𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐍 | 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘺

Chapter 48 - The Blacks

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At dusk, Death came to me in the form of a man.

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Betelgeuse was running onto the grounds; her right hand tightly closed around her eleven inches ebony wand.

The three students were in danger, and she was sure they did not even comprehend from whom the peril would come. If Remus Lupin was there, perhaps not all was lost yet. Betelgeuse had not had the opportunity to reveal to the scarred man everything she knew. He could have already attacked her uncle.

The Black stopped abruptly upon seeing Professor Snape striding towards the Whomping Willow. She observed how he kneeled in front of it and picked something off from the ground.

Potter's Invisibility Cloak.

The Potion Master seized a branch, prodded a knot that made the whipping tree freeze and vanished from her view.

So, he is familiar with the Whomping Willow.

Peculiar.

Betelgeuse waited for a couple of minutes before running up to the tree. She took the branch and prodded the knot before slipping into the darkness of the hole under the Willow.

"Lumos," she whispered. The wand light showed her the earthy walls of a low dark tunnel. She marched swiftly towards a patch of dim light at the end of the tunnel, where a disordered, dusty room opened. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor. Every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up.

What an unfortunate soul.

Betelgeuse pulled herself out of the hole, looking around. The room was deserted, but a door to her right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. Betelgeuse glanced up at the ceiling.

She moved with soundless grace, edged out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made.

Someone or something had been dragged here.

She reached the dark landing. 

"Nox," She susurrated, and the lights at the end of her wand went out. Only one door was open, and several voices could be heard. Betelgeuse inaudibly walked up to the room whose rotten door had been slammed so hard that it had come out of a hinge. None of the occupants of the undusted room noticed her presence. Since she was half obscured by the black figure of Professor Snape, she took advantage of it to listen.

"I've told the Headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout —" came Professor Snape's voice.

"Severus, you're making a mistake," Remus Lupin urgently said. "You haven't heard everything — I can explain — Sirius is not here to kill Harry —"

He knows.

"Two more for Azkaban tonight," Snape snarled. Betelgeuse could imagine his eyes gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this — He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin — a tame werewolf —"