Butterfly Effect ; H. Potter

16. voldemort's servant.

What little colour there was in Black's face left it.

"You - you've got to hear me out," he croaked. "The rat - look at the rat -"

But there was a mad glint in Snape's eye that Harry had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason.

"Come on, all of you," he said. He clicked his finger, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew t his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the Dementors will have a kiss for him, too -"

Before he knew what he was doing, Harry had crossed the room in three strides and blocked the door.

"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled Snape. "if I hadn't been here to save your skin -"

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," Harry said. "Antheia and I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," hissed Snape. "Get out of the way, Potter."

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN -"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck, you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well-served if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black - now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

Antheia pulled her arm out of Hermione's grasp and raised her wand.

"Expelliarmus!" she yelled - except she wasn't the only voice that shouted. There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out.

Antheia looked around. Ron, Hermione, and Harry had also tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same moment. Snape's wand soared in a high arc and landed on the bed next to Crookshanks.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Black, looking at each of them. "You should have left him to me ..."

"Yeah, because you were doing so well on your own," Antheia said, not taking her eyes off Snape.

"We attacked a teacher ... we attacked a teacher ..." Hermione whimpered, staring at the lifeless Snape with frightened eyes. "Oh, we're going to be in so much trouble -"

Lupin was struggling against his bonds. Antheia ran over to him and with Black, bent down and untied him. Lupin straightened up, rubbing his arms where the ropes had cut into them.

"Thank you," he said.

"I'm not saying I believe you," Harry retorted.

"Then it's time we offered you some proof," said Black. "You, boy - give me Peter. Now."

Ron clutched Scabbers closer to his chest.

"Come off it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say you broke out of Azkaban just to get your hands on Scabbers? I mean ..." he looked up at the others for support. "OK, say Pettigrew could tur into a rat - there are millions of rats - how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he was locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," said Lupin, turning to Black and frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"

Black put one of his claw-like hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smoothed flat, and held out to show the others. It was the photograph of Ron and his family that had appeared in the Daily Prophet the previous summer, and there, on Ron's shoulder, was Scabbers.