Stolen Time

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"But- how- NO!" McNair stuttered "Where did he- You!" he pointed an accusatory finger at Hagrid.
"Beaky musta pulled 'imself free. Clever brute 'e is." Hagrid ignored McNair
"Well we will have to send out a sec party." Fudge said a bit flustered
"Oh, please, Cornelius." Albus laughed "Whoever stole Buckbeak wouldn't have gotten very far on foot. They would have flown. Search the skies if you must." the minister just stared at him "Hagrid what do you say we celebrate this with a pint of mead?"
"Sure professor. Come one in. Would you three like to join us?" he turned to me, Fudge and Macnair.
"No thanks, Hagrid. I've got a few more essays to grade for tomorrow." I sighed
"No problem Percy. Thank yeh so much fer coming." I saw tears forming in his eyes again.
"Anytime." I smile.

I grab my bag and start my short walk back up to the castle. Just as I turned, Macnair brought his axe down on one of Hagrid's pumpkins.
"Did you really have to do that?" I scolded him. "That's a waste of good food."
"I was promised the chance to bring my axe down on that ruddy creatures neck." the executioner spat "I didn't get to so I brought it down on the pumpkin.You got a problem with that?"
"In fact, I do." I shot back "Good day."

In a huff, I turned once away once again. I was only about twenty meters from the castle, when I heard a scream. I dropped everything, and turned to the origin of the sound. It came from somewhere near the Whomping Willow. I grabbed my wand out of my back pocket and changed into my animagus from. I knew I could fly faster than I could run.

It took me a while to find who was screaming. I couldn't even find where they were. All I knew there were somewhere around the Whomping Willow. I circled around the tree many times. Nothing. I saw nothing. I saw a tunnel. I wasn't going to be able to dive down into the tunnel with the tree's flalling branches.

But a tunnel. That gave me a clue. I could figure out where the tunnel let up. I circled the tree three more times before I came to my epiphany.

The shrieking shack.

I beat my wings faster toward the small building on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. I dived through the one window that wasn't boarded up. I landed up in the rafters and took in what was around me.

I saw four people in total. Two people were pointing their wands to a third while the last was lying on the bed with his leg wrapped in a makeshift splint. I recognized them all. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were pointing their wands at Sirius Black while Ronald Weasley was lying on the bed. Before I could react to anything, a fifth person burst through the door. Remus Lupin used the element of surprise and disarmed both of the students. My jaw dropped. Remus gave Black a hand up and embraced him in a hug.

Anger built up inside me. How could my best friend in a long time embrace the man who had broken into my bedchamber in the dead of night. Angry doesn't cover it. Furious is more like it.

I partially shifted to human so I could yell. "Former friend, Remus Lupin?! FORMER?!"
"What was that?" Everyone's heads snapped upwards to see who had yelled. If it had not been for my black plumage, they would have seen me. Though I was able to hide in the shadows quite easily. I made sure I was fully owl with no human.

"That sounded like Percy." Black muttered
"It's not her, Sirius." Remus said "Under Veritaserum she said she was Priscilla White."
"I don't believe that." Black glared up to where I was hiding.
Hermione seemed to snap out of her trance "I- you- I knew it!" she yelled
"What did you know, Miss. Granger?" Remus asked calmly
"You're working with Sirius Black! You're- He's a werewolf!" she screamed to her two friends.
"How long have you known?" Remus asked calmly
"A while." Hermione answered stubbornly "Ever since Snape's essay."
"He would be happy to know that. He assigned that in hopes that someone would realise it."
"Remus, get along with it. I want to kill him." Black snarled
"I think Harry deserves an explanation." Remus said calmly "Frankly, I would like an explanation as well"
"We should just get it over with." Black pleaded.
"No." Remus persisted
"Come'on Moony." he was begging like a child to his father. Remus stood his ground.
"Fine." the murderer conceded
"Alright, I only know the start so you will have to help me."
"Fine." he repeated

I felt the need to intervene but I didn't know how.

"Ron, could I see your rat?" Remus asked
"What? Scabbers? No."
"Please" Remus begged
"But you'll hurt him..." Ron trailed off
"I promise, if I am wrong about this, your rat will be fine."
Reluctantly, Ron handed over his beloved pet to his professor. Scabbers struggled and fidgeted in his hands, going so far as to bite his hand. Remus was forced to drop him. I saw my chance. I could save whatever this creature was. I dived off the rafters, I clutched the rat in my talons and landed in the beams across the ceiling once again.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Black roared
"An owl." Ron pointed out the obvious.

There was something off about this rat. I could hear mutterings from it's brain patterns. That is only something I can do with other Animagus'. The words sounded something like: "Sirius- Remus- Dark Lord-" This rat isn't who he says he is.

I came out of the shadows to reveal myself to the people below. They were all still looking up to see where I had taken the rat.
"What happened to Scabbers? Is he okay?" Ron asked anxiously
"That bird won't hurt your rat." Black smirked.
"I don't think so." Remus muttered

Reluctantly, I clutched the rat again and set it on the bed. I held it there with one claw so it wouldn't wither away.
"Bloody smart bird." Ron mumbled
"Not a bird." Black laughed
"Another animagus." Hermione realised
"My sister." Black said softly
"Your sister wasn't an animagus." Remus argued
"Yes she was. She was my owl, Noir."
"But that's Percy." Remus whispered
I shifted back before anyone could say anything else.
"Professor White?" Harry exclaimed
"Really?" Black snorted "You went with 'White'? That's hilarious."
"Shut the hell up." I snapped "You have no bloody idea who I am."
"Seph-" he trailed off. He pulled a small photo out of his pocket. "You look like her." he insisted stubbornly

The photo had three young teenagers in it. A boy and a girl were hugging and smiling with the other boy having his arms crossed, sulking. The grouchy boy was undoubtedly Sirius Black with the girl resembling me quite a lot. For the last boy, I came up with a name for him I don't know from where but he seemed really familiar.

"Regulus." I whispered
"You remember."
"Oh God. Who is he?"
"Our brother." Black said softly
"No, he's- he's dead, isn't he"
"Yes."
"No." I whispered again "I-" I was cut off by memories flooding back to me. A mother, a father, two brothers, all my cousins,- it was too much.
"Percy?"
"Oh God, no" I kept muttering "No, no, no."
"Is she okay?" Hermione whispered
"Of course I'm not okay!" I snapped. Tear were flowing freely down my face "I'm a murderer."
"You can't be a murderer." Harry mumbled "You're too nice"
I pulled back my sleeve. I felt like I was going to throw up. Sure enough, the dark mark danced upon my forearm.
"Persephone Black." I whispered "I have to go." I realised
"Percy-" Remus started.
"No, let her go." Sirius held him back. I nodded to him and scrambled to my feet.
"Goodbye." I whispered. I shifted and flew through the same window I came in.

I landed on the roof of the astronomy tower and shifted back to my human form. From there I fell into a light and uneasy sleep.