Dark Magic

Innocent

I winded myself on the way down into the hole in the Whomping Willow, giving myself a few moments to catch my breath. I must have pulled a muscle when landing on my left arm, as I could feel everything begin to tense in the surrounding area. The familiar feeling I had after past Quidditch matches. Great!

Ron's screams sounding in the distance distracted me from my pain as I forced myself from the ground, grasping my wand that had fallen a few feet in front of me on impact. I then began the long trek down the tunnel, in the direction of the Shrieking Shack. It was dark, I noted, even from the small amount of light at the end of the tunnel. Lupin would be making the journey to the Shack soon, so I would need to get Ron out before his arrival. We couldn't have anyone knowing about his illness...

Climbing into the tattered house, I tried to follow the sound of whimpering emitting from upstairs. Ron must have been terrified, to say the least; and hurt. The cries grew closer, and within a few moments I opened the door to one of the upstairs bedrooms and stepped inside. Ron sat in a ball in the corner with a deep gash across his leg; Scabbers clutched tightly in his arms.

"Ron-" I began, slightly out of breath from running through the underground tunnel; the redhead was quicker than me, however, "-Emerald! It's him! It's-" Footsteps broke Ron's plight as Harry and Hermione appeared beside me in the house; beaten down by the Whomping Willow Tree.

"-Ron, you're okay." Hermione let out a short sigh of relief, causing me to send her a disbelieving glance, "He's hardly okay; look at him." I spoke angrily, motioning towards his leg from which the blood flow was quickly increasing.

"All of you, go! It's a trap! He's the dog; he's an Animagus!" Ron cried out, pointing behind us as we turned to find ourselves faced with the infamous Sirius Black; his hair tassled and manged, his Azkaban prisonwear reduced to tattered rags and his eyes filled with such determination and rage it made me shudder momentarily, struggling to remind myself of my newly found revelation in regards to the condemned man.

Standing my ground, I shook my head towards the boy, "No. Ron. You don't unders-"

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us to!" The redhead shrieked, causing the entire room to shudder as he addressed the inmate. Before I could even have a moment to cut in and explain, Sirius Black spoke, "No. Only one will die tonight." His voice raspy from years of neglect from speaking, no doubt.

"Then It'll Be You!" Harry lunged at the man, knocking him to the ground with his wand digging tightly into the man's throat. "Harry No!" I cried, momentarily too shocked to do anything to stop my brother from his mission to kill the prisoner. His green eyes cast themselves over me, sharing that same look of rage that befell Sirius' face only moments before. Now, however, the prisoner beneath him had a wide grin and a maniacal laugh.

"He Killed Mum and Dad! He's The Reason We're Orphans, Em!" My brother's voice broke under the influence of his overwhelming amount of emotions. Every thought he had rushed through my mind all at once, as I reached to hold my head in attempt to keep them at bay; but it was too much, along with Ron and Hermione's and now....The prisoner who had spent twelve years of his life being drained of every happy memory he had; the darkest of them all remaining...

"STOP!" I managed to force out, the pain in my head unbearable as my vision began to fill with black spots and I could feel myself slipping away into the dark void.

"Expelliarmus!" The world around me quietened as I fell to my knees, the blood rushing from my head as I fought to hold myself up. I felt a pair of hands hold me still, clutching my shoulders as I muffled voice called out my name...

"Emerald? Are you alright?" The face belonging to the slowly clearing voice came through the spots, as my eyes met those of Remus'. Nodding, I blinked the last of the dark dots away, "I'm fine."

'Merlin, she looks just like Lily.' Sirius' thoughts echoed through my mind, causing another, sharp pain to shoot through my head. By the time my eyes had opened again, however, Remus clutched Harry's disarmed wand in his hands and leapt towards a stunned Sirius, embracing his friend.

"I did it. Let's kill him." Sirius muttered with an insane, excited grin as he motioned at the rat in Ron's hands, who just so happened to be directly behind Harry. "You've been helping him the whole time." Hermione spoke with a glare, her mind forming the wrong pieces to an unfinished puzzle, eyeing my Godfather "You've wanted Harry dead...And you're a Werewolf!"

Her accusation rang through the room as Lupin took a step away from his friend, "1 out of 3 isn't too bad, Miss Granger. You really are one of the brightest witches of your age," The man paused, his eyes flitting to me for a brief moment as I got up from the floor. "I have not been working with Sirius from the start, I don't want Harry dead but I am a werewolf." He announced, Ron letting out a short gasp in disbelief behind me.

I watched as Remus gave Harry back his wand, the duo beginning to explain their years in school as the Marauders. How Remus would go to the Shrieking Shack every full moon and the Marauders became Animagi to help him through his transformation. The story of what happened the night our parents died and I was born; how Sirius was supposed to be the Secret Keeper of our parent's whereabouts and that is the reason Voldemort knew where they were and killed them both. But what nobody, not even Dumbledore knew, was that Sirius has switched places with Peter Pettigrew (the fourth Marauder) at the last moment. Peter being a spy for Voldemort lead to him willingly giving up our mother and father. When Sirius learned of his deceit, he hunted Peter down to avenge our parents; but when he cornered Pettigrew in a Muggle village, the coward caused an explosion that killed twelve Muggles and fake his own death; the rest of the Wizarding World believing that Sirius was the one who killed them all, along with mum and dad and conspiring with the darkest wizard of all time. He was sent to Azkaban the next day, with no trial and no-one to prove his innocence.

"Ron, give them your rat." My voice broke at the tears that threatened to fall, unable to comprehend the last twelve years of Sirius Black's life that must have been hell. "What? Why? Scabbers-"

"-It's not Scabbers...It's..." I paused, as another thought entered my mind. Calling my name. Not belonging to Sirius, Remus, Ron or Hermione. I recognised the voice...Before I had time to react, however, another set of footsteps entered the room, pointing his wand at Remus and Sirius; his coal eyes ablaze and filled with fury. Severus.

"It will give me no greater pleasure than to hand you over to the Dementors, myself." The man spoke, instantly crossing the room to stand in front of me, guarding me from the two adults. "They say that the Dementor's kiss is almost unbearable to witness, but I'll do my best." Snape spoke venomously, Sirius' eyes flickering with fear as the thought of enduring such torture echoed through my mind.

"Severus, please, you don't understa-" I began, placing my hand over his arm as his concentration broke, forcing him to turn and face me. "-Stay out of this Emerald." His voice retorted with a sternness that took me back momentarily.

Sirius stepped forth, regaining some confidence as a smirk crept across his dirt-ridden lips, "Ah, that's right Snivellus; always needing a girl to fight your battles for you.

Snape stepped away from me, backing Sirius into a corner as he shrivelled a little, frightened momentarily by the man's threatening posture, "Give me one good reason. I beg you."

The room was silent for, what felt like a few minutes, as we waited for one of the adults to make the next move. To my shock and horror, however, it was the teenagers beside me that held their wands high at our Potion's Professor and all enacted in unison, "Expelliarmus!"

Snape let out a gasp as the overlapping of spells caused him to shoot backwards into the wall, the force knocking him out cold as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Severus." I spoke in disbelief, crossing the room and kneeling down beside him, checking for a pulse. As soon as I found one and no other sign of injury, I turned back to the scene before me, watching it unfold as Peter Pettigrew was forcefully transformed back into a human....Cowering before us all...