Alex let out a strangled sob that was louder than she anticipated before covering her mouth with her hands to muffle the sound so the men nearby didn't hear her. She could feel Harry freeze as well. Then they heard a loud wail.
"Hagrid," Harry told them, going to turn and head back to his hut.
"Harry, no!" Alex exclaimed quietly as all three of them grabbed his arm to keep him from moving back.
"We can't," Ron told them, his face paler than usual. "He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him..."
Alex sobbed quietly, covering her mouth again to conceal the noise. Hermione was breathing quickly and raggedly as they continued walking towards the castle. "How - could - they?" She spoke. "How could they?"
"Come on," Ron told them.
The group began to walk back up to the castle, trying to go slow so the Cloak continued to keep them hidden. Alex could still feel Scabbers squirming around, causing her to grit her teeth.
"Ron," she spoke in a warning tone, not in the mood to be dealing with a rat who couldn't keep still or quiet.
"Scabbers, keep still," Ron told the rat as he wriggled under his hand. "What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still - OUCH! He bit me!"
"Ron, be quiet!" Hermione warned. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute -"
"He won't - stay - put -" Ron gritted as Scabbers was writhing with everything that was left in the little rat. He was absolutely terrified and none of them knew why.
"What's the matter with him?" Harry asked.
Then movement caught Alex's eyes and she spotted Crookshanks creeping towards them. She gasped as she nudged Ron, who spotted the cat as well.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione spoke. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"
"Scabbers - NO!" Ron yelled.
The rat managed to slip between Ron's hands and was scrambling away. Crookshanks ran after him, causing Ron to throw the Invisibility Cloak off himself and Alex as well, since she'd been standing so close to him and run into the darkness.
"Ron!" Alex yelled, running after him.
She could hear Ron ahead, as well as Harry and Hermione running behind her as they came up to where Ron was shouting at Crookshanks.
"Get away from him - get away - Scabbers, come here - Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat -"
Alex tripped over Ron's leg and collapsed next to him to see he was still struggling with Scabbers in his hands. Harry and Hermione luckily skidded to a stop right in front of the two of them.
"Ron - Alex - come on - back under the cloak -" Hermione spoke breathlessly. "Dumbledore - the Minister - they'll be coming back out in a minute -"
But Hermione's words were cut off at the sound of giant paws coming right for where they were. Alex looked up to see an enormous black dog, causing her to gasp. It was the exact same dog she had seen with Cedric in Hogsmeade all those months ago.
It tackled Harry but rolled off him with a skid. Alex scrambled back quickly as Ron stood in front of her to protect her. The dog then ran for him and latched its teeth around his arm. Alex let out a cry as the dog began to drag him away. She immediately crawled after him before something whacked her, causing her to yelp as she was knocked to the side off course from where she was crawling. Blood began to trickle down her cheek, whatever hitting her having cut just underneath her eye.
She looked up to see Ron being dragged into a hole at the foot of the tree they were by, his leg breaking the process after getting stuck in a root. Disregarding her safety and not listening to Harry and Hermione's yells after her, Alex leaped over another branch that swung at her and immediately dove down into the hole the dog and Ron had just disappeared in to, sliding down before landing with a thud.
She was not about to let Ron die.
Taking a second to breathe, Alex then quickly stood up, brushing the dirt from her jeans, and pulled her wand out.
"Lumos," she mumbled before following the tunnel.
She knew she should've waited for Harry and Hermione but Ron was injured and at the mercy of that dog. She was not about to let it claim him as its next meal without a fight.
Being short, she was able to run the length of the tunnel without much crouching and made it to a small opening where a little light came through. She climbed up out of the hole and pulled herself into the dusty room, taking a glance around at all the damaged furniture and scratches on the wall. Then she heard Ron let out a strangled yell upstairs and slowly made her way up the stairs.
"Nox," she whispered so the light wouldn't give away her position as she reached the dark landing.
She spotted one door open on the level she was on and quietly crept towards it. However, before she could enter, an owl came swooping in out of where she had just come from, startling her. It began to swoop down on her, squawking loudly, which made her swat at it the closer she got to the room before making a run for it.
Ron was laying beside the bed, his leg at an odd angle that made Alex worry for him. The owl had stopped its attack on her and instead perched on a chair on the other side of the room.
"Ron!" Alex exclaimed before looking around, her wand raised. "Where's the dog?"
"Alex - get out," he gritted through the pain. "It's a trap!"
"What?" She asked.
The sound of movement behind her caused her to turn and see Crookshanks coming in and jumping on the bed. A few seconds later, Harry and Hermione came in as well, immediately running to where Alex was knelt down by Ron.
"Ron - are you okay?" Hermione asked.
"Where's the dog?" Harry asked.
"Not a dog," Ron gritted. "Harry, it's a trap -"
Alex's brow furrowed. "Ron, what -"
"He's the dog... he's an Animagus..."
Ron was looking over their shoulders and Alex felt goosebumps rise to her skin as the door slammed shut behind them, causing the three of them turn. She couldn't help but cover mouth in shock as his face registered to be the one she had been seeing all year in the papers, the one that had been haunting her nightmares.
Sirius Black.
"Expelliarmus!" He cried, using Ron's wand.
All three of their wands flew in the air, right into Black's waiting hands. He took a menacing step closer, which made Alex stand and put herself in front of Harry, since his eyes were fixed on him.
"I thought you'd come and help your friend," he told them. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful... it will make everything much easier..."
Harry made to push Alex to the side and attack Black, but she stood her ground, as Ron and Hermione grabbed his arms to keep him in place. Black's taunting was setting him on edge.
"No, Harry!" Hermione cried.
"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" Ron told him as he stood up on his bad leg.
Sirius' eyes flickered to Ron. "Lie down," he told him softly. "You will damage the leg even more."
"Did you hear me?" Ron yelled as he held Harry for support while standing. "You'll have to kill all four of us!"
"There'll be only one murder here tonight," Black spoke.
"Why's that?" Harry asked, still trying pull himself free from his three friends. "Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew... What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"
"Harry!" Hermione spoke. "Be quiet!"
"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry screamed, breaking free from the three's hold on him, lunging for Black.
Alex collapsed on the ground where Harry had shoved her, fear coursing through her as she watched Harry fight Sirius before another set of hands reached down and began to help her stand up. She looked up and felt the air leave her chest as the new face in the room registered to her, causing tears to begin welling in her eyes.
"Mum?" Alex squeaked, ignoring the fight going on between Harry and Sirius for a moment.
"Yes, it's me," Alliana told her tearfully.
"You're here," Alex continued as she softly touched her face to make sure she was real and she wasn't dreaming. When she confirmed it, she threw her arms around her mum crying. "You're okay, you're alive."
But the reunion between mother and daughter was interrupted when a jet of sparks flew past their heads. Alex looked over to see Sirius's hand on Harry's throat, choking him.
"No!" Alex exclaimed, moving to tackle him to the side, only for Alliana to grab her and hold her back.
"No, don't, Alex," she told her. "Your father needs to do this."
Slowly, Alex turned to look at her mum. "So you really are helping him of your own free will?" She whispered, her tone cold as she pulled from her mother's arms. "You're not under the Imperius Curse or anything?"
"Alex-" she tried to say and reach for her again.
"No, don't touch me!" Alex roared before diving over and tackling Sirius off of Harry, managing to knock him the side and drop all of their wands.
In the scuffle, Harry managed to grab his wand, as well as Alex's and tossed it to her as she scrambled to her feet and away from Sirius. She caught her wand with ease, allowing her to point it at her mum, who didn't have a wand and held her hands up in surrender.
"Get out of the way!" Harry yelled at Ron and Hermione, who managed to grab their wands as well.
Alex watched Alliana begin to slowly walk over to where Sirius was on the ground, only for Alex to point her wand as menacingly as she could, as if telling her to stop moving, which she did. Tears slid down Alex's cheeks as her chest heaved from the exertion of tackling Sirius Black.
She felt completely and utterly betrayed.
"Going to kill me, Harry?" Sirius asked.
Harry moved to stand right above him, his wand directly pointing at Black's chest. "You killed my parents," Harry spoke, though his voice was shaking.
"I don't deny it," he spoke so quietly, it was almost a whisper. "But if you knew the whole story -"
"The whole story?" Harry repeated, fury burning behind his eyes. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know."
"Alexandria, Harry, please just listen to what he has to say," Alliana pleaded.
"Shut up," Alex gritted, tears still streaming down her face as she kept her wand firmly in her hand, though she shook slightly with anger. "Don't you dare speak."
"You've got to listen to me," Black pleaded urgently. "You'll regret it if you don't... You don't understand..."
"I understand a lot better than you think," Harry told him. "You never heard her, did you? My mum... trying to stop Voldemort killing me... and you did that... you did it..."
Alex watched Alliana shake her head as tears began to fall down her cheeks. It was almost like she was denying what Harry was saying, like it wasn't the truth. But they had heard the story, it was true.
Suddenly, Crookshanks leaped onto Black's chest and settled there, not willing to move as everyone fell silent. Alex stared at her mum, who had tears in her eyes and it gave her a second to examine just how rugged her mum looked. She was skinnier than Alex remembered, her hair was pulled back in a very messy low bun, and her robes were messy and torn in several places. She was filthy.
The sound of footsteps downstairs caught everyone's attention. Someone else had entered the shack, making Alex let out a breath of relief.
"WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione shouted. "WE'RE UP HERE - SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!"
Suddenly, Lupin can running into the room and did a quick glance of the situation. He then pointed his own wand at where Harry and Alex stood with their wands pointed at her parents.
"Expelliarmus!" He cried, catching their wands, as well as the two Hermione had been holding.
Alex stumbled back towards where Hermione was on the floor as Harry scrambled over to them too, trying to protect each other from Black.
"Where is he, Sirius?" Lupin asked, making Alex confused as her eyes flickered over the room, looking for someone hiding.
"What is he talking about?" Alex whispered to Harry, who only shook his head in confusion.
Sirius didn't say anything at first but then raised his hand and pointed it at Ron, who was on the bed and in quite a bit of pain. Alex was confused as she glanced at him but said nothing. What exactly was going through their head?
"But then..." Lupin continued, "... why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless - Unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?"
Sirius only nodded before he spoke softly, "I didn't even tell Alliana to keep them safe." He then sent an apologetic smile to his wife, who was standing closer to Lupin now.
"Professor," Harry began, "what's going on-?"
But they all were stunned to silence when Lupin lowered his wand, walked over to Sirius, pulled him up, and hugged him like they were brothers. Alex's eyes widened in shock as she watched her mum walk over and hug Lupin as well, tears of relief falling down her face.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione yelled, scrambling to her feet. "You - you -"
"Hermione -"
"- you and him!"
"Hermione, calm down -"
"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione continued to yell. "I've been covering for you-"
"Hermione, listen to me, please!" Lupin spoke loudly. "I can explain-"
Alex then felt Harry begin shaking with a new sense of fury that she held his arm to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. They didn't have their wands, so they were in trouble.
"I trusted you," He shouted at Lupin, "and all this time you've been his friend!"
"You're wrong," Lupin told them. "I haven't been Sirius's friends but I am now - Let me explain..."
"NO!" Hermione yelled. "Harry, Alex, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too, Harry - he's a werewolf!"
Again, Alex felt the air leave her chest as if she had been punched in the gut over the new development regarding their current DADA professor. Silence followed as all eyes fell on Lupin, who looked calm but very pale at Hermione's sudden outburst.
"Not all up to your usual standard, Hermione," he spoke. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead..." he then paused. "But I don't deny that I am a werewolf."
Ron struggled to stand up again but when he whimpered in pain, Lupin made a move to go help him.
"Get away from me, werewolf!" Ron shouted.
Lupin stopped, his face flashing with a certain pain then looked to Hermione. "How long have you known?"
"Ages," Hermione responded. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay..."
"He'll be delighted," Lupin spoke bitterly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant... Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"Both," Hermione responded.
Lupin laughed loudly, but it sounded very forced to Alex and it worried her, so she pushed Hermione behind her protectively.
"You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."
"I'm not," Hermione added. "If I'd been cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"
"But they already know," Lupin told her. "At least, the staff do."
"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf?" Ron asked. "Is he mad?"
"Some staff thought so," Lupin added. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy-"
"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled, causing Alex to hold him back. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!"
Her eyes flickered to where Sirius was now sitting on the bed, his head in his hands as Alliana sat next to him to offer comfort to her husband.
"I have not been helping Sirius," Lupin told them. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look-" He then tossed each of them their separate wands, which confused Alex, but she held hers tightly. "There," he then put his own wand away in his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"
Harry glanced at Alex, who only shrugged in response. "If you haven't been helping him, how did you know he was here?" Harry asked, casting a glance at Sirius.
"The map," Lupin told him. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it-"
"You know how to work it?" Harry asked me
"Of course I know how to work it," Lupin told him. "I helped write it. I'm Moony - that was my friends' nickname for me at school."
"You wrote -"
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Alex, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I? You might have been wearing your father's old Cloak, Harry -"
"How'd you know about the Cloak?" Harry asked.
"The number of times I saw James disappear under it..." he spoke impatiently with a wave of his hand. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."
"What?" Harry asked. "No, we weren't!"
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Lupin spoke, ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map was malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"
"No one was with us!" Harry yelled.
"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black... I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow -"
"One of us!" Ron exclaimed.
"No, Ron," Lupin spoke. "Two of you. Do you think I could have a look at that rat?"
"What?" Ron asked. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything. Could I see him, please?" Lupin asked again.
Carefully, Ron pulled Scabbers from his robes, who was thrashing around violently. Lupin looked at the rat carefully. He seemed to be holding his breath.
"What?" Ron asked. "What's my rat go to do with anything?"
"That's not a rat," Sirius spoke up for the first time, glaring at the rat.
"What d'you mean - of course he's a rat -"
"No, he's not," Alliana told them with a disbelieving shake of her head. "He's a wizard."
"An Animagus," Sirius continued, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."
☽
Enjoy. I'll update again, I have other chapters written already! So I'll probably update tomorrow morning.
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Love you guys!
-Squid☽