[1] 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒 ― h.potter

011.

「011. wormtail 」

THE SERENE sunset looked violent and bloodied in honey's eyes now. the sun cast waves on the ground, of golden beams bloodied with the murder of the innocent. tears welled in her eyes. as small cracks of darkness began to appear, the world suddenly cast in a red light to her eyes.

behind her, there was a wild howling, but they had no time to concentrate as harry made a turn back.

"we can't," ron said, who was paper-white. "he'll be in worse trouble if they knew we've been to see him..."

hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven, and she repeated the words, "how could they?" over and over again.

honey, on the other hand. sucked up her tears. this is not the time for tears, she let herself think harshly, mourn later in your bed. mourn for buckbeak away from them.

"we need to go," honey said tightly, "so stop crying- hurry up."

they set off back toward the castle, walking slowly to keep themselves hidden under the cloak. the light was fading fast now. by the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them.

"scabbers, keep still," ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest. the rat was wriggling madly. ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force scabbers deeper into his pocket.

"what's the matter with you, you stupid rat? stay still — ouch! he bit me!"

"can't you shut up?" hissed honey, "fudge will be out here any minute and unless you want hagrid to get fucking sacked-"

"he won't stay put-"

scabbers was plainly terrified. he was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of ron's grip.

"what's the matter with him?"

"crookshanks!" hermione whispered, suddenly seeing the cat slinking towards them all, "no- go away! crookshanks, no! go away!" but the cat was getting nearer.

"scabbers- no!"

with a yelp, the rat managed to slip between ron's clutching fingers, hitting the ground before scampering away. in one bound, crookshanks sprang after him and before any of them could stop ron- he had thrown the invisibility cloak off himself and pelted away in to the darkness.

"ron!" hermione hissed before the three of them pulled into a sprint, dragging the cloak off to be able to actually run.

they could hear ron's feet thundering on the ground as his shouts fro crookshanks filled the air, "get away from him- get away- scabbers comere!"

there was a loud thud.

"gotcha! get off, you bloody cat-"

the three of them almost fell over ron; they skidded to a stop right in front of him. he was sprawled on the ground, but scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump.

"ron — come on back under the cloak —" hermione panted. "dumbledore — the minister — they'll be coming back out in a minute —"

but before they could cover themselves again, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws... something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow — an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog. honey could have done something- she saw it before all the others. but when she grabbed for her wand she felt as if the dog was her boggart, because it certainly looked like her boggart. but it wasn't snarling and howling like she thought it would but instead just stood there until-