The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

XVIII: 31 October, 1993

The easy part was getting through the tunnel, releasing the latch, and crawling out through the knot in the whomping willow.

The easy part was slinking through the gloomy grounds to the brush that lined the edge of the castle, pressing close to the stone and crawling over the worm-laden dirt, through cobwebs and past salamanders that peeked out from the clustered branches.

The easy part was slipping in through a broken window in the green houses and, although the new herbology teacher had moved some things about, the black dog was still able to sniff out the spot where a brick was loose in the floor and - after nudging aside a large planter full of herbs that smelled like something that reminded Sirius of full moon nights (aconite, he wondered?) - he scratched and clawed at it until the small hole beneath the students planting tables had opened and he dove through. 

The easy part was digging through a portion of the tunnel that had caved in since his days at Hogwarts - after all, it only had to be a gap large enough for a shaggy dog to crawl through, and this shaggy dog didn't much care if his paws were muddy or if he was disturbing spiders and earthworms to get to the other side of the collapse. He got to the steps that led up, up, up into the castle and slipped out from behind a statue in the hospital wing in what seemed like no time at all. Even sneaking past Madam Pomfrey wasn't distinctly hard. She came down the corridor guiding a student whose nose was spurting blood as he wailed and molted feathers, so she was thoroughly distracted and didn't notice the extra-dark shadow behind Hogwarts' marble memorium to Glover Hipworth, the great wizard who had discovered the Pepper Up Potion.

It was a bit harder sneaking through the castle corridors unseen, but Sirius made use of his memory of the tunnels and secret passageways, of the trick doors, and tucking himself behind suits of armor and long-hanging velvet draperies.

It was a Hogsmeade weekend. He knew that from talk about the village the day before, so luckily the halls were greatly void of students. This of course led him to the harder part - finding a place to lie in wait for the students to make their way down to the Halloween feast. It would be then that the common rooms and dormitories would be empty and he could sneak his way into Gryffindor Tower most easily. There, he knew, would be the hard part. After all, what if he had trouble finding the rat? What if the Weasley boy took that blasted rat with him to the feast? What then? Would he have to lie in wait for them to return? If so, how would he catch the rat? He figured he would catch the little bastard in his mouth and carry him somewhere that he could confront him without traumatizing the children. The trophy room passageway, perhaps? Somewhere he could really savor every moment of blasting the little blighter out of existence.... Yes, that, Sirius Black ascertained, would be the hardest part.

He decided to go and check on the trophy room passageway. Perhaps, he thought, that could be as good a place as any to hide out until the feast had commenced. After all, it was unlikely that anybody these days knew of the passageway. It had been over a decade since anyone had even known the passageway existed, he reckoned, apart from perhaps Dumbledore himself. He ought to be safe there.

That was how Sirius Black ended up discovering that the hard part was not the planning of the killing of the rat, Peter Pettigrew after all.

Sirius was just coming up to the corridor when he heard Argus Filch muttering about filth and slime and leading a young man through the halls. Sirius hid behind a suit of armor and watched them go by before slinking 'round the bend and heading toward the tapestry that covered the entrance to the passage. He crawled, low to the carpet, exposed for anyone to see that may come that way, his heart pounding. He was just about there when he heard the creak of a door and all but threw himself behind a pedestal holding a brass instrument of some sort that some ancient wizard nobody remembered had donated to the school. He wasn't very well hidden, but it was better than nothing, and he pressed to the wall as close as he could get and simply had to hope that whoever had opened the door wouldn't come down the corridor far enough to catch sight of him.