(Can we all appreciate Molly being the only one who is photo ready?)
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During all the chaos of Harry taking out the "dementors", no one seemed to actually note that Harry had caught the snitch as well until he called out. Oliver was practically in tears of joy, screaming at the top of his lungs with pride, while Cho looked so incredibly confused by Harry's multitasking skills. Milo couldn't help but let out a laugh to himself as he stood beside Matt, it seemed the reaction of the crowd in the stands was comparable to the "dementors" on the ground, stunned. The Gryffindors had made their way onto the pitch in order to congratulate their seeker, while Milo made his way there as well, but to avoid being trampled him stood off in the back, along with Remus and Elspeth that arrived at the same time.
Oh, now you show up, Milo muttered to himself. He wanted to question the man and Elspeth as to where they had been but he knew it wasn't the appropriate time.
"I've never seen anyone produce a patronus like that and still manage to catch a snitch," Milo heard Elspeth to Remus with a proud tone lacing her voice. "Harry's on his way to becoming a star quidditch player in his later years if he's up to it. Did you teach him that produce that patronus?"
"I might have," Remus said with a small chuckle, " but I certainly did not teach him to do that!"
Just as Milo was going to remind him that he was actually there standing in front of them, Harry finally broke through the crowd of Gryffindors, making his way over to the three of them.
"That was quite some Patronus," Remus told Harry, who was practically beaming, a grin lining from ear to ear. As he looked at Milo, his older brother gave him two thumbs up in response.
"The dementors didn't affect me at all!" The boy continued excitedly. "I didn't feel a thing!"
"That would be because they—er—weren't dementors," Remus apparently didn't want to be the one to break the bad news, but Milo was sure that Harry wasn't going to take it as such, once the boy witnessed those who had been under the cloaks in the first place. Come and see—"
Harry was struggling to get passed some other students so Elspeth removed her wand and parted what seemed to be a sea of students with a wave of her wand, clearing a path. Students fell over each other, but it certainly did get the job done, allowing Remus to lead Harry over to the group of four students that had been caught.
"You gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright," Remus mentioned quietly. While Milo had only counted three at the time, apparently, four students, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint had decided to dress up as dementors to sabotage the Gryffindor team. Currently, Milo was watching his mother scold the living hell out of them as they had attempted to cost Gryffindor the match.
No one ever got in the way of Gryffindor winning if Minerva could help it.
"An unworthy trick! A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!"
Milo wasn't in the mood to see Professor Dumbledore and judging by Elspeth's sudden disappearance, she apparently didn't want to see him either. With Ron grabbing Harry and pulling him away to start celebrating back in the Gryffindor Common Room, Milo decided to get a move on and find Cedric and the others to head back to the Hufflepuff Common Room. However, at the last second, he changed his mind and slipped away from the pitch entirely, to check through the Forbidden Forest once more, in order to find Sirius.
He wished he could just call out to the man, whether he was in human or dog form, surely he would be able to hear him, but Milo wasn't about to risk the idea of calling out his name and having someone else overhear him.
Suddenly, the boy was knocked to the ground and just as he went to cry out and grab for his wand, he rolled onto his back to see Sirius, in his dog form, wagging his tail in a playful manner.
"That's not funny!" Milo screeched. "You about gave me a heart attack! Do you know what other sorts of creatures roam through these parts? Let me tell you, they are far more intimidating than you as a dog or as a wizard! Don't do that again!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Sirius laughed back in his human form again, "truly I am, I just couldn't resist the opportunity. Forgive me, Milo, it's what keeps me young and leaves me with what little sanity is left in my life."
Milo stared at him for a second before sighing and nodding his head fully understanding. It probably didn't help that Sirius normally pulled off such stunts with James, and perhaps when he attacked Milo, he hoped it would be his late best friend, laughing in return.
"No, I'm sorry, it's just I've been a bit on edge as of late, trying to talk to someone, but there's really only a couple of people that I can talk to and I couldn't find any of you."
"I'm sorry, Milo," Sirius informed him, "I grew ill being out here during most of the winter months, ending up becoming quite sick that Elspeth took me in, even when I told her not to. It's such a risk every time she tries to do something for me and I can't have her getting caught. I allowed her to care for me until I was well enough to be out here again, and that's what I've been trying to do. Keep warm and healthy so that I don't bother her-"
"Sirius, I highly doubt you could ever bother her, I don't think she would be doing all this back and forth if you did. She loves you, that's why she's trying to help you and I'm trying to help you too. So I need information out of you and I need it now."
His tone was demanding, leaving Sirius to smile to himself, remembering all the times when James had adopted the tone when he wanted to get things done within the group.
"Alright, let's talk, Milo."
Milo plopped himself down to the forest floor and looked up at the man. "It was Peter, right? Did Peter betray my parents and you? He portrayed the Order?"
Sirius was silent for a few moments but Milo could tell by the man's face that he had hit the nail on the head because he wasn't even sure how to respond. He didn't disagree which Milo took as a form of an answer that he was right. "It was Peter and that's why you're here, you think he's been here as Ron's rat. But how could you possibly know-"
Milo watched as the man dug into the pocket of his shabby robes and pulled out a piece of paper that he unfolded, holding it out to the boy. He was trying to focus as to what Sirius was getting at, but Sirius kept pointing to one spot. Eventually, Milo had to slap the man's hand away and look down.
It was a picture of the Weasley family, on their trip to Egypt after winning the Ministry's raffle drawing. Milo's eyes scanned over the picture for a second before his eyes landed on Scabbers that was actually in the photo.
"I would recognise that rat from anywhere!" Sirius spat angrily. "I knew it was him, he was alive! He is alive! And he's up in that bloody castle, hiding away-"
"Well, about that...." Milo didn't want to break the bad news to Sirius, but it was probably best if the man knew. When Sirius met his gaze, looking awfully concerned and slightly crazed in that moment, Milo immediately looked down before he continued.
"Scabbers has gone missing," Milo told him. "They say he's dead. That Hermione's cat, Crookshanks must have gotten him-"
"That's not true!" Sirius barked. "I talk to that cat nearly every day out here! It's not true. He didn't eat that traitor-"
"Sirius please, keep your voice down!" Milo whispered harshly to him. "Do you want to get yourself caught because you're having a shouting party in the Forbidden Forest? Listen to me, I'm sure he is just hiding, probably because he heard about you being close. He must be somewhere in the castle, in the state he was in, I don't think he would be able to manage to leave the castle grounds. I'll try to see if I can locate him, but you need to keep calm, Sirius."
"Keep calm?!" The man's eyes were wide with fury. "Do you know what you're saying, Milo? That man is the reason as to why your parents are dead? He offered them right up, and if it wasn't for whatever happened that night with you and Harry, you two would have been as good as gone. Now that traitor sleeps in the Gryffindor Tower? That's where Harry is, that's where my son is!"
"He's not going to do anything! It would be too risky! But I don't need you being risky either! So stay put!"
Milo knew he couldn't stay much longer without raising suspicion of his absence, so he left with those final words to Sirius, but of course, the man was far too stubborn to listen. Especially since he had the list of passwords in hand, graciously brought to him by Crookshanks. He couldn't wait for Milo to find Peter, he had to do it himself before any other of his loved ones were hurt.
He was going to sniff the rat out and make him pay.
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Why did Milo think that Sirius was actually going to listen? Hardly anyone ever listened to Milo and this proved to be one of the many times where what he said was completely ignored. The boy had gone back to the Hufflepuff dorms for the evening to relax and hopefully sleep in the next morning. But that wasn't the case at all since, during the night, Sirius had broken into the Gryffindor Common Room and attacked Ron's bed. No one was hurt, fortunately, and he was able to escape and Milo would hardly call it a break in since Sirius provided the password and Sir Cadogan had to let him in.
Milo was absolutely furious to the point where if he saw Sirius, he was going to smack the man for being so incredibly stupid. To think that he was going to waltz into the Gryffindor dorm and just find "Scabbers" and kill him there? The man was growing even more unstable as time was passing because he was growing desperate. His family was so close yet so far out of his reach that he was getting even more desperate to get Peter.
When it came down to where Sirius had gotten the passwords in the first place, it was revealed that it was Neville as the boy had written down the passwords to remember them. At one point, he had lost the list and it made its way into Sirius' possession. He had become a pariah basically in the Gryffindor house, even Minerva had given him plenty of punishments.One that involved the boy's grandmother hearing all about it.
So while Ron had become a celebrity in the castle with everyone wanting to hear the story, Milo made his way over to where Neville was sitting, along with Silas.
"It's not his fault!" Silas said angrily, biting into a piece of toast with a bitter expression. "Maybe if we didn't have Sir Nut-Case as our password keeper, Neville wouldn't have had to make the list. No offence, Milo, but your mum is raining down hard on him!"
"I know, I know," Milo said sitting down. "Neville, I'm really sorry. It's just my mother...she's just scared right now. I think she's just trying to cover it with anger and it's being taken out on you. She just doesn't want anyone getting hurt, that's all."
"I-I-I w-wasn't trying t-t-to get anyone k-killed!" Neville whimpered as Silas patted him on the back in hopes of comforting the boy.
"I know and-"
The three came to a stop as the owls came in with the post, dropping a letter right in front of Neville, but it wasn't just a normal letter, it was a Howler. Ron seemed to notice during all his praise and quickly advised Neville to get out of there. The boy didn't need to be told twice as he clutched the letter and ran out, but of course, Neville's grandmother's voice exploded out in the corridor, loud enough for everyone inside to hear.
The Slytherin table roared with laughter and Milo just had about enough of it as he stood up and pulled out his wand.
"Uh, Milo, what are you doing?" Silas whispered to him. It drew Harry's attention and while he would have stopped his brother from getting in trouble, Milo didn't look like a force that could be stopped in that moment.
They could barely hear what Milo had muttered, Harry swore he heard something along the lines of "Orbis" but it didn't matter as the jinx was cast and suddenly, the Slytherin students disappeared. For a second, everyone was alarmed, until they heard the frantic cries and struggling, only to see that the Slytherins had been sucked into the flooring of the Great Hall as if the floor had suddenly turned into quicksand.