Wolfbite (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: The Vow

Chapter 7: The Vow

I can't shut it off – can't make it stop. Ever since I chased those dementors away the other day in Hogsmeade... it - it unlocked something inside me. A power I never knew I had, and I can't turn it off. When I get angry or upset... things start to freeze. A cold chill settles over as though a dementor is present, even when there's none around. What's wrong with me?

**

Dumbledore sent them to the Great Hall that night, wherein they also found everyone from the other three Houses looking confused and bewildered. He informed them all that they would be sleeping here while they searched the school. Then, with two waves of his wand, he pushed the four long house tables to the edges of the hall and conjured up a great many squishy purple sleeping bags.

Leo grabbed one, wrinkling his nose in distaste before changing the color to hot pink and nodding in satisfaction. Draco came over at that moment, dragging him by the arm over to the Weasley twins where he demanded to know what happened. The three filled him in – Leo hovering somewhere between annoyance and amusement at his uncle's actions – on what Peeves had told them before they debated how Black had managed to enter and leave the castle without anyone noticing.

Leo thought he knew – he had used one of the secret passages out of the school. Padfoot was a Marauder after all; he had helped create the Map and thus knew where all the secret passages were. He reckoned Sirius knew the school even better than himself and the Weasley twins. He didn't say any of this though. He merely speculated along with the rest of the school about where Sirius Black was now – which he also had a theory about.

The following morning, classes were canceled after the teachers failed to find Sirius. The students – most of them having spent the majority of the night awake – tramped back to their dorms in order to get a more restful sleep. Except for Leo, anyway.

Wide awake and feeling a bit jittery, he was one of the few that sat at the House tables for breakfast, idly stealing toast, bacon, and sausages and putting them in his bag before departing the Great Hall and making his way outside. He walked down the lawn toward the Whomping Willow – a rather violent tree that had a tendency to swing wildly at anyone or anything that got too close. With a wave of his wand and a few mumbled words, he levitated a stick and had it prod a knot in the tree's trunk. As Moony and Padfoot told him would happen, the tree froze.

He ran to the hidden passage between a large gap in the roots and crawled forward, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. With a mumbled Lumos, Leo continued down the long, winding passage until he came out of a hole into a very disordered, dusty room. 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.

"Sirius!" he hissed in a loud whisper. "It's me, Leo! Come out!"

He heard a creak from upstairs and the sound of rapid pawsteps making their way down a flight of stairs. A black, furry head peeked into the room and stared at Leo for a moment before bounding forward, wagging his tail and sniffing his bag with an excited whine. Leo raised an eyebrow before Padfoot sat down and looked up at him with wide eyes, giving a small, pleading whine for good measure. Leo snorted.

"You're lucky I brought you anything, you mangy mutt," Leo grumbled, fixing and cleaning off a side table and dumping the contents of his bag on it. "Between you and that bloody cat, it's a wonder Pettigrew hasn't scarpered yet."

Padfoot returned to human form, stuffing a piece of bacon in his mouth as he repaired the couch and sat on it, Leo accompanying him.

"What cat?" the man asked, stuffing another piece of bacon in his mouth.