A Young Wizard's Journey - Prisoner of Azkaban

Risen from the ashes

It was as though someone was using the inside of Y/N's head as a drumkit.

Steady low thrums were ringing through it constantly and it was all he could do to keep focus. Hermione remained hooked under his arm and pushed another piece of chocolate into his mouth, but it did little to alleviate the pain. He could see, but he wasn't capable of much else.

Together with her help, Y/N managed to get out of the door and follow the procession down the stairs and out of the Shrieking Shack. Crookshanks was way out in front with Remus, Ron, and Pettigrew right behind. Then followed the floating, stunned Snape, Sirius and Harry and bringing up the rear, Hermione, and Y/N.

Y/N's consciousness was fading in and out. One second, they'd begun descending the stairs, the next they were clambering into the tunnel.

How had it gotten this bad without him realising? The shock of everything going on must have weighed on him more than he knew. He assumed he'd be okay with being a room away from the cloak. He'd been closer to it before.

His mind flashed back to the time in the Common Room when Harry had first opened it.

'That cloak's going to be the death of me,' he groaned as he and Hermione ducked under a particularly low hanging part of the ceiling.

'We're almost there,' she said consolingly. 'We can get you rested up and then spend some time making sure you're used to it. We can't have something like this happening again. You look like death.'

'I feel like death,' said Y/N.

'I owe you a thank you,' said a gruff voice and Y/N raised his eyes to look at Sirius.

'Think you already did that,' grunted Y/N.

'Not for the Common Room. For this morning. Spending the morning with someone... I needed it. I didn't realise how much I did until it happened. I've been away from humanity for a while. Your curiosity into something you didn't know intrigued me. And then suddenly, we'd been there for over an hour,' said Sirius. 'Thank you.'

'I was wondering how an ordinary muggle dog was so smart. Annoyed I didn't put two and two together, but it's not often you meet an Animagus. Especially after you've read the register and know none of them become a dog.'

'Yeah, well. I'm not fond of rules,' said Sirius with a grin.

'I'm glad I let you go in the Common Room,' said Y/N. 'I'm glad you didn't betray that trust.'

'So am I,' said Sirius and, with a nod, he turned back towards Harry.

'Hope he looks after him,' whispered Y/N so only Hermione could hear him.

'Who?'

'Both of them,' said Y/N, nodding towards Harry and Sirius. 'Harry needs an adult, and Sirius needs social interaction.'

The walk through the tunnel took longer than it had to get in through a mix of Y/N's limping and the slow moving of the chained trio and floating Potions Master. Luckily, this brought Y/N some time so when they finally emerged out of the tunnel under the tree, he was able to gingerly stand by himself.

The grounds were very dark now. Y/N shot his wand out of his holster and muttered 'Lumos'. Hermione drew hers and did the same. Together, the procession began to advance towards the school.

Then they were bathed in light. Y/N turned his eyes towards the moon. The full moon.

'Remus.' His eyes span towards the front group just in time to stop himself from walking into Sirius and Harry. 'We need to get him detached from Pettigrew and leave him out in the grounds. Taking him back in now will just cause problems.'