O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

XVII ; the dementor's kiss

            "yeah, i mean it!" said harry.

            and though elara would never admit this to anyone, she was close to crying happy tears. she'd never been told about the dursley's behavior, and she could only assume they were terrible to harry, but the happiness and hope filling harry's voice made elara herself happy.

            black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile elara had seen upon it. the difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask. 

            black saw snape up through the hole, then stood back for harry, elara and hermione to pass. at last, all of them were out. the grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. without a word, they set off. pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering.

            "one wrong move, peter," said lupin threateningly ahead. his wand was still pointed sideways at pettigrew's chest.

             silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of black, his chin bumping on his chest. and then --

            a cloud shifted. there were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. their party was bathed in moonlight.

            snape collided with lupin, pettigrew, and ron, who had stopped abruptly. black froze. he flung out one arm to make harry, elara and hermione stop.

            elara could see lupin's silhouette. he had gone rigid. then his limbs began to shake.

            "oh, my —" hermione gasped. "he didn't take his potion tonight! he's not safe!"

            "run," black whispered. "run. now."

            but elara couldn't run. ron was chained to pettigrew and lupin. she and harry leapt forward but black caught them and threw him back.

            "leave it to me — RUN!"

            there was a terrible snarling noise. lupin's head was lengthening. so was his body. his shoulders were hunching. hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws. crookshanks's hair was on end again; he was backing away —

            as the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, sirius disappeared from elara's side. he had transformed. the enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. as the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from ron and pettigrew. they were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other.

            elara stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. it was hermione's scream that alerted her —

            pettigrew had dived for lupin's dropped wand. ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. there was a bang, a burst of light — and ron lay motionless on the ground. another bang — crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.

            "expelliarmus!" harry yelled, pointing his own wand at pettigrew; lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "stay where you are!" harry shouted, running forward.

           elara ran after him as well. she pointed her wand at the scrambling man and screamed, "petrificus totalus!"

            too late. pettigrew had transformed. elara saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on ron's outstretched arm and heard a scurrying through the grass.