Lillian Evans: Harry Potter's Sister(Sort Of)

The Shrieking Shack

My mind went blank with shock. We all stood transfixed with horror under the Invisibility Cloak. The very last rays of the setting sun were casting a bloody light over the long-shadowed grounds. Then, behind us, we heard a wild howling.
"Hagrid," Harry muttered, starting to turn back, but both Ron and Hermione seized his arms.
"We can't," said Ron, who was paperwhite. "He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him."
Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven.
"How- could- they?" she choked. "How could they?"
We set off back towards the castle, walking slowly to keep ourselves hidden beneath the Cloak. Light was fading fast now. By the time we reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around us.
"Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest.
The rat was wriggling madly. Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket.
"What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still- OUCH! He bit me!" Ron said."
Ron, be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute-"
"He won't- stay- put-" Ron whispered back.
Scabbers was terrified. He was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Ron's grip.
"What's the matter with him?" Hermione asked.
I tried to focus on just Scabbers' thoughts/feelings. Whichever one they were. Immediately, I could hear very human thoughts coming out of his head.
"Need to get away. Need to get away from Black. The cat is with him. Get away. Let me go, you stupid boy. Get your hands off me," Scabbers thought.
Focusing back on the present, I followed Harry's eyes to Crookshanks, who was staring directly at Ron's chest pocket.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!" But Crookshanks ignored her.
"Scabbers- NO!" Ron yelled.
It was too late- the rat had slipped between Ron's clutching fingers, hit the ground and scampered away.
In one bound, Crookshanks sprung after him, and before either Harry or Hermione could stop us, Ron and I had flung the Cloak off and chased after the two.
"Ron!" Hermione moaned.
I could hear the two of them chasing behind us in a full sprint.
"Get away from him- get away- Scabbers, come here-" Ron was yelling.
I could vaguely see Ron throw himself on Scabbers."
Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat-" Ron yelled at Crookshanks.
Harry and Hermione tripped over Ron, while I stopped next to them and looked around.
"Ron- come on- get back under the Cloak-" Hermione panted. "Dumbledore- the Minister- they'll be coming back out in a minute-"
But before I could shout out a warning and they could cover themselves with the Cloak again, we all heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws. Something was bounding towards us out of the dark- an enormous, pale-eyed, jet, black dog.
It shoved Harry over onto the ground then turned towards Ron. The dog jumped around Harry and fastened its jaws around Ron's outstretched arm, he had tried to stop Harry from falling over. Harry lunged at it and seized a handful of the dog's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as if he were a rag-doll.
Then out of nowhere, something hit Harry and Hermione backwards, making them both fall over. I tried to get my eyes to focus, but I was lifted off my feet.
Harry managed to find his wand and cast a light spell so that we could all see around us. The Whomping Willow was lifting me up. It thought that Harry and Hermione were trying to hurt me and it was protecting me. Ron was being pulled through a small opening at the base of the tree. Then it hit me, this was the passageway to the Shrieking Shack. But why would a dog pull Ron through the hole?
I then noticed Crookshanks at the base of the tree. The cat pressed what looked like a knot in the trunk and the tree froze. Unfortunately, that meant I was dropped from about 10ft in the air. I fell on my side but didn't hear any snaps, so I probably fractured something as I fell a fair distance. Crookshanks went through the hole, so doing the sensible thing, I followed.
"Where does the tunnel come out?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know... it's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and Geroge said no one's ever got into it. It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it ends up in Hogsmeade..." Harry answered.
"Harry," I said, feeling as though I was grasping at straws that didn't exist. "What were the names on the Map again?"
Both Harry and Hermione looked at each other.
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs," Harry said. "But I never told you about it."
"Fred and George told me. What is your Patronus?" I fired back.
"A stag," Harry said, looking confused.
That left Wormtail and Padfoot. I remembered at Christmas, Remus told me something was from Padfoot. That meant that James was Prongs, Remus was Moony, Sirius was Padfoot, which left Wormtalk for Peter.
We moved as fast as we could bent double; ahead of us, Crookshanks led the way. After about an hour, the tunnel began to rise, moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks was no longer visible. I could see a patch of dim light through a small opening. Both Hermione and Harry paused, gasping for breath, edging forwards. They both raised their wands to see what lay beyond.
It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up.
Harry pulled himself out of the hole, staring around. The room was deserted, but a door to the right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Harry then helped the two of us out of the hole.
"Harry," Hermione whispered. "I think we are in the Shrieking Shack."
"Ghosts didn't do that," Harry said, pointing at a chair that was destroyed, looking as if it was pulled apart by an angry werewolf.
At that moment, there was a creak upstairs.
As quietly as we could, we crept up the crumbling staircase. Harry and Hermione put out the lights at the end of their wands. Only one door was open. As we crept towards it, we heard movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring.
On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks purring loudly at the sight of them. On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at an odd angle, was Ron. Harry and Hermione dashed towards him. I looked around the rest of the room and saw Sirius standing in the shadows behind the door.
A mass of filthy, matted hair hung down to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared with a grin. It was Sirius Black. I had been right.
He shut the door with a snap.
"Expelliarmus!" he croaked, pointing Ron's wand at them.
Harry and Hermione's wands shot out of their hands, high in the air, and Sirius caught them.
"I thought you'd come to help your friend," he said hoarsely.
His voice sounded as though he had long ago lost the habitat of using it.
"Your father would have done the same thing for me. Brave of you not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful... it will make anything much easier..." he continued.
The amount of hate that I felt off of Harry at that moment made me stumble backwards.
"No, Harry," Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper.
Everything felt off, like I couldn't control my own thoughts and feelings, having them replaced with someone else's. I zoned out, closing my eyes, trying to regain control of my own mind.
When I finally was able to think straight, I opened my eyes and saw Harry standing over Sirius with a want pointed at him.
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted, waving my hand at Harry.
He went flying back towards Hermione.
"You are insane Harry," I said. "He literally only said that your father would have tried to save him if he was kidnapped."
"He is the reason my parents are dead!" Harry yelled back.
At that, my heart sank. If that were true, that would mean that Sirius was the reason that I didn't know my mum.
"Then why does Scabbers think in human thoughts?" I said.
Then Remus came into the room. He looked at me with a proud expression on his face.
"Let me guess, Fawkes flew away," he said, in a playfully stern voice.
"I was going to go find you, I swear, but then this idiot kidnapped Ron," I explained in the same joking voice, motioning to Sirius who was behind me, still laying on the floor. "And you should be in the Room of Requirement right now?"
"Everything will be fine Lilly," Remus told me. "Where is he, Sirius?"
Sirius' face was quite expressionless. For a few seconds, he didn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raised his empty hand and pointed straight at Ron, who was holding Scabbers.
Ron looked bewildered.
"But then..." Remus muttered, staring at Sirius so hard I was sure that he was performing Occlumency. "... why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless..." Remus' eyes widened, as though he was now understanding something. "-Unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?"
"Professor Lupin," Harry asked, loudly. "What's going-?"
Harry didn't get to finish the question as Remus walked over to Sirius, seized his hand and pulled him to his feet. Remus then pulled Sirius into a hug.
"Sirius, this is..." Remus started.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed.
Remus let go of Sirius and turned to face her.
She raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Moony.
"You- you-"
"Hermione-" Remus started.
"-you and him-"
"Hermione, calm down-"
"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you-"
My stomach sank.
"Hermione, listen to me, please!" Remus shouted. "I can explain-"
"I trusted you," Harry shouted at him, his voice wavering out of control. "And all this time, you've been his friend."
I was shaking now, I was having a hard time keeping these emotions out of my head and all the yelling was hurting my ears. Sirius came over and pulled me into a side hug.
"You're wrong," Remus said. "I haven't been Sirius' friend for 12 years, but now I am... let me explain..."
"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black into the castle, he wants you dead too- he's a werewolf!"
There was a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes were now on Moony, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.
"Not at all up to your usual standards, Hermione," he said. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead..." An odd shiver passed over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."
Ron made a valiant effort to get up but fell back with a whimper of pain. Remus made towards him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, "Get away from me werewolf!"
Remus stopped dead. I could see the hurt in his eyes.
"Honestly, you are all idiots. If Remus had wanted to kill Harry, Harry never would have made it to Hogwarts. He gave you chocolate on the train, remember. None of you even checked for poisons, you just trusted him immediately," I chimed in. "And Hermione, don't look down on someone else for something they can't control, you of all people should know what that feels like. You too Ron."
Sirius looked at Remus and then at me.
"She yours?" Sirius asked.
"Good heavens no Sirius. She just understands that you can't control what happens to you," Remus said, winking at me. "How long have you known Hermione?"
"Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay..."
"He'll be delighted," said Remus coolly. "He set that essay hoping would realize what my symptoms meant. Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I always fell ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into a full moon when it saw me?"
"Both," Hermione whispered.
Remus forced a length.
"You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."
"I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are."
"But the staff already know," Remus said.
"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf?" Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"
"Some of the staff thought so," said Remus. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy- "
"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!"
He was pointing at Sirius, who still had an arm wrapped around me, in an attempt to comfort me.
"I have not been helping Sirius," Remus said. "If you give me a chance, I'll explain," he paused, looking at me.
I waved a hand and returned all their wands to them.
"There," Remus said, sticking his own wand back into his belt. "Now you're armed, we're not. Now, will you listen?"
"If you haven't been helping him," Harry said, with a furious glance at Sirius, which made my head pound. "How did you know where we were?"
"The map," Moony said. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it-"
"You know how to work it?" Harry said, suspiciously.
"Of course I know how to work it," Moonlight said, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony- that was my friends' nickname for me at school.
"You knew that Lilly, and you didn't tell any of us," Harry said, looking at me with the same furious glance that he had just looked at Sirius with.
"Sorry Harry, but Remus asked me not to say anything. Besides, I am sure that you would have figured it out eventually," I defended.
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening because I had an idea that you, Ron and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. I know Lilly was already there, I watched her leave from the Great Hall, almost a half-hour before you did. And I was right, wasn't I?"
Remus started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet.
"You might have been wearing your father's old Cloak, Harry-"
"How d'you know about the Cloak?" Harry asked.
"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it..." Moony said, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you are wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left and set back off back towards the castle. But you were now accompanied by Lilly and somebody else."
"What?" Harry said. "No, we weren't!"
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Moonlight said, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"
"No one was with us!" Harry said.
"And then I saw another dot, moving fast towards you, labelled Sirius Black... I saw him collide with you, I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow-"
"One of us!" Ron said angrily.
"No, Ron," Remus said. "Two of you."
He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron.
"Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he said evenly.
"What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything," said Moony. "Could I see him, please?"Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him from escaping. Crookshanks stood up beside Sirius and I and made a soft hissing noise. Remus moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers.
"What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"
"That's not a rat," Sirius and I said at the same time.
"What d'you mean- of course, he's a rat-" Ron argued.
"No, he's not," Remus said quietly. "He's a wizard."
"An Animagus," Sirius said. "By the name of Peter Pettigrew."

Author here. Thank you all so much for reading. If anyone has any questions regarding any plot points, feel free to ask them. I will try my best to answer them all.