All in the Family

Chapter 53: Cat, Rat, and Dog

There was a short, bumpy slide down his rump before he was left sprawling in a pile of dirt in a dark tunnel as their next destination. Sirius tried to sit up and then grunted in further pain as several more people came tumbling down on top of him.

Maneuvering and cursing helped sort it out, mainly the second, and soon they all found themselves able to hunch over uncomfortably, but they'd been in worse places recently. He didn't even need Evans to light her wand to tell him where they were though, he'd know this secret passage as well as his own dorm room. The sharp windy breeze discernible above his head, the faint, musty odor of blood and dust ahead, the way the path was slightly less well worn than any of the other hidden tunnels they'd ever found, though that was quickly being changed the longer the Marauders knew about it. They were underneath the Whomping Willow.

He didn't need Remus' soft little whimper of worry, James subtly stepping between Moony and everyone, or Peter's awkward shuffling backing away from everyone to know why this put them in such an awkward position. The only conceivable reason to them why Harry would be down here, is that one of the Marauder's had taken him down here for some reason. Neither of the present two seemed to have much of a good reason.

Waiting in the dust at the end of the slope was the now dusty purple book, sitting innocently with the pages now smattered and crumpled from so many people kicking and landing on it as they went past. Sirius swallowed a bit of bile as he went to pick it up, but he ignored his hand shaking as he met Remus' eyes and tried to concoct a plan for the worst.

If, and it was still a very big if to him, Harry was somehow down here because he found out about Moony and had some cacamaime idea about seeing it, the three friends in this time would have to do a hell of a lot of covering up for their Remus now to make sure none knew the wiser it wasn't true now. He gazed down at the chapter title for too long, Frank began laughing at what the hold up was. As an experiment, he tried to laugh and summarize the odd chapter title, just telling everyone else it was a bunch of animal names, but no more words appeared until he finally said Cat, Rat, and Dog.

He couldn't fake it. He didn't know a way how to talk them out of this one.

It didn't start out with any good omens, what with Buckbeak being unjustly killed and the poor trio's reaction. Then Scabbers started going nuts, the reason being quickly revealed Crookshanks was still after him. Still he could hardly spare any of it a thought as the tunnel subtly shifted in size around them, though he really couldn't care less now he could stand up straight instead of hunched over the book.

Then the dog arrived.

He startled so hard he scraped his head against the ceiling, causing a slight dust cloud around him and poring over the book. He took the temporary coughing fit this caused amongst the others to gaze at his friends in pleading silence to tell him he'd read that wrong, but their shadowed eyes gave nothing away.

Sirius had started this worried about how Moony's involvement was going to get dragged into this and what potential secrets was going to come of that, now a whole new scenario was playing out behind his minds eye. The deranged animal he'd become in Azkaban, sapping away his humanity and leaving him with one animal urge left to kill, somehow being directed on one he'd so love.

A puddle of sick was there at his feet, and he didn't even remember doing it. His throat still burned, his stomach rolled and threatened to continue any moment, but all he felt was the horror his mind had latched onto and wouldn't let go. He'd gifted himself this animal form to save Moony, now it would be the death of James- Harry- James-

"It's alright Padfoot-"

"Let it out mate."

"How hard did he hit his head? Did he give himself a concussion?"