Once through the opening in the tree, Harry, Hermione, and Draco stumbled into a dark tunnel, much like the passage to Hogsmeade. It was cold and wet, and the one reason that kept them going was the prospect of retrieving Ron. Well, at least for Harry and Hermione, anyway.
"Wait, Harry, stop!" Harry turned to Draco, who came up to him. Pulling his sleeve up, he gingerly wiped away some of the blood on the Gryffindor's face, sweeping his hair away, which was stuck to his forehead with sweat. "God, Harry, why do you always have to get hurt all the time?" Draco murmured. His hand rested on the side of his face, as they both stood there for a minute, staring.
Hermione cleared her throat, and they jerked apart.
"Right, um," Harry stammered. "Let's go."
. . . . .
The trio climbed up through a trapdoor, which led to a dark, musty room. Harry wiped some of the grime from his glasses so he could see a bit more clearly. They were in a shabby house, a shack, which had a wooden staircase that led up to the second floor.
They ran up the staircase, checking different empty rooms, before entering one with the door wide open. To their relief, Ron was there, sitting on a ratty old sofa chair.
"Ron!" Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ron, are you okay?" Hermione ran up to hug him tightly. "We were so worried!"
"The dog, Weasley, where is he?" Draco asked, frowning at the state of the room.
Ron was pale as a ghost. "Harry, it's a trap!" He raised a shaking finger. "He's not a dog, he's an Animagus!"
The three spun around. Standing there, next to the door, was a man they had only seen on the cover of the Daily Prophet. Sirius Black.
His hair was tangled and matted, his clothes dirty and torn, and his skin a pallid, grey color, proof of his time spent in Azkaban. But most striking of all were his sharp grey eyes, a trait that Harry realized must run in the Black family.
The corpse-like man took a step toward them, not focused on Harry, but rather on something...behind them? Harry was starting to turn around when he was suddenly thrust behind Draco.
"If you want to kill Harry," Draco said firmly. "You'll have to kill us too."
Black was still staring off, a vacant expression on his sallow face. "Only one will die tonight."
Upon hearing Black's voice, the one which had so traitorously informed Voldemort of his parents' whereabouts all those years ago, Harry was filled with a fury so murderous that he pushed Draco aside and lunged.
His fingers reached out and fastened themselves around Black's neck, throwing him to the ground as he drew his wand and pointed it at the man's face, which was stretched in a smile which showed his rotten teeth.
"Are you going to kill me, Harry?" He laughed, as though this was all hilarious to him.
Harry didn't get a chance to respond before the door swung open and hit the wall with a bang. "Expelliarmus!"
Harry's wand flew from his grasp and into the hand of Professor Lupin. The professor jerked his head, motioning for Harry to get off the mass murderer who was currently grinning wide as ever.
"Well, well, Sirius, looking rather ragged, aren't we?" The professor had his wand drawn, and at the ready. "Finally, the flesh reflects the madness within."
"Well, you'd know all about the madness within, wouldn't you, Remus?" Black chuckled.
There was a silence and Lupin relaxed, lowering his wand, reaching out to pull Black's thin body up from the dusty ground. Then, to the group's horror, he embraced him.
"I've missed you so much, Pads," said Remus, as the four watched with gaping mouths.
"I've missed you too, love," replied Black desperately.
Harry had to grasp onto Draco as he stumbled back in pure, unadulterated shock.