• Serena Black •
"To the devine,
mischievous
spark in you."
No more light shone through the boards on the windows, the room they were standing in was now shrouded in almost complete darkness. Five pairs of eyes were fixed tensely on Serena, who was negotiating a war with herself in her head.
Her head was screaming, "Don't do it!" But her heart told her otherwise. The Gryffindor had felt for some time, after all, that there was something more than just fishy about the whole story. Now she might learn the truth, but at a high price; the lives of her friends.
The tension in the room seemed palpable. Only the desperate squeal of Scabbers could be heard in the silence of those present. Serena let her gaze wander, as if finding an answer in the faces of the others. Hermione had pressed her lips together so tightly that they had lost colour. Next to her stood Harry, alert and curious, returning her gaze. Ron alone shook his head.
Her father's grey eyes looked at her hopefully, but she also saw desire glittering in them. The desire to commit the murder he couldn't then. Could she trust someone like that?
Lupin looked wearily towards her. He appeared far more composed than his friend. But his expression also reflected a silent pleading. Serena remembered the photo. Four friends happy and carefree. The image she had got of them was only reinforced by the memories in the Pensieve. One person, however, always looked out of place.
Serena took a deep breath and had to close her eyes as she placed the wand in her godfather's outstretched hand. "Prove it."
"Thank you, Serena." Relief flashed around his features and when nothing bad happened, Serena dared to open her eyes again. Lupin had now turned away from her again. "So, I will best start at the beginning. My transformations in those days were... were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and, of course, your father, Harry. James Potter. Of course, my three friends couldn't fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. But like you, Hermione, they soon found out the truth. And they didn't let me down. On the contrary, they did something for me that made my transformations not only bearable, but the best time of my life. They became Animagi."
"My dad too?" asked Harry in amazement, his green eyes shining eagerly to know more.
"Yes, indeed," he replied, "It took them nearly three years to figure out how to do it. Your father and Sirius here were, the brightest students at Hogwarts and that was fortunate, because turning into an Animagus can go horribly wrong. Peter certainly couldn't have done it without the help of James and Sirius."
Serena knew the roughest parts of the story, but she listened raptly. Harry, Ron and Hermione also seemed spellbound by his words. Even her father listened intently to his words, as if he had never heard this story before. "Every month they would sneak out of the castle under James' cloak of invisibility. I was less dangerous under their influence. My body was still that of a wolf, but when I was with them I felt more like a human. I don't think any Hogwarts student ever found out more about the castle and the lands than we did. And so we decided to write the marauder's map and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."
"What an animal ... ?" Harry wanted to know, but Hermione interrupted him. "It was still very dangerous! Walking around in the dark with a werewolf."
"You're right," Lupin agreed with her thoughtfully, "But we were young and we thought with our acumen we could do anything. I won't hide the fact that sometimes things got dicey. One day, it all came back to me. You must have noticed that Professor Snape doesn't like me very much. The reason is that Sirius played a trick on him that almost cost him his life."
"Served him right,' croaked his friend. "Snooping around, trying to find out what we were up to. He just wanted us to get expelled!"
"Snape was very keen to know where I disappeared to every month. Sirius thought it was a... well, funny idea to tell Snape that all he had to do was touch the knot at the Whomping Willow with a long stick and then he could follow me. Only, of course Snape tried it, but James, hearing what Sirius had done, ran after Snape and dragged him back..."
Serena's eyes widened. So he had very well tried to kill someone in his youth. Although Snape would have been no particular loss in her opinion, there was still a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. At least now she knew why her Potions teacher hadn't necessarily taken a fancy to her.
"And that's why Snape doesn't like you?" asked Harry slowly. "Because he thought you knew about Sirius' joke?"
Suddenly, Serena was grabbed from behind. Panicked, she looked around the room, but everyone present was still in their seats. They looked similarly frightened as she was. She started to fight back with her hands and feet, but when she looked behind her, there was only air and dust. As if by an invisible hand, she was then pulled roughly upwards by the collar and gasped as the tie almost cut off her air.
"That's right," said a cold voice near her ear, sending goose bumps down her spine. Her heart slipped down her skirt. Please don't. Severus Snape, who had obviously been catching the conversation for some time, tore off his cloak triumphantly. With his free hand, which he had not pierced into Serena's cloak, he threatened Lupin with his wand.
Desperately, the Gryffindor tried to loosen his firm grip on her hood, but either he didn't notice that she was almost choking or he simply didn't care. As Hermione cried out brightly, her father jumped to his feet. He pointed accusingly at his former classmate. "Get your filthy hands off her!"
"How touching." But Snape only gripped her tighter and grinned dirtily. He tossed aside the cloak of invisibility without even briefly turning his wand away from Lupin's chest and eyed the erupted occupant with disgust. "But your fingers are the only dirty ones here."
"I've warned the Headmaster time and time again that you're helping your old friend Black get into the school, Lupin, and here's the proof. But not even I dreamed that you would have the nerve to use this old hut as a hideout," Snape continued after a few seconds, having continued to savour the moment of triumph. Fortunately, he had loosened his grip a little so that Serena was able to breathe again, but still hung in his clutches like a defenceless kitten grabbed by the scruff of the neck.
"Severus, you're making a mistake," Professor Lupin spoke urgently to him. "You haven't heard it all... I can explain... Sirius isn't here to kill Harry!"
"Two more prisoners for Azkaban tonight," Snape merely said in response, not having listened to him at all. He looked like a man possessed, who seemed to have waited his whole life for this one moment. "I wonder how Dumbledore will take all this... He was completely convinced that you were harmless, Lupin.... a tame werewolf."
"You fool!" he cursed softly, no longer appearing calm and matter-of-fact for the first time that evening. "Is resentment over a student's prank reason enough to take an innocent man to Azkaban?"
In response, thin ropes shot from the tip of Snape's wand and snaked around Lupin's mouth, wrists and heels; he lost his balance and tumbled to the ground, where he remained without being able to lift a finger.
"No!" screamed Serena, throwing herself forward with her entire body weight to free herself from Snape's grip and rush to her godfather's aid. "Please let him tell the story!"
"Shut up, you stupid brat!" he hissed, but Serena had managed to fight her way forward a few inches to be able to look into his distraught face. Her father jumped up from the bed and was about to pounce on Snape. However, he stopped him from coming closer by pointing his wand directly between his bright eyes.
"Revenge is sweet as sugar," breathed the Potions Master. "How I hoped to get my hands on you first ..."
"And now you're the fool again, Snivellus," his counterpart said calmly, nodding his head in the direction where Ron was crouching with Scabbers. "If this boy can get his rat into the castle, I'll come along without a fuss."
"To the castle?" asked Snape unctuously, "I don't think we need to go that far. As soon as we're out in front of the willow, I'll call the Dementors. They will be delighted to see you, Black.... So delighted, I'm sure they'll want to give you a little kiss..."
The little colour on Serena's father's haggard face disappeared and he seemed to have no casual response to that. Serena felt the panic rising in her too. She just wanted to know what had really happened then. Otherwise she would carry these questions around with her for the rest of her life and never find peace, she was sure. The only one who could answer them stood so close to her that she could count the dark speckles in his grey eyes, which looked up at her captor with hatred. A father had never seemed closer to her and yet so far away as he did at that moment.
Hermione took an uncertain step towards Snape and also tried to speak to him in a matte voice, "Professor Snape, it... wouldn't hurt to hear what you have to say, would it?"
"Miss Granger, you already have expulsion waiting for you," Snape barked, not listening to a word she said. A mad flicker had entered his eyes. Apparently he had now completely left the realm of reason. "You, Potter, Black and Weasley have broken all the rules and are in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. Even if it is for the first time in your lives, keep your mouth shut."
Triumphantly, he licked his lips as Hermione fell silent. "Come along, all of you," he then ordered. He snapped his fingers and the ends of the ropes binding Lupin flew into his hands, "I'll pull the werewolf. Maybe the Dementors have a kiss left for him too."
Serena's heart sped up as he dragged her away from her father and tried to push her through the door. Fortunately, her hands were free, and she clung to the doorframe left and right. She also placed her feet on either side, blocking the way like a human starfish. Much to Professor Snape's displeasure. "Move it, Black!"
The Gryffindor turned her head to the left, where Harry stood. He seemed to understand her silent plea and nodded. He too now stepped into his teacher's path.
"Out of the way, Potter, you've got more than enough trouble on your hands already," Snape snarled. "If I hadn't come here and saved your skin..."
"You're pathetic!" shouted Harry. "Just because you were made a fool of at school, you won't even listen now!"
"Silence! That's no way to talk to me!" blathered Snape, and at that moment he looked more like a lunatic than ever. The dark eyes almost popped out of his eyeballs at that. "Like father, like son, Potter! I just saved your neck, you should be on your knees thanking me for it! It would have served you right if he'd killed you! You would have died like your father, too arrogant to believe he was wrong about Black. Get out of the way, or I'll clear you out!"
Once again, the two marauders' children made eye contact. Harry nodded once more to Serena. Silently she formed with her mouth: One.... Two.... Three!" Just before she formed the last word, she detached her arms and legs from the doorframe and kicked Snape in the shin with all the force she could muster.
Painfully, he cried out and let go of her. Serena lunged forward. The fact that she preferred to run into the arms of a convicted murderer spoke volumes about what she thought of her teacher.