Blood In the Water

chapter 13.

Sarah woke up with a pounding in her head and a sticky substance dripping down the corner of her eye. Her hand shook as she raised it to her face to wipe the substance away. Red coated her fingers as she took them away. Ron leaned over her in worry, but his eyes kept darting behind him at something Sarah couldn't see. "Sarah? How are you feeling?"
  "Like I just hit my head on a corner." Sarah weakly asked before questioning Ron, "Where are we?"
  "The shrieking shack."
   "Move over."
   "Why?"
   "I want to see what you keep looking at." Ron tried to protest, but Sarah ignored him. "You're Sirius Black!"
  "Yes I am."
  "Are you here to kill Harry?"
  "No." Sarah felt Ron tug her behind him, but she needed to ask Sirius Black more questions like if he wasn't at Hogwarts to kill Harry, why was he here? How did he escape Azkaban? Also, why was he so attractive for a murderer that spent years literally getting the life sucked out of him?
  Before she could spiral further down that route, Sirius Black placed himself back behind the door in the corner to which Sarah and Ron shared a confused look. Maybe he was truly insane. His seemingly strange actions were explained a minute later when Harry and Hermione rushed in. "Ron, Sarah! Are you guys okay? Where's the dog?"
  "Harry, it's a trap! It's him. He's an animagus." Ron's hand shook as he pointed to the corner where Sirius Black dramatically revealed himself from behind the door. Their eyes followed the paw prints as they traveled from their journey and turned into human footprints. Sirius panted heavily as he stalked forward towards the group.
  Hermione firmly planted herself in front of Harry. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us, too." Okay. Sarah wasn't expecting to die tonight, but she wasn't exactly against it. Her eyes scanned the room to see if there was another way out or something to attack Sirius with. She only saw wooden planks and loose nails, but he was sure to notice her tipping a plank off of the wall.
  "No. Only one will die tonight."
  Harry charged forward, pushing Hermione out of the way into Sarah's arms. "Then it'll be you!" Harry placed his hands around Sirius' throat, putting all of his weight behind him as he struggled against Sirius and his surprising strength. Harry eventually pushed Sirius to the floor and raised his wand above him.
  Sirius seemed to find amusement in this situation. "Are you going to kill me, Harry?" He continued to show off his rotten teeth as he laughed manically. Suddenly, the door was thrown open by none other than Professor Lupin. He really did always catch Sarah at her low points.
  "Expelliarmus!" Harry yelped as his wand was yanked away from him by Lupin. The shack creaked as Harry scrambled off of Sirius and ran back towards Ron, Sarah, and Hermione. "Well, well Sirius.Looking rather ragged, aren't we?" He stalked closer to Sirius, continuing to taunt him. "Finally, the flesh reflects the madness inside."
  Sirius decided that when a wand was threatening being held over him, it was the perfect time to cheekily reply. "Well, you would know all about the madness within, Remus." Professor Lupin lowered his wand from Sirius' face before smirking and stretching out a hand to help him up. The two tightly hugged as the others in the room looked on in confusion and betrayal.
  Sirius' voice shook with excitement as he told Remus, "I found him. It's him."
  He was cut off by Remus' reply, " I know. I understand."
   "Let's kill him."
  Hermione rushed forward towards the pair, "No! I trusted you! And all this time, you- you've been his friend!" Sirius and Remus exchanged weary looks with each other. "He's a werewolf! That's why he's been missing classes."
  Remus dropped his hand from Sirius' shoulder as he creeped towards Hermione. "How long have you known?" Sarah stumbled forward to pull Hermione back closer to her.
  "Since Professor Snape set the essay."
  "Well, well, well Hermione. You really are the brightest witch of your age I've ever meant."
  Sirius cut him off abruptly, "Enough talk Remus! Come on, let's kill him!"
  "Wait!"
  "I did my waiting! 12 years of it! In Azkaban!" Sirius and Remus exchanged heavy looks, communicating solely with their eyes. They both switched their gazes to the group of terrified teenagers in front of them.
  "Very well." Remus handed his wand over to Sirius as he gave his permission, "Kill him." Sirius eagerly snatched the wand from Remus' hand before his actions were yet again put on hold by Remus. "But wait one more moment. Harry has the right to know why."
  Harry's voice shook as he stepped forward, "I know why. You betrayed my parents! You're the reason their dead!"
  "No, Harry. It wasn't him. Somebody did betray your parents, but it was somebody who, until quite recently, I believed to be dead."
  "Who was it, then?!"
  "Peter Pettigrew! He's in this room right now!" Sirius' arms spread wide as he swayed along with the creaking shack. "Come out, come out, Peter! Come, come out, and play!"
  Sirius' taunting man were cut off again by an additional party guest, Professor Snape. "Silence!" The wand was swiped from Sirius' hand as Snape continued on, "Ah. Vengeance is sweet. How I hoped I would be the one to catch you."
  Remus interjected, "Severus."
  Snape continued on, now pointing his wand at Remus as well as Sirius. "I told Dumbledore you were helping your old friend into the castle, and now, here's the proof."
  "Brilliant, Snape. Once again, put your keen and penetrating mind to the task and as usual, you came to the wrong conclusion. Now, if you'll excuse us, Remus and I have some unfinished business to attend to."
  Snape stuck his wand directly at Sirius' throat. "Give me a reason. I beg you."
  Professor Lupin interjected once again to attempt to save his friend's life, "Sirius, don't be a fool."
  Without missing a beat, Sirius immediately replied, "He can't help it. It's habit by now."
  "Sirius, be quiet!"
  "Be quiet yourself, Remus!" Remus let out an exhausted sigh as he walked away from Sirius and Snape.
  "Well, look at you two quarreling like an old, married couple."
  "Why don't you run along and play with your chemistry set?"
  Professor Snape dug his wand into Sirius' neck even further. "I could do it, you know, but why deny the dementors. They're so longing to see you." Sirius stepped back further, Snape
copying his steps. "Do I detect a flicker of fear? Oh, yes! The dementors kiss. I can only imagine what that must be like to endure. It must be unbearable to witness, but I'll do my best."
  As Remus pleaded with Severus, Harry maneuvered himself in between Sarah and Hermione to use Hermione's wand; Snape simply ignored Lupin and arrogantly told Sirius, "After you."
  Harry crept forward, exclaiming, "Expelliarmus!" Snape's wand flew from his hand while Snape himself flew into the wall behind him and was knocked out cold.
  "Harry, what did you just do?"
  "Nice one, Harry!" A tip for future reference: if an escaped murderer finds your comment funny, you should really take inventory of your life.
  "You just attacked a teacher!"
  "Tell me about Peter Pettigrew."
  "He was at school with us. We thought he was our friend."
  "Pettigrew's dead!" Harry switched the aim of his wand from Remus to Sirius. "You killed him."
  Remus stepped in front of Sirius, effectively shielding him from Harry. "No he didn't. I thought so too until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map."
  "The map was lying then!"
  "The map never lies!" joined in Sirius. "Pettigrew is alive, and he's right there." Sarah's head whipped around to look at where he was pointing at: Scabbers. She felt a slightly nauseous from the high levels of stress eh was feeling and the amount of blood she was losing from her head.
  Ron assumed Sirius was pointing at him. "No, not you! Your rat!"
  "He's been in my family-"
  "For twelve years. Curiously long life for a common garden rat. He's missing a toe, isn't he?"
  "So what?!"
  "All they could find of Pettigrew was his-"
  "Finger! He caught it off so everyone would think he was dead! And then he transformed into a rat."
  "Show me." Sirius ripped the rat out of Ron's grip. "Give it to him, Ron."
  "What are you trying to do to him?" Sirius walked away with the squealing rat in his hands as Eon cried out, "Scabbers! Leave him alone!" Hermione clutched to Ron's shoulder in anguish as Sarah sat awkwardly on the floor, trying to conserve what little energy she had.
  Sirius set the rat on top of the aged piano as he and Remus tried, and failed, to turn the rat back into Peter Pettigrew. The rat jumped on a piano key as fled from the pair of old friends. He was turned back into a man when he tried to run through a small hole. He still looked more rat than man. Maybe he always looked like that, or it's a new look for him.
  Remus and Sirius each grabbed one side of him, yanking him out from the hole. "Remus. Sirius. My old friends." He ran forward, attempting to barrel through Sirius and Remus, but he failed to escape once again. He looked around sniffling before his eyes landed on Harry on the other side of the room. "Harry. Look at you." Peter continued to approach Harry. "You look so much like your father. Like James. We were the best of friends."
  Sirius jumped in between Harry and Peter as he yelled at Peter, "How dare you speak to Harry!" Pettigrew let out a nasty snarl as he ran backwards. "How dare you talk about James in front of him." Sirius chased Pettigrew around the room like the animal he was.
  Sirius and Remus pointed their wands at him from both sides. "You sold James and Lily to Voldemort, didn't you?!"
  "I didn't mean to! The Dark Lord- you have no idea the weapons he possesses. Sirius, what would you have done?"
  "I would have died!" Sirius further approached Pettigrew, the later of whom was cowardly crouching under the piano. "I would have died rather than betray my friends!"
  He finally got out from under the piano and rushed towards the door where Harry was standing; Pettigrew clutched Harry's shoulders, pleading, "Harry. You know James wouldn't have wanted me killed. Your dad- your dad would spare me." Remus and Sirius pried Peter Pettigrew off of Harry and tossed him backwards. "You will show me mercy!"
  "You should've realized that if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Together!"
  "No!"
  "Harry. The man-"
  "I know what he is. We'll take him to the castle."
  "Bless you, boy. Bless you."
"Get off!" Harry kicked the groveling man off of him. "I said we'd take you to the castle. After that, the dementors can have you." Pettigrew trembled on the ground as the group left the shack, taking Pettigrew with them.

enjoy!!