"Sirius?" I said, trying to mentally prepare myself for all of the different answers he might give me.
"Yes, Ivory?"
"I've got a question about the necklace..." I started chewing anxiously on my bottom lip.
"Go on..." he said, sounding a little confused.
Harry and Hermione slowed down a bit to give us some privacy.

I sighed.
"I've been getting these nightmares," I started to explain. "Every time I have one, the necklace goes ice cold. They feel like they've happened before in real life... I was just wondering whether they're real or false memories..."
He turned to face me, worry etched into his gaunt face.
"What have these nightmares been about?"
"A girl," I said quietly. "The same girl every time, being tortured by my mother and father. E-except for the first one... in that one, she—" I stopped suddenly, not able to bring myself to say it. I could tell that Sirius knew what I meant.

There was a silence, in which Sirius seemed to be trying to think of the best way to answer. I didn't need him to, though. His silence had told me everything I needed to know.
"They — they're real, aren't they?" I muttered.
He nodded slowly.
"If they were false memories, the necklace would've got warmer," he said, as Snape's head hit a large bit of rock on the ceiling. Sirius and I both ducked under it.
"I guess now I've just got to figure out who it is, then," I said quietly. "I'm assuming either my father or my mother removed the memories in the first place, so they must be important..."

None of us spoke again until we'd reached the end of the tunnel. Lupin pulled a sort of lever type thing, which I guessed was to freeze the Willow from the inside, as he, Pettigrew, and Ron clambered upward without any sound of savaging branches. Sirius saw Snape up through the hole, then stood back for Harry, Hermione, and me to pass. At last, all of us were out.

The grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, we set off. Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering. My mind was spinning. The nightmares were real... they were real memories... memories that someone, most likely my father, didn't want me to see... and the girl in them was real...
"One wrong move, Peter," said Lupin threateningly, ahead. His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest.

Silently, we tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Sirius, his chin bumping on his chest. And then—
A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Our party was bathed in moonlight.
Snape collided with Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. Sirius froze. He flung out one arm to make Harry, Hermione, and me stop. I could see Lupin's silhouette. He had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.

"Oh, my—" Hermione gasped. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"
"Run," Sirius whispered. "Run. Now. "
But I couldn't run. Ron was chained to Pettigrew and Lupin. I hastily tried to find my wand, but it was lost in one of my many pockets. Harry leapt forward, but Sirius caught him around the chest and threw him back.
"Leave it to me — RUN!"

There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin's head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws.
As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from beside us. He had transformed. The enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. As the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from Ron and Pettigrew. They were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other.

I stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. It was Hermione's scream that alerted me — Pettigrew had dived for Lupin's dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light — and Ron lay motionless on the ground.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "Stay where you are!" Harry shouted, running forward.
Too late. Pettigrew had transformed. I saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on Ron's outstretched arm, and heard a scurrying through the grass.

There was a howl and a rumbling growl; I turned to see the werewolf taking flight; he was galloping into the forest—
"Sirius, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Harry yelled.
Sirius was bleeding; there were gashes across his muzzle and back, but at Harry's words he scrambled up again, and in an instant, the sound of his paws faded to silence as he pounded away across the grounds.

Harry, Hermione, and I dashed over to Ron.
"What did he do to him?" Hermione whispered. Ron's eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, I could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize us.
"I don't know..." Harry said.
"Whatever it was, it's clearly Dark magic," I added.

I looked desperately around. Sirius and Lupin were both gone... we had no one but Snape for company, still hanging, unconscious, in mid-air.
"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Come—"
But then, from beyond the range of my vision, I heard a yelping, a whining: a dog in pain...
"Sirius," Harry and I muttered at the same time, both of us staring into the darkness.

I had a moment's indecision, but there was nothing we could do for Ron at the moment, and by the sound of it, Sirius was in trouble — Harry and I both set off at a run, Hermione right behind us. The yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. We pelted toward it, and although I was running flat out, I still felt cold, but I didn't realise what it must mean—

The yelping stopped abruptly. As we reached the lakeshore, we saw why — Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.
"Nooo," he moaned. "Nooo... please..."
And then I saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward us. I spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating my insides, fog starting to obscure my vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling us...
"Ivory, Hermione, think of something happy!" Harry yelled, raising his wand.

But I couldn't think of anything, my mind was so consumed with thoughts of the girl in the nightmares... how they were real... what my mother and father were going to do when they found out I'd tried to help Lupin and Sirius... I knew they'd find out...

Harry began to chant: "Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!"
Sirius gave a shudder, rolled over, and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death.
"Expecto patronum! Ivory, Hermione, help me! Expecto patronum!"
I just shook my head hopelessly, a quiet, "I can't," managing to escape my lips.
"Expecto—" Hermione whispered, "expecto — expecto—"
But she couldn't do it. The Dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from us. They formed a solid wall around us, and were getting closer...

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry yelled. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
A thin wisp of silver escaped his wand and hovered like mist before him. At the same moment, Hermione fainted, and I fell to the floor, the screaming from the nightmares getting louder and louder...
"Expecto — expecto patronum—"
Harry fell down next to me. Fog was clouding my eyes. With a huge effort, I fought to remember something happy... anything...
Harry finally knows the truth about Sirius... he's going to live with him...
"Expecto patronum!" I gasped, and now I, too, had a misty, formless Patronus hovering in front of me, though mine was coming from my fingertips rather than a wand.

By the feeble light of our formless Patronuses, I saw two Dementors halt, very close to us. They couldn't walk through the clouds of silver mist we had conjured. A dead, slimy hand slid out from under the cloak of one, an action which was quickly mirrored by the other. They both made a gesture as though to sweep the Patronuses aside.
"No — no—" Harry gasped. "He's innocent... expecto — expecto patronum—"

I could feel them watching me, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around me. The two nearest Dementors seemed to be considering us. Then they each raised both of their rotting hands — and lowered their hoods. I stared, transfixed, at the one closest to me.
Where there should have been eyes, there was only thin, grey scabbed skin, stretched blankly over empty sockets. But there was a mouth... a gaping, shapeless hole, sucking the air with the sound of a death rattle.

A paralysing terror filled me so that I couldn't move or speak. My Patronus flickered and died, and I was vaguely aware of Harry's doing the same.
White fog was blinding me. I had to fight... expecto patronum... I couldn't see... and in the distance, I heard the screaming from my nightmares... expecto patronum...
Then a pair of strong, clammy hands suddenly attached themselves around my neck. They were forcing my face upward... I could feel its putrid breath... the girl from the nightmares was screaming in my ears... she was going to be the last thing I ever heard—

And then, through the fog that was drowning me, I thought I saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter... I felt myself fall forward onto the grass... face down, too weak to move, sick and shaking, I opened my eyes. The Dementor must have released me. The blinding light was illuminating the grass around me... the screaming had stopped... the cold was ebbing away...
Something was driving the Dementors back... it was circling around me and Harry and Sirius and Hermione... the Dementors were leaving... the air was warm again...

That was the last thing I saw before my head hit the ground as I fainted.