Malak Aboul Gheit is no stranger to suffering. To death. But she is neither a stranger to love.
The path of this young Egyptian witch as she joins Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy in 3rd year seemed uncertain, but she will soon be trapped i...
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To Malak's surprise, the potion's master actually followed the map to the base of the Whomping Willow.
The magical plant was not attacking and crushing its surroundings, thus meaning that someone had been there before them and used Crookshanks' clever trick to avoid the fury of the violent tree.
The absurdity of the situation made Malak want to laugh, but of course she knew better than that. If Snape were to find Sirius, the situation could take an ugly turn that she needed to be prepared to face.
The prisoner of Azkaban was weakened, but he seemed to be an able wizard — hopefully her professor would have a hard time dueling both of them if it came down to it.
If the worst came to happen, Malak could apparate them out to Beit-l-Gheit — nobody would be able to find Sirius there.
These thoughts occupied the Egyptian's mind as she carefully climbed the wooden stairs of the Shrieking Shack, trying hard to mirror Snape's moves as not to make a sound.
Yet loud voices could be heard from upstairs.
Sirius Black was not alone.
Have I made a mistake? Are those Death Eathers? Malak started to second-guess herself.
"... very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job" a familiar voice echoed in the distance.
Lupin? Who is he talking to?
"He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to betrusted. He has his reasons... you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —" the DADA instructor kept on explaining.
Snape held his ground at the stairs, not wanting to reveal his presence just yet, as he waited for the appropriate chance.
"It served him right," now it was Sirius voice that Malak heard. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..."
"Severus was very interested in where I went every month" Lupin told whoever else was in the room.
Malak could not be sure, but if she were to guess, she would definitely place her bet on the luckiest trio of the school. How fortunate.
"We were in the same year, you know, and we didn't like each other very much" Lupin's tale went on.
"He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field... anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it — if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf — but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was..."
