[1] 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒 ― h.potter

012.

「012. the badlands of the mind's eye  」

IT TOOK a few minutes for the information to sink in, and for honey to even understand what the fuck she had just uttered. it took a few minutes for her to figure out what was happening with her breathing- figure out what was happening in her mind, why her head suddenly felt like a war was stirring there and why it felt like those whispers were turning to shouts. she knew enough from hermione that the voice in your mind had no pitch change or volume change, it was all just in your head- none of it was real.

just in your head.

"you're both mental," ron said, "no- not both- you three are insane." he sent a look at honey, "wormtail? what the fuck are you on about?"

"moony," sirius black said, looking up at the man, "moony- moony how does she know-"

"i haven't got the faintest clue, sirius." murmured professor lupin. he stared closer at her, "you see things others can't. you- you saw sirius' animagus, you have a gift with divinations as professor trelawney likes to say and you know the names. are you-?"

"peter pettigrew is dead," she chose to say in response, shifting the conversation with a hard shove. her hands were shaking now, the whispers jeered at her- endless chatter striked at the back of her mind that made her squirm. she shook her head, "nothing is making sense." she looked sirius black dead in the eyes, an unknown bout of courage as she said the words she didn't know if she believed, "he killed him twelve years ago."

i am not a seer. i am not going mad. i am not insane. i am not a pawn. i. am. not. a. seer-

"i meant to," sirius said simply, eye twitching as he glared at the rat, "but poor little peter got the better of me. no, not this time, though!"

and crookshanks was thrown to the floor as black lunged at scabbers; ron yelled with pain as black's weight fell on his broken leg.

"sirius, NO!" lupin yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging black away from ron again, "WAIT! you can't do it just like that — they need to understand — we've got to explain — you always had a hand for the dramatics padfoot but we need to-"

"we can explain afterwards!" snarled black, trying to throw lupin off. one hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching ron's face and neck as he tried to escape.

"sirius please!" pleaded lupin, "they've got a right to know- to know everything. ron kept him as a pet! for circe's sake can you just tell them the truth." no matter how much sirius black struggled, professor lupin held tight. he grabbed the other hand with his own, the one still straining to get to ron's rat. he held it tight as he said in a shaky voice, "you owe harry the truth, sirius. even you know that."

sirius black stopped struggling, though his eyes were still hollowed and fixed on scabbers.

"all right then," he said without taking his eyes of the rat. "tell them whatever you like. but make it quick, remus. i want to actually commit the murder i was imprisoned for."

"merlin's beard," muttered ron shakily, "you're nutters, both of you." he looked round at honey, harry and hermione, "i've had enough of this. i'm off."

"ron don't be a twit," hermione said in a frail voice, "you can't walk- stop it. you're going to injure yourself-"

"SON OF A SCREAMING BANSHEE-" yelled ron as he tried stand, only to crumple moments later- scabbers letting out a squeak of pain as ron gripped his rat tightly.