The six of us stand still, transfixed with horror. The very last rays of the setting sun are now casting a bloody light over the long-shadowed grounds. Then, from behind us, we hear a wild howling.

"Hagrid," Harry mutters. Without any warning, he goes to turn back, but both Ron and Hermione seize his arms.

"We can't," Bonnie says. "He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him..."

Hermione's breathing has now become shallow and uneven.

"How - could - they?" She chokes. "How could they?"

"I know," I say, fighting back a tear. "But we have to keep going."

We set off slowly back toward the castle, keeping to ourselves. None of us can believe that they actually went through with the execution. The light is now fading fast.

"Scabbers, keep still," Ron hisses, clamping his hand over his chest. The rat is still wriggling madly. Ron comes to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket. "What's the matter with you, You stupid rat? Stay still - OUCH! He bit me!"

"Ron, be quiet!" Amy whispers urgently. Even she's worried about getting caught out here at this hour. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute-"

"He won't - stay - put"

Scabbers is plainly terrified, of something we have no idea. He's writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Ron's tight grip.

"What's the matter with him?"

I look around frantically, trying to see if any teachers - or Fudge - are coming near us. But then, stinking toward us, his body low to the ground, his wide yellow eyes glowing in the darkness - Crookshanks.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione moans. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!" But the cat is getting nearer -

"Scabbers - NO!"

The struggling rat has slipped between Ron's clutching fingers. He hits the ground, and scampers away. In one bound, Crookshanks springs after him, and before any of us can stop him, Ron throws the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelts away into the darkness.

"Ron!" I moan.

The five of us look to each other, before following Ron at a sprint. Bonnie and Amy jump off Hermione and I's backs. It's almost impossible to run full speed under the cloak, so we pull it off ourselves and let it stream behind us like a banner as we hurtle after Ron.
"Get away from him - get away - Scabbers, come here-" Ron yells after the cat and mouse.  Suddenly, there's a loud thud.

"Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat-"

Harry almost falls over Ron as we skid to a stop in front of him. He's sprawled out on the ground and Scabbers is back in his pocket.

"Ron - we've got two get back under the cloak" Hermione pants. "Dumbledore - the Minister - they'll be coming back out in a minute-"

But before we can cover ourselves with the cloak again, before we can even catch our breaths, we heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws...Something is bounding toward us, quiet as a shadow - an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog.

I gasp. It looks exactly like the dog that Sirius Black turned into back when I saw him after the first Hogsmeade trip. But, it's cant be him, it just can't be.

I reach for my wand, ready to cast something at the dog, but I'm too late - the dog makes an enormous leap and the front paws hit Harry on the chest; he keels over backward. I want to go any help Harry, but the dog soon rolls off him. Harry stands up, and the dog looks around, ready to attack again.

Ron is now on his feet. As the dog springs back toward us, he pushes Harry aside; the dog's jaws fasten instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry and I lunge forward. We seize handfuls of the brute's hair, but it is now dragging Ron away as easily as though he's a rag doll.

Then, out of nowhere, something hits me so hard across the face that I'm knocked off my feet. I heard Hermione, Bonnie and Amy shriek with pain and fall too.

I grope around for my wand, blinking blood out of my eyes. Where did the blood come from?

"Lumos!" I whisper.

The wandlight shows him the trunk of a thick tree; we had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches are creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop us going nearer.

And there, at the base of the trunk, is the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots - Ron is fighting furiously, but his head and torso are slipping out of sight -

"Ron!" Harry shouts, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whips lethally through the air and he is known rd over again.

All we can see of Ron, is one of his legs, which. He has hooked around a roof in effort to stop the dog from fully dragging him underground - but a horrible crack sounds through the air like a gunshot; Ron's leg is broken, and a moment later, his foot vanishes from sight.

"Guys - we've got to go for help-" I gasp.

"No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time-"

"Harry - we're never going to get through without help-" Amy says, but she's cut off by another branch whipping down at us, twigs clenched like knuckles.

"If that dog can get in, we can," Harry says, and he begins to dart here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but he can't even get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows.

"Oh, help, help," Hermione whispers frantically, dancing uncertainly on the spot, "Please..."

As if upon call, Crookshanks darts forward. He slithers between the battening branches like a snake and places his front paws upon a knot on the trunk. How is that going.

To answer my question, the tree stops moving abruptly. Not a single leaf or branch twitches.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione whispers uncertainly. She's now grasping my arm, quite painfully at that. "How did he know-?"

"He's friends with that dog," Harry says grimly, making us turn to him quickly. "I've seen them together. Come on - and keep your wands out-"

We all point our wands ahead of us as we walk toward the trunk. Before we reach the gap in the roots, Crookshanks slides into it with a flick of his tail. Harry goes in next, followed by myself. I crawl forward, headfirst, and slide down the earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel.

I see Harry a few feet away from me, as I get up from the earth covered ground. I see Crookshanks walking a little further along, before disappearing around a corner.

Hermione, Bonnie and Amy slide down within the next few moments.

"Where's Ron?" Bonnie whispers in a terrified voice,

"This way," Harry says, setting off, bent-backed, the way Crookshanks went.

"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asks breathlessly.

"I don't know...It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it...It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade..." Harry says.

We move through the tunnel as fast as we can, bent almost double, trying not to hit the roof with our heads. Only slightly ahead of us, Crookshanks's tail bobs away and out of view. We keep going through the passage, which feels like forever. As we walk, all I can think about is the dog. Why does it so badly represent the dog that Black turned into that evening? It seems almost ridiculous.

Finally, the tunnel begins to rise; moments later it twists, and Crookshanks is gone. Ahead I can see a patch of dim light through a small opening.

The five of us pause, cautious about it. We raise our wands and edge forward.
We come into a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper is peeling from the walls; there are stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture is broken as though somebody had smashed it and the windows are all boarded up.

I pulled myself out of the hole, after Harry, and stare around. The room is deserted, but a door to the right stands open, leading to a shadowy hallway

"Guys," I say, looking around at the boarded up windows. "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack."

"Ghosts didn't do that," Harry says, pointing to a very ripped up chair to the left of the room. It has huge chunks taken out of its leg and the material covering it looks as if a very vicious dog had attacked it.

At that moment, there's a creak overhead. Something is moving upstairs. We look up at the ceiling.Quietly, we creep out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe has been made by something being dragged upstairs.

I glance at Harry, both of us thinking that must have been from Ron and the dog.

We soon reach the dark landing.

"Nox," Harry and I whisper together, and the lights at the end of our wands go out. Only one door is open. As we creep toward it, we hear movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring.

Our wands held tightly before us, Harry kicks the door wide open.

On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lays Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of us. On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which is sticking out at a strange angle, is Ron.

The five of us dash across to him.

"Ron - are you okay?" I ask him,

"Where's the dog?" Harry says.

"Not a dog," Ron moans, his teeth gritting in pain. "Harry, Sarah, it's a trap-"

"What-"

"He's the dog... he's an Animagus."

Ron is staring over our shoulders at something. We turn around. With a snap, the man in shadows closes the door behind us.

A mass of filthy, matted hair hangs to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin is stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looks like a skull. His yellow teeth are bared in a grin. It's Sirius Black.

"You!" I yell at him.

"Expelliarmus!" he croaks, pointing Ron's wand at us.

All five out our wands shoot out of our hands, high in the air, to where Black catches them. Black then takes a step closer to us, his eyes switching between Harry and I.

"I thought you'd come and help your friend," he says hoarsely. He sounds as though he hasn't used his voice in years, which he probably hasn't anyway. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful...it will make everything much easier..."

I begin to glare at Black, hate surging through my bones. How dare he taunt Harry and I about our father like that, as if they were real friends.

Harry starts forward, aiming for Black, before Bonnie and. Wrap our hands around his arms, stopping him.

"Harry, no," I whisper in his ear, even though I dearly wish to go at Black as well. But we're defenceless, and he has six wands - we wouldn't stand a chance.

"If you want to kill Harry and Sarah, you'll have to kill us too!" Ron says fiercely, though the effort of standing upright is draining him of still more colour, and he sways slightly as he speaks. I don't know why he's standing up, I guess for effect on his words.

Something flickers in Black's shadowed eyes. "Lie down," he says quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more."

"Did you hear me?" Ron says weakly, as he clings onto Hermione's arm for support. "You'll have to kill all six of us!"

"There'll be only one murder here tonight," Black says.

One? "Which one of us are you planning on killing then?" I say to him.

"Why's that?" Harry spits, trying to wrench himself free of Hermione and I's grasp. "Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew...What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"

"Harry!" I say in his ear. "Be quiet!"

"HE KILLED OUR MUM AND DAD!" Harry roars, and with a huge effort he breaks free of Hermione's and my grip, and lunges forward.

Surprisingly, as Harry lunges toward him, Black doesn't raise any of the wands in time. One of Harry's hands fastens over Black's wrist, forcing the wand tips away; the knuckles of Harry's other hand collides with the side of Black's head and they fall, backward, into the wall.

"Harry!" I scream at him, willing him to stop and not get hurt.

Hermione, Bonnie and Amy are also screaming at him, and Ron is yelling. There's a blinding flash as the wands in Black's hand send a jet of sparks I to the air that miss Harry by inches. Harry ignores it and lunches Black in any way he can find. But Black's free hand has found Harry's throat.

"No," he hisses. "I've waited too long-"

Harry begins to choke as Black's grip tightens. I scream at them to stop, but it doesn't work. Then, out of nowhere, Hermione's tells forward and swings her foot at Black, as if she'd had lots of practice.

"Hermione!" I gasp in surprise, as she raises her own fists to Black.

Black lets go of Harry with a grunt of pain from Hermione's kick. The wands fall out of his hand with a clatter. Harry wriggles away toward them, but

"Argh!"

Crookshanks has now joined the party. Both sets of his claws sink into Harry's arm. Harry manages to throw him off, but Crookshanks is now darting toward Harry's wand.

"NO YOU DON'T!" Harry roars, and he aims a kick at Crookshanks that makes the cat leap aside, spitting; Harry snatches up his wand, forgetting the others, then turns to Hermione.

"Get out of the way!" He shouts at her. Hermione p, grasping for breath and her lip bleeding, scrambles aside immediately, snatching up the other wands. She hands each of the wands to the owners, as Ron crawls up to lay on the four-posted bed.

Black is sprawled at the bottom of the wall. His thin chest rises and falls rapidly as he watches Harry and I, as we walk slowly nearer. This time I'm going to help Harry. Black deserves it. We both point our wands at Black's heart.

"Going to kill me?" He whispers.

I stare at him, before lowering my wand. I can't do it. I step back, but Harry continues forward, before stopping right above him, his wand still pointed at Black's chest.

"You killed our parents," Harry says, his voice slightly wavering, but his wand hand quite steady.

Black stares up at him out of those sunken eyes.

"I don't deny it," he says, very quietly. "But if you knew the whole story."

"The whole story?" Harry repeats with a laugh. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all we need to know."

"You've got to listen to me, both of you," Black says, with a note of urgency in his voice now. "You'll regret it if you don't...neither of you don't understand..."

I pause. I didn't hear exactly what was told at the Three Broomsticks when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bonnie and Amy overheard the teachers when they talked about Black.
"I understand a lot better than you think," Harry says, and his voice shakes more than it did before. "You never heard her, did you? Our mum...trying to stop Voldemort killing Sarah and I...and you did that...you did it..."

Before either of them can say another word, something ginger streaks past Harry; Crookshanks leaps onto Black's chest and settles himself there, right over Black's heart. Black blinks. Couple of times and looks down at the cat.

"Get off," he murmurs, trying to push Crookshanks off him.

But Crookshanks sinks his claws into Black's robes and won't shift. He turns his ugly, squashed face to Harry and I and looks up at us with those great yellow eyes. From behind Hermione lets out a dry sob.

Harry stares at Black and Crookshanks. I watch Harry as he stares menacingly at Black. No, Harry, don't, I plead in my head, you'll regret it, please.

Harry raises the wand. I hold in a breath, praying that Harry won't do anything. Harry stands frozen, wand poised, Black staring up at him, Crookshanks on his chest. None of us breathe, except for Ron who's ragged breath is the only sound radiating through the room.

And then comes a new sound -

Muffled footsteps are echoing up through the floor - someone is moving downstairs.

"WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione screams suddenly. "WE'RE UP HERE - SIRIUS BLACK - QUICK!"

Black makes a startled movement that almost dislodges Crookshanks; I see Harry his wand convulsively. Please don't do it. Please don't do it. The footsteps are thundering up the stairs and Harry still hasn't done anything.

The door of the room bursts open in a shower of red sparks and Harry andI whip around. Dad comes hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. His eyes flicker across the room, seeing Ron lying on the bed, to Hermione, Bonnie and Amy who are cowering near the door, to Harry, standing there with his wand pointed at Black, and then to Black himself, crumpled and bleeding at Harry's feet. Dad doesn't even look at me.

"Dad!" I yell, running over to him. "Dad - it's Sirius Black!"

Dad ignores me before moving me aside to Hermione, Bonnie and Amy. "Expelliarmus!" He shouts.

Each of our wands fly out of our hands. I stare at Dad; what is he doing? He catches them all in is hand, then moves into the room, staring at Black, who still has Crookshanks luring protectively across his chest.

Then Dad speaks, in a very tense voice. "Where is he, Sirius?"

We all stare at Dad, stunned. What is he on about? Why is he being friendly with Black, when he's going after his own daughter?
Black's face is quite expressionless. For a few seconds, he doesn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raises his empty hand and points straight at Ron. Mystified, I glance around at Ron, who looks bewildered.

"But then..." Dad mutters, staring at Black intently. "... why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless-" His eyes suddenly widen, as though he's seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest of us can see. "-unless he was the one...unless you switched...without telling me?"

Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Dad's face, Black nods.

"Dad," I asks, scared. "What's going on?"

Dad ignored me agin. Surprisingly, he begins to lower his wand, gazing fixed at Black. He walks to Black's side, seizes his hand, pulls him to his feet so that Crookshanks falls to the floor, and embraces Black like a brother.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Bonnie screams at him.

I stare angrily at Dad as lets go of Black and turns to her. She has now raised herself off the floor and is pointing at Dad, wild-eyed. "You - you-"

"Bon-"

"-you and him!"

"Bonnie, darling, calm down-"

Hermione takes the opportunity to speak up. "I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieks, suddenly. "I've been covering up for you-"

"Hermione, Bonnie, listen to me, please," Dad shouts. "I can explain-"

"Explain what?" I shout, standing to him. "Explain how you've always been on Black's side? When you wanted Bonnie and I to stay away from him?"

"I trusted you," Harry shouts at him, his voice wavering, out of control. "And all the time you've been his friend!"

"Listen to me, you're all wrong," Dad says. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now - Let me explain..."

"NO!" Hermione screams. "No,  we can't trust him. He's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you and Sarah dead too - he's a werewolf!"

There's a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes are now on Dad, who looks remarkably calm, though rather pale.

How could she - I'm not taking Dad's side right now, he's being really odd - but she promised me. She promised that she wouldn't tell anyone about Dad.

"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione," Dad says. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Sarah or Harry dead." An odd shiver passes over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."

Ron falls off the bed with a loud grunt. He then tries to make a valiant effort to get up again but falls back with a whimper of pain. Dad goes toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasps, "Get away from me, werewolf!"

"He won't hurt you!" I yell at Ron.

Dad stops dead after hearing what Ron said. Then, with an obvious effort, he turns to Hermione and says, "How long have you known?"

Ages," Hermione says. "Since Professor Snape set the essay..."

"He'll be delighted," Dad says coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realise what my symptoms meant...Did you check the lunar chart and realise that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realise that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

"Both," Hermione says quietly.

Dad forces a laugh. "You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."

"I'm not," Hermione whispers. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"

"No you wouldn't have," I say, turning to Hermione. "You promised me that you wouldn't."

"You already knew?" Harry asks me, stupidly.

"Of course I knew!" I say. "He's my Dad, how could I not know?"

"A lot of people already know," Dad says, excusing Harry's and my comments. "At least, the staff do."

"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf," Ron gasps. "Is he mad?"

"I already told you he's not dangerous!" I say impatiently.

"Some of the staff thought so," Dad says. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy-"

"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yells. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!"
He points at Black, who suddenly crosses to the four-poster bed and sinks onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand. Crookshanks leaps up beside him and steps onto his lap, purring. Ron edges away from both of them, dragging his leg.

"I have not been helping Sirius," Dad says. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look-"

He separates each of the wands and throws each of them back to us.

"There," Dad says, sticking his own wand back into his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"

I nod, but Harry doesn't move; he just stares at Dad.

"If you haven't been helping him," he says, with a furious glance at Black. "How did you know he was here?"

"The map," Dad says. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it-"

"You had the map?" I ask him, looking to Harry.

"I had to give it to him once Snape took me to his office," Harry says quickly to me. He turns back to Dad. "You know how to work it?" He says suspiciously.

"Of course I know how to work it," Dad says, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony - that was my friends' nickname for me at school."

"You wrote-"

"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Sarah, Bonnie, Ron, Hermione and Amy might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"

He starts to pace up and down, looking at us. Little patches of dust rise at his feet. "You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry and Sarah-"

"How d'you know about the cloak?" Harry asks.

"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it..." Dad says, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."

"What?" Amy says. "No, we weren't!"

"I couldn't believe my eyes," Dad says, still pacing, and ignoring Amy's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"

"No one was with us!" Harry says.

"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black...I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow-"

"One of us!" Ron says angrily.

"No, Ron," Dad says, getting more impatient. "Two of you."

He suddenly stops his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron.

"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he says

"What?" Ron says. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"

"Everything," Dad says. "Could I see him, please?"

Ron hesitates, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerges, thrashing desperately; Ron has to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stands up on Black's leg and makes a soft hissing noise.

Dad moves closer to Ron. He seems to be holding his breath as he gazes intently at Scabbers.

"What?" Ron says again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"

"That's not a rat," Black croaks suddenly.

"What d'you mean - of course he's a rat-"

"No, he's not," Dad says quietly. "He's a wizard."

"An Animagus," Black says. "By the name of Peter Pettigrew."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

Yes, I know a lot of these past couple of chapters, and the next couple as well, are somewhat copied from the book, but I'm afraid that it's not because I'm too lazy to come up with something like I was in the first book, it's because it really is needed to get the story across. Sorry.

Anyway, in the next chapter Sarah is going to...actually, let's not spoil it. But there are going to be a few things to cover in the next few chapters, including the reveal of Padfoot (to Sarah that is), another Sarah/Draco scene that is slightly important and a lot more to the Time Turner part of the book where Harry and Hermione go off saving Sirius and Buckbeak and yeah.

There're only 5 chapters left of this book, and personally as you an tell from the past couple of author's notes, I'm relieved. That means I'll be able to get started on the next book. This one should be finished within the next couple of weeks because I'm on a writing rampage at the moment, with only 3 of the chapters left to write.

This Author's Note is turning pretty long so,

Peace out guys, love you!

~Elise