Prey
HARRY'S MIND HAD GONE BLANK WITH SHOCK. The three of them 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 them, they heard a wild howling.
“Hagrid,” Harry muttered.
Without thinking about what he was doing, he made to turn back, but both Will and Freya seized his arms.
"We...We can't." Will said through gritted teeth, his eyes dazed making it seem he was talking more to himself then to Harry. "We can't. It'll only cause Hagrid more trouble."
Freya, who had turned silent and still when the thud sounded, shook her head.
"They...they can't be bloody serious." She let out a huff of breath, amused by the absurdity. "How could they?"
Harry and Will shared a worried look before Harry sighed, stopping his struggle back towards the hut as he put a hand gently on Freya's shoulder with a sigh.
"Come on, Frey." said Harry, swallowing hard. "Let's go."
They set off back toward the castle, walking slowly to keep themselves hidden under the cloak. The light was fading fast now. By the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them.
"Bloody Hell, Scabbers, keep still,” Freya hissed, clamping a hand over her hip. The rat was wriggling madly. Freya came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into her pocket. “What’s the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still —" She let out a sudden gasp. "He bit me!”
“Freya, be quiet!” Will whispered urgently. “Fudge’ll be out here in a minute —”
"It's not my fault!" Freya hissed. “He won’t — stay — put —”
Scabbers was plainly terrified. He was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Freya’s grip.
“What’s the matter with you?”
But Harry had just seen — slinking toward them, his body low to the ground, wide yellow eyes glinting eerily in the darkness — Crookshanks. Whether he could see them or was following the sound of Scabbers squeaks, Harry couldn’t tell.
"Crookshanks, no!" Will said sternly, shaking his head. But the cat was getting nearer —
“Scabbers — NO!”
Too late — the rat had slipped between Freya’s clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. In one bound, Crookshanks sprang after him, and before Harry or Will could stop her, Freya had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off herself, cursing as she pelted away into the darkness.
Will and Harry looked at each other, then followed at a sprint; it was impossible to run full out under the cloak; they pulled it off and it streamed behind them like a banner as they hurtled after Freya; they could hear her feet thundering along ahead and her shouts at Crookshanks. “Get away from him — get away — Scabbers, come here —”
There was a loud thud.
“Gotcha! Get off, you bloody cat —”
"Freya, don't hurt Crooksha-"
Harry and Will almost fell over Freya; they skidded to a stop right in front of her. She was sprawled on the ground, but Scabbers was back in her pocket; she had both hands held tight over the quivering lump.
“Freya — come on — back under the cloak —” Will panted. “Dumbledore — the Minister — they’ll be coming back out in a minute —”
But before they could cover themselves again- before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws Something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow — an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog.
Harry reached for his wand, but too late — the dog had made an enormous leap, and the front paws hit him on the chest; he keeled over backward in a whirl of hair; he felt its hot breath, saw inch-long teeth — But the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off him. Dazed, feeling as though his ribs were broken, Harry tried to stand up; he could hear it growling as it skidded around for a new attack.
"OI!"
Freya was on her feet. As the dog sprang back toward them, she pushed Harry aside; and the dog’s jaws fastened instead around Freya’s outstretched arm.
As his friend let out a hiss of pain, Harry lunged forward. He seized a handful of the brute’s hair, but it was dragging Freya away as easily as though she were a rag doll —
Then, out of nowhere, something hit Harry so hard across the face he was knocked off his feet again.
He heard Will gasp with pain and fall too. Harry groped for his wand, blinking blood out of his eyes — “Lumos!” he whispered. The wandlight showed him the trunk of a thick tree; they had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop them going nearer. And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Freya backward into a large gap in the roots —
Freya was fighting furiously, but her head and torso were slipping out of sight —
“FREYA!” Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again. All they could see now was one of Freya's legs, which she had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling her farther underground shouting horrible words at the dogs and it seemed like she would be fine until they could find a way in — but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot and Freya let out the loudest curse of all; Freya's leg had broken, and a moment later, her foot vanished from sight.
"FREYA!" Will's face was white, and his hands were trembling as he looked to where Freya had vanished, looking braced to run madly through the attacking branches for a moment before his jaw clenched and he turned to Harry, his eyes pained. "Harry! We've got to get back to the castle! We-we've got to get help and-"
"There's no time!" interrupted Harry with a fierce shake of his head, "That dog's big enough to eat her!"
Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles.
“If that dog can get in, we can,” Harry panted, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but he couldn’t get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in the range of the tree’s blows.
"Help..." Will whispered, his eyes darting around, following the whipping branches as though he could figure out the trick to them from sight alone. "Please, help..."
And help came. Crookshanks darted forward. He slithered between the battering branches like a snake and placed his front paws upon a knot on the trunk. Abruptly, as though the tree had been turned to marble, it stopped moving. Not a leaf twitched or shook.
“Crookshanks!” Will whispered. He looked to Harry wide-eyed. “How did he know — ?”
“He’s friends with that dog,” said Harry grimly. “I’ve seen them together. Come on — and keep your wand out —”
They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks’s tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes All Harry could think of was Freya and what the enormous dog might be doing to her . . . He was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch. . . .
They reached the dark landing.
“Nox,” they whispered together, and the lights at the end of their wands went out. Only one door was open. As they crept toward it, they heard movement from behind it; a whispered curse, and then a deep, loud purring. They exchanged a last look, a last nod. Wand held tightly before him, Harry kicked the door wide open. On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of them. On the floor beside him, clutching her leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Freya. Harry and Will dashed across to her.
“Freya — are you okay?”
“Where’s the dog?”
“Not a dog,” Freya hissed. Her teeth were gritted with pain. “Harry, it’s a trap —”
“What —”
“He’s the dog . . . he’s a bloody Animagus. . .. He's-”
She looked up with eyes glazed with pain, not staring at Harry but something behind him, with a mixture of regret, shame, sorrow, fear, and most of all anger.
"He's here."
Harry's confusion died away and rather than fear he suddenly felt calm as he turned, knowing what he would see as, with a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them.
* * *
A mass of filthy, matted hair hung 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 in a grin. It was Sirius Black.
Freya stared at him, her eyes burning with tears of frustration.
Why didn't you say it when you had the chance, Freya? Why didn't you tell Harry Potter that you were sorry you failed him? While you're at it, you have to tell William you're sorry for the whole rat thing, don't you? Don't you? So do it, do-
“Expelliarmus!”
Sirius coughed hard from the sudden use of words, though his hand was steady as he caused Will and Harry's wands to fly from their hands with his wand.
No... not his wand. Freya's face went aflame with shame, my wand.
Black caught the wands in his hands, taking a step closer, his eyes fixated on Harry.
“I thought you’d come and help your friend,” he said hoarsely. His voice sounded as though he had long since lost the habit of using it. “Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I’m grateful . . . it will make everything much easier...”
The taunt about her best friend's father made her ears ring, that's why she knew what Harry would do as she instantly moved her hand out to block her friends' movements. Her friend made no move, however, and she realized the reason as she heard Will whisper a warning of caution.
Freya, on the other hand, was not to be stopped as she looked up at Black with a glare.
“If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too!” she said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining her of energy, and she swayed slightly as she spoke, not feeling as heroic as she'd hoped. "And we won't go down...go down easily, you bloody...bloody... "
Bloody hell she was tired.
Something flickered in Black's shadowed eyes.
“Lie down,” he said quietly to Freya. “You will damage that leg even more.”
What?
"My...My leg? Did you not hear me, you bloody madman?" a headrush ensued and she stumbled, falling against Harry as she gripped his shoulder, ordering herself desperately not to faint. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"
“There’ll be only one murder here tonight,” said Black, and his grin widened.
“Why’s that?” Harry spat, trying to wrench himself free of Freya and Will as Freya gripped his shoulder tighter wishing he wouldn't move so much because she really did not have the strength to keep keeping him from killing himself.. “Didn’t care last time, did you? Didn’t mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew What’s the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?”
“Harry!” Will hissed, his eyes darting to Black's wand cautiously. "Please don't provoke him when-"
"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!"
Hearing the rage in his voice, Freya knew it was hopeless to stop what was about to happen, even as she held on.
With a huge effort Harry broke free of Will and Freya's restraint and lunged forward — He seemed to have forgotten about magic — forgotten that he was short and skinny and thirteen, whereas Black was a tall, full-grown man — and Freya was sure that all Harry knew was that he wanted to hurt Black as badly as he could and that he didn’t care how much he got hurt in return —
Perhaps it was the shock of Harry doing something so stupid, but Black didn’t raise the wands in time — one of Harry’s hands fastened over his wasted wrist, forcing the wand tips away; the knuckles of Harry’s other hand collided with the side of Black’s head, and they fell, backward, into the wall —
"Harry!"
Freya took a step forward- momentarily forgetting about her leg, as she let out a yell of pain her leg buckling as she fell- Will catching her quickly in his arms as he was yelling too and she felt like the whole world was made up of fear and pain and noise and nightmares for now she was watching as Black's free hand wrapped around her best friends throat-
Then suddenly she saw Will's foot kick out and heard Black letting out a grunt of pain and seeing her chance she blindly half leapt and half fell on top of Black-pulling his hair and sinking her nails into his arm as she pulled him into a direction away from Harry and she was punching and hitting then suddenly she heard Harry's voice, urgent-sounding and as though it was from very far away.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
They didn’t need telling twice. Will, from somewhere to Freya's left, gasping for breath, his lip bleeding, scrambled aside, snatching up hers and his own wand. Freya hurriedly crawled to the four-poster and collapsed onto it, panting, sure her whole face white face now tinged with green, both hands clutching her broken leg. Tears streaming from her face from late fear at the fact Harry had almost died and the horrible horrible pain shooting through her leg.
She looked up, blinking away the tears that blurred her eyes, and felt a new wave of fresh horror overtake her.
For Harry Potter was walking, slowly but surely towards the murderer, Sirius Black.
His wand pointing directly at the other man's heart.