Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 33

Upon reading those words on the Daily Prophet, Jenna felt the breath get knocked out of her chest. She couldn't breathe, as if there was no air left in the room to reach her lungs.

     "No... no..." she started whispering under her breath, shaking her head in disbelief as her vision became blurred by tears.

     She dropped the newspaper on the bed and clapped a hand over her mouth, taking a few steps back.

     "No... this can't be happening..." she tried to swallow, but the lump in her throat was burning her from inside.

     They were going to take out his soul, and the mere thought of it made Jenna go weak in the knee up to the point that she dropped down to the floor. He would lose everything. His memories, his feelings... everything.

     But then an even more horrifying thought. What if they had already captured him? She hadn't seen Sirius now for a long time. What if something had happened to him?

     Jenna tried to remind herself that of they had caught him, it would be all over the news. But that didn't manage to reassure her enough. She had to see him for herself to make sure that he was all right.

     So without a single moment of hesitation, Jenna left the room as Crookshanks and managed to leave the common room, making her way out of the castle and toward the edge of the Dark Forest, where the Whomping Willow was planted.

     As quick as possible, Crookshanks went inside the tree and practically ran all the way toward the Shrieking Shack through the dark tunnel down there. As soon as she reached the old shack, Jenna returned back to human form.

     "Sirius? Sirius!" she started calling him out as she ran upstairs urgently.

     But then she came to a halt and went pale when she found the room completely empty.

     "Oh, no..."

     Her heart was throbbing in her chest and her mouth had gone dry. So with her lips trembling, Jenna transformed into a cat again and ran back through the tunnel and left the Whomping Willow. Her head was aching and there was a sharp pain in her heart, as if someone was squeezing it.

     She couldn't lose Sirius. Not after finally getting him back after twelve years of being apart from him. She had lost enough. If anything happened to him —

     Jenna quickly shook the thought away as she ran through the forest. Maybe he had just gone for a stroll. But the longer Jenna spent looking for him, the worst she felt. She had now spent hours searching the forest for him, but he was nowhere to be found.

     The sky had turn dark as the night had stumbled upon them, but the ache inside her body still haunted Jenna. She felt sick with worry and her head was hurting worse than ever before. But then she jumped out of her skin when she suddenly heard a loud bark behind her.

     Turning around, Crookshanks saw a big black dog standing there, looking at her as he shook his tail playfully.

     "Why so serious, Jenny?" Padfoot barked at her playfully, amused by his own pun, but the cat looked as if she was about to pounce on him angrily any moment.

     "Where the hell have you been!?" Crookshanks hissed at him, but before Padfoor could reply, the cat just started walking away.

    "Where are you going?" Padfoot called after her, but Crookshanks didn't pay him any attention and just headed out of the forest.

     Padfoot tried to get her attention, but she seemed too mad to respond. But when he followed her away, he saw that she was actually leading him back toward the Whomping Willow.

     After pressing the knot at the bottom of the trunk, the tree stopped moving and so they entered the tunnel again. Padfoot was still trying to ask her what was wrong, but Crookshanks was pretending like she couldn't understand him.

     She didn't show any sign of hearing him until they finally reached the Shrieking Shack and climbed up into its old and dusty room. With that, Sirius and Jenna both finally turned back to human form. But Sirius took a step back when he caught a look of Jenna's angry face and her red hair.

      "I don't know what I did wrong, but I'm sorry," Sirius said awkwardly, taking yet another step away from her.

     "YOU IDIOT!" Jenna bellowed, walking quickly toward him before he could back away and smacked him across the arm.

    "Ouch! Why!?" Sirius growled, holding his arm in pain.

    "Do you know what was in the paper today, Sirius!?" Jenna started angrily. "They've given the dementors permission to perform the kiss if they catch you!"

     Sirius's face fell at those words. He stared down at her blankly, his heart sinking. "Wh-what?"

     "Do you understand how dangerous it is for you here, walking around!? What if they catch you!? You were supposed to stay in this damn house, not to wonder around recklessly! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

     "Easy for you to say!" Sirius retorted back furiously. "I've been locked up for twelve years! You can't imprison me in here too! Besides, you hadn't even been here to visit me for days! I couldn't have just stayed here!"

     "Sirius, they're going to perform the kiss! You — you need to get out of here. You need to leave the castle. Now."

     "I'm not going anywhere until I kill Pettigrew!" he shouted, gritting his teeth together. "Something you've failed to do, even though you had spent months in the same room as him!"

     "You think I haven't tried!?"

     "I think your heart isn't with it! If it had been, then the rat would've been dead by now!"

     "My heart isn't with it?" Jenna repeated, scoffing angrily. "That filthy rat is the reason Lily and James are dead! He's the reason you were in Azkaban for twelve years!"

     "Well, you've done enough," Sirius said, though there was a tone of mockery in his voice that pissed Jenna off. "Leave the rest to me."

     "What's that supposed to mean?" Jenna frowned at those words.

     "I'll be the one to end his miserable life. I don't care if they catch me or not anymore," Sirius said blankly. "What is the Gryffindor common room's password?"

     "Sirius, you can't —"

     "What's the damn password, Jenna!?" Sirius snapped at her, causing her to take a step back. At that moment, there was a look in his cold eyes that made him look like he had actually murdered thirteen people.

     "I don't know," Jenna whispered, her eyes fixed on him as she gulped. "They keep changing it for more safety."

     "I give you two weeks to bring me the password, or I'll even try to handle that myself," Sirius said coldly and with that, he turned back into a dog and before Jenna could stop him, he left the shack.