at his friend when he heard the chuckle morph into a swear. He followed Remus’ gaze and the blood drained from his face. They both set off on a run.

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Harry opened his eyes blearily. He felt a hard surface against his back. As his vision focused he saw a woman smiling at him. He shivered; this was no warm smile. This smile sent creeps down Harry’s spine. It looked so wrong. He recognized the face. She looked so much like Aunt Andy, but where Aunt Andy’s features radiated warmth she radiated evil.

“So nice of you to join us Harry,” she said sweetly as she ran the tip of a wand down his face. Harry was horrified to see that it was the tip of his wand.

“How rude of me. I didn’t introduce myself properly did I? I am your Auntie Bellatrix. I am sure daddy Blood traitor must have told you all about me,” she said getting up from her kneeling position. Harry looked around. He was in a dust covered and very battered room with furniture that looked like it had been chewed. A distant memory from the Marauder’s tales came up, and Harry knew where he was. He tried to get up but Bellatrix swiftly pointed his wand at him.

“Na, na, Harry. Don’t move.”

He stopped mid motion, already propped up by his elbows.

“You must be wondering why I haven’t killed you yet,” Bellatrix said as if talking to a small child she was helping, “Don’t fret. I will. But first I want to take you to my Lord so he can have his revenge. And of course, I want to have a little fun, Crucio.”

His bones were on fire; he had never experienced so much pain, not even at the end of his first year. His eyes were rolling back and he was biting his lips so to not cry out, he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. After what seemed to be an eternity, as suddenly as the pain came it stopped.

“It won’t do to break you completely,” Bellatrix said with a pout, “You know Harry. Your daddy should have given Kreacher clothes,” she laughed evilly. “You see, Kreacher didn’t want to obey me. Nope he did not. But he is bound by his magic to obey me because I am a Black. Of course,” she said tilting her head, “I couldn’t make him hurt you directly. The magic doesn’t allow a house-elf to directly harm his master. But I was able to summon him and order Kreacher to get a certain rat inside the castle on Halloween and inside Gryffindor Tower today.” A strangled squeak was heard and Harry saw for the first time a balding, rat-faced man trying to squeeze himself against the wall. “See, I provided Kreacher with a pumpkin juice laced with a mild sleeping draught and ordered him to give it to you. But most importantly, I ordered him right in the beginning not to tell anyone about my orders or give them hints. He didn’t have a choice. And now, thanks to him and that nice shining cloak you have, Peter was able to get you here with no one finding out. Isn’t it perfect Harry? Just the three of us.”

Harry was trembling with a mixture of the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse and rage. He saw that Pettigrew was clutching his Invisibility Cloak, his dad’s Invisibility Cloak. “Take your traitor paws off my dad’s cloak,” he hissed.

“No, no, no, Harry. You don’t get to make demands here. Maybe another dose will teach you, Crucio,” Bellatrix said in a singsong voice.

“Bella,” Harry heard Pettigrew squeak from afar. The sounds where somewhat muffled by the intense pain Harry was in. “We shouldn’t linger. Someone might come.”

Bellatrix lifted the curse and looked annoyed at Pettigrew, “No one will come Peter. They don’t know we’re here.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure cousin,” came an icy drawl while another voice shouted:

“Expelliarmus.”

Caught off-guard Bellatrix lost Harry’s wand. From his place on the floor, Harry saw Sirius with his wand digging in Pettigrew’s cheek and Remus, who had two wands, right in front of Bellatrix, who didn’t seem like she was going to give up just because she was unarmed. They were circling each other and Bellatrix foolishly lunged at Remus when he cried “Incarcerous.”

Ropes wound around her and she fell on the floor. Sirius had considerately done the same to Peter and hissed angrily at him as he put the Invisibility Cloak in his pocket.

“You disgust me Peter. You were once as important to me as James and Remus. I would have died for you. But you broke that. You threw that away and for what?”

“I was scared,” Pettigrew sobbed.

“We all were,” Remus said dryly. He kneeled next to where Harry was trying to get up and helped him. Harry couldn’t seem to stop shaking slightly.

“We’ll get you to Poppy. She’ll give you something for the after effects of the curse,” he said gently. Harry nodded.

Sirius came to them, never shifting his gaze from the prisoners, “You okay pup?” he softly kissed Harry’s head. Harry wasn’t, but it wasn’t the time or place to dawdle so he nodded.

“We should levitate them. It’ll be safer,” Remus said.

“They’re quiet,” Harry noted.

“Bella can get annoyingly chatty,” Sirius said patting Bellatrix’s cheek. She was floating mid air in a horizontal position, and if looks could kill Sirius would be dead right now. “So I silenced them.”

They set back to the castle through the passageway.

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The portrait door was banged open and Severus stalked in with all his fury.

“Lupin! How could you be so irresponsible!” he started to yell, but the Marauder’s Quarters was empty. He swore furiously. “Where are you wolf?” he hissed as he banged the goblet he was carrying on the coffee table, “I am not your house-elf.”

He was about to curse again, when his eyes landed on the wall. There, pinned and active as it had been all year since the twins gave it to Remus, was the Marauder’s Map. Except there were two bright red dots that shouldn’t have been there. Severus’ heart dropped. Remus had charmed the map to show Bellatrix and Pettigrew in red so they could be spotted easily. He walked closer to the map and saw they were in the tunnel that led to the Shrieking Shack coming towards Hogwarts with Harry, Sirius and-- oh no-- Remus!

Severus looked outside and swore. He bolted out the door while sending a silver doe from his wand, and ran as fast as he could towards the Entrance Hall. He passed shocked students that weren’t used to see him run. He sprinted towards his goal that never seemed to get any closer. He finally got out the castle doors and ran towards the Whomping Willow.

As he got closer his blood froze. He could see from the distance two bodies that had been floating drop to the ground. He saw Harry frozen on the spot and heard Sirius’ cry of “Run Harry!” But there was no way Harry would be fast enough, because Severus also saw that Remus was almost completely transformed.

Severus kept running towards them and chanting in his head:

“Come on you can do this! You have to! You can’t leave Sirius to hold Moony alone! Be the bloody wolf!”

He felt his skin tingle but it wasn’t happening fast enough.

“Do you want Harry dead?” he screamed in his thought “You can do this!”

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Harry didn’t want to leave Sirius alone but he knew Sirius had a better chance than he did. He started to scramble away but his legs were weak. His dad had helped him most of the way. There was no way he would be able to run fast enough but he had to try. Remus wouldn’t forgive himself if he hurt Harry. That was one of the reasons that even with the Wolfsbane he never allowed Harry near him.

Harry was about to run when he saw Bellatrix getting ready to run too. Crap! Remus spell must have been canceled once he transformed, and she got free. She was grabbing the wand Remus had dropped and was freeing Pettigrew.

“Expeliarmus!” Harry cried and the wand flew out of her hand and into Harry’s, but it was too late. Pettigrew transformed and was out of sight. Bellatrix smiled at Harry when they heard a loud growl. Moony and Padfoot were fighting. Padfoot was trying to keep Moony away from the humans but Moony was stronger.

“I think we’re both going to die today Harry,” she said pleasantly. She didn’t seem scared as long as Harry died too.

Suddenly a completely black wolf joined the fight. Moony was being subdued by the two black canines. They were able to start backing Moony away from Harry and Bellatrix, and towards the lake.

“Guess not,” Harry hissed pointing his wand at her. He knew he had to get out of here. What if Moony got free? But he couldn’t let her escape. What was the spell Remus said, ah “Incarcerous.” But nothing happened and Bellatrix laughed.

 “Forgot the wand movement Harry.” She started to run away and Harry ran after her sending the hexes he knew. But it was dark and his arm was still shaking from the Cruciatus Curse making his aim almost non-existent. He heard her hiss after he sent a blistering hex but that wasn’t enough to make her stop running. But Harry suddenly stopped pursuing her when he heard whines coming from the lake. Whines that came from animals in pain. Harry didn’t know what to do, if he went he could meet Moony there, but his dad and Uncle Sev could be badly injured. He took the Gryffindor way and ran towards the lake. He was panting with the effort of making his sore limbs obey him and it took him a while to realize that he was feeling colder.

He looked around and his heart dropped. Dementors. At least a hundred of them. Harry tried to run faster and he spotted the two he was looking for as they transformed back into humans. But they weren’t moving. They were too injured to do so. Desperate, Harry dropped next to their lying forms and pointed his wand at the Dementors.

He could do this. He did it already. He started hearing his mother’s cries but shook his head. No, he couldn’t think of that. He conjured every happy memory he had. Goofing around with his friends, his Uncle Remus reading to him when he was little, rides in his dad’s flying bike. Uncle Sev teaching him potions in his private lab and saying how proud he was. His grandfather sneaking him sweats. He mostly remembered how he felt safe and loved by them all and how he would not let them be hurt.

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!”

The silver Wolf-dog erupted from his wand and ran towards the approaching Dementors. It started driving them away and was trotting around him and the two fallen shapes in a protective way as the Dementors started backing out. Retreating into darkness. Harry kept urging his Patronus but the darkness was starting to overcome him. His injuries were painstakingly making their presence known and when Harry couldn’t see any more Dementors his head fell on Severus’ chest.

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Harry woke up to the sound of hushed conversation.

“How is he?” he heard his grandfather ask.

“Sore. He had some bruises and lacerations that I had to fix. He is a little more worse for wear than Sirius and Severus, but just as with them I fixed that already. He’ll need rest. It’s been more than a decade since he transformed without the potion. He wasn’t used to it, naturally. But he’ll recover physically,” Poppy answered.

Harry stayed quiet in his bed and he could almost see his grandfather’s sad face, “Poor boy. He always feared this. And the others?”

“Severus and Sirius had gashes that were results from the fight. They had lost a considerable amount of blood but I already gave them Blood Replenishing Potions and they should be fine once they wake up. Harry was the one I was most worried about. He had signs of the Cruciatus Curse being performed on him twice. That is enough to make any grown wizard need plenty of rest. But have it put on a growing boy! It was a miracle Harry was able to walk after that. I gave him potions to counter act the effects. I was worried it could leave lasting damage since he is so young, but thank God Harry is strong. On top of that he was magically exhausted. It’s a good thing that classes are over because he should refrain from performing any kind of magic for a couple of weeks at least.”

“Understandable. He drove all those Dementors away by himself after being injured. I reached them as soon as I could after receiving Severus’ message but by then all I saw was Harry’s Patronus fading.”

“And the Dementors?” Poppy asked crossed.

“Gone,” Dumbledore answered, “Cornelius couldn’t refuse once those Dementors attacked a child and two teachers, and let the convicts escape again. I’ll let them rest.”

As he heard the footsteps fade Harry looked around. His dad and Uncle Sev were in deep sleeps in the two beds next to him. A little farther there was another bed, but Harry could see from the shaking shoulders that the person on it was not asleep, even though he had his back to Harry. Harry got up gingerly, since he was still very sore, and walked towards the bed. As he went around it, he saw that the man on the bed was hiding under the blankets, with only his brown hair showing. Harry sat on the bed beside him, startling him. Brown pained eyes met green as the blanket came off his face. Harry softly kissed Remus’ forehead and hugged him, mindful of his Uncle’s injuries.

“It’s okay Uncle Moony. Shh, everything worked out okay. Everything will be fine.”

“I almost bit you,” Remus whispered as if scared to even ponder the thought.

“But you didn’t,” Harry said firmly, “And if you had it wouldn’t have been your fault. You had no control.”

Remus shook his head and Harry held him close. The roles were reversed and this time Harry comforted Remus as he wept into Harry’s chest.

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Sirius opened his eyes and looked around. Hospital Wing, just great! He hated being here. As the events of the previous night came to mind, he sat up quickly.

“Stay down Mr. Black,” Madam Pomfrey’s stern voice said. “I may have healed your cuts and scrapes but you are ordered to bed rest.”

Sirius looked around and saw Severus in the bed next to him, being poked by the matron. He couldn’t see Harry though, and was about to get hysterical when he spotted a faraway bed where Harry and Remus seemed to be asleep in a very awkward position. Harry was seated propped against the headboard and Remus was resting against Harry’s chest.

“They will be fine. I put a cushioning charm on the headboard. I thought of moving Harry but that would wake them and God knows they both need to rest,” Pomfrey said.

“What happened last night? I remember chasing Moony with help from a black wolf. That was you right Severus?”

“Yes,” Severus answered, “I thought he was going to overpower us. I had never fought a werewolf before. I remember him running away. Then I remember turning back into a human and feeling cold. That’s the last thing I remember.”

“Me too,” Sirius said and looked expectantly at Poppy. She sighed and related the rest of the night’s event.

“And this morning Albus went into the forest to look for Remus,” she finished.

“I am going to kill him!” Severus cried at the same time that Sirius cried:

“He’ll be grounded for the rest of his life!”

“Keep your voices down!” Pomfrey said sternly, “If you wake those two I’ll be the one doing the killings here.”

“He could have died Poppy!” Sirius said in a lower distressed tone.

“And you two would have died, or worse, if Harry hadn’t done something, Sirius!” she said sternly, “Albus himself says he would have been too late.”

Severus huffed and scowled crossing his arms, “He should have ran to safety like Sirius told him to, and left us to fend for ourselves. We are the adults here.”

“Oh, stop that Severus!”  She said annoyed, “Yes, he should, but you should know by now that Harry would never do that. And it’s not like he goes looking for this kind of trouble. There is no need to ground him forever.”

Sirius huffed too. Poppy said nothing else while she finished her examination. Once she left them alone, Sirius said tapping his chin with his finger:

“Blackie.”

“Excuse me?” Severus asked.

“Your nickname; Blackie.”

Severus raised one eyebrow and hissed, “I will not be called Blackie.”

“Sorry, you don’t get to choose your nickname. Or do you really think Moony chose his, huh? Prongs, Wormtail. Need I say more? Nope, and unfortunately for you, my nickname was chosen last, Prongs and Moony got to choose twice and I didn’t get to choose any, it was so unfair. And I’ve been waiting almost twenty years for revenge, Blackie.”

Severus scowled and glared but Sirius just smiled.

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