snake in the lions den|| WTM

twenty-nine

The four made their way down the streets of Hogsmeade, the white blanket of snow crunching  under every footstep, Ada, who was a master of disguise, walked with her hood up clutching her invisibility cloak to her chest for some warmth. "Those weasels! Never told me about any Marauder's Map!" Ron ranted fed up with his older brothers hogging everything. "But Ada isn't going to keep it. She's going to turn it over to Professor McGonagall, aren't you?" Hermione scolded looking directly at the girl who held a look like 'Yeah like that would ever happen.'

"Oh sure. Along with her invisibility cloak, her pack of exploding snap cards, her..." Ron started listing all the things she shouldn't really own in Hogwarts. "Oh, shut up." Hermione grumbled rolling her coffee brown eyes.  

"Rosmerta, m'dear!" Up ahead Cornelius Fudge emerges from a ministry sleigh as Hagrid swings the door clear, with unfortunate ease, ripping it clean off the fittings. Fudge joins McGonagall and a curvy barmaid with golden hair, Rosmerta, outside the Three Broomsticks pub.

"That's Madam Rosmerta. Ron fancies her." Hermione informs with a teasing grin casing the ginger boy to gasp "It's not true!" Mattheo and Ada just roll their eyes before Ada snaps at them "Shhh." 

"I trust business is good?" Cornelius Fudge queries as the woman holds a bitter look "It'd be a right sight better if the Ministry wasn't sending Dementors into my pub every other night." 

"We have a killer on the loose." Fudge reminds with a desperate look. "Sirius Black? In Hogsmeade! And what would bring him here?" The barmaid asks with wide eyes. 

"I'm not a killer!" The man yells out before crossing his arms and wearing a pout. Everyone rolled their eyes calling out. "We know." Even if some of them were still skeptical they were just sick of him repeating it over and over again. 

"Ada Potter." Fudge informs the woman "Ada Potter!" she repeats in shock. Fudge looks around nervously, then jerks his head toward the pub. As he leads Rosmerta and McGonagall inside. Ada throws on her cloak and follows them in trying to find some answers. "Ada?" Ron calls out not seeing the girl. The three watch as footsteps appear in the snow towards the door.

 Ada threads through the teeming pub, past a sign "No Underage Wizards" and nearly collides with some very strange looing patrons. Mattheo, Ron and Hermione ripple briefly past a frosted window, then... three shrunken heads swing into view. "So I says to him, 'Careful, Ned. Don't want to go losing your head!" As the three heads cackle hysterically, bobbing up and down on their strings, Ada turns... just as an arm whips down and a dart goes  whistling  right toward her eyes. Ada ducks, pivots, and sees the dart pierce the cork of the disfigured dartboard behind her. Ada hurries on, trailing Fudge and McGonagall up a dark stairwell as Rosmerta leads them into a small back room. As the door starts to close, Ada rushes forward: Slam! Too late. The door knob slowly turns, the door opens with a creak...

Snow  flutters off the sill of a half open window. McGonagall turns, frowning, and re-closes the door, harder this time, then joins Fudge and Rosmerta. 

"Oh Ada dear, you shouldn't of found out that way." Minnie says with a sympathetic face. Ada looked towards the woman, "Well how else was i suppose to find out, it's not like any of you were gonna tell me." She says in a sassy tone, shocking some people. Ada didn't mean to be disrespectful but she knew that no one would have told her that Sirius was her godfather except from the man himself. 

And the thing about Ada is that she hates being left in the dark, her whole life has just been secrets upon secrets. It seemed that more people knew about Ada's life more than she knew herself. 

"Come on then. Let's hear it." Rosmerta says with a sigh.

"Years ago, when Ada Potter's parents were marked for death, they went into hiding. Few knew where they were. One who did was black. And he told..."