Chapter 16
I slide into the tunnel and end up landing on my stomach. I lay my head on the ground. My breathing is very uneven and my chest is killing me. So much for high pain tolerance. Wait, did I even script that? I can't remember. I probably didn't, knowing my dumbass. Harry drops down a few seconds later, landing beside me. Before we get a chance to get up, Hermione and Parker come through the opening and land on top of us.
"Sorry." They say at the same time. My vision goes blurry for a second. Parker gets off of me and helps me stand up.
"Are you sure you're ok, Felicity?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. I just need to be careful." She nods her head, looking like she's not convinced. We walk through the tunnel, heading to the Shrieking Shack. Each step makes my chest hurt more and more. It's difficult to breathe and I feel like I'm going to pass out.
"Fuck. I wanna die." I whisper under my breath. The pain grows increasingly worse with each step and inhale I take. We find a ladder that leads to a hatch in the ceiling of the tunnel. Harry went first, then Hermione, then Parker, then me. I stagger back a bit going up the steps. Pain radiating through my chest. It feels like a train hit me on the chest. Harry helps me up and out of the hatch. I whisper a thank you. We walk up the staircase, and Harry checks one of the doors. We run into a room, finding Ron sitting on a bed holding Scabbers.
"Ron!" Harry calls as we run over to him.
"Where's the dog?" Harry asks.
"Harry. It's a trap. He's the dog. He's an animagus." Ron says frantically while pointing towards the door. I turn around, watching the door slowly close revealing Sirius Black.
"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too." Hermione says as she steps in front of Harry. I reach for my back pocket, slightly grabbing my wand, just in case I need it.
"Only one will die tonight." Sirius says as he steps forward.
"And it will be you!" Harry shouts before tackling and pinning Sirius to the ground, pointing his wand to his neck.
"Are you going to kill me Harry?" He laughs. Lupin bursts in, quickly disarming Harry and motioning for him to get off of Sirius. Harry moves, standing in between me and Hermione. I watch as Lupin points his wand at Sirius, slowly moving closer.
"Well, well Sirius. Looking rather raged aren't we. Finally the flesh reflects the madness within." Lupin says as he stops next to Sirius.
"Well, you'd know all about the madness within wouldn't you Remus?" He quips back. Remus gives a quick smirk, then pulls Sirius up and pulls him into a hug. I zone out. This part is insignificant to me.
"No! I trusted you and all this time you've been his friend." Hermione shouts. "He's a werewolf. That's why he's been missing classes." I roll my eyes. I know I should act surprised but I don't feel like acting.
"Did you two tell her?" Lupin points at me and Parker. Parker and I look at each other with surprise. Does he know? Did Dumbledore tell him? I hope he doesn't know. Maybe Dumbledore told him since he is part of the order.
"No. I figured it out when Snape sent the essay about werewolves." Hermione says before we could answer.
"Well, well Hermione you really are the brightest witch I've ever met." Lupin says. He sounds almost crazed. His gaze over at me and Parker not faltering. I grip my wand tighter in fear of him doing something. I don't think he will but I can't help but fear it.
"Enough talk Remus. Let's kill him." Sirius interrupts.
"Wait."
"I DID MY WAITING. 12 YEARS OF IT. IN AZKABAN." Sirius shouts. My brain starts going fuzzy and my breathing starts getting heavier. Are you joking? Right now. Of all times right now. My chest starts to burn from breathing in too hard, making it hard to see straight. I start tracing my wand against my leg hoping it will calm me down.
By the time I focus on the scene, Snape is at the doorway, while Sirius and Remus are against the piano looking thing. Snape puts his wand to Sirius' throat, threatening him in some way.
"I could do it, you know. But why deny the dementors, who are so longing to see you." Snape threatens as he pushes the wand harder into Sirius' throat. Sirius backs away in fear, while Snape continues his threats. Snape turns to us and nods his head to leave. Instead of leaving, Harry points Hermione's wand and blasts him across the room.
"You attacked a teacher." I mentally roll my eyes. Like Hermione didn't set Snape on fire, first year. Actually I'm pretty sure that counts as arson more than assault but still. Ok, maybe it's both.
"Show me!" I hear Harry say. Shit, I need to pay attention. Sirius grabs Pettigrew, struggling a bit with Ron because he won't let it go.
"Let him go, Ron." I shout. Sirius successfully grabs him and sets him down on the piano looking thing and points his wand at the rat. The rat scurries away while Sirius and Remus try to hit him with a spell. Finally, they hit him with the spell right as he was trying to go through a hole in the wall. Sirius and Remus drag a now human Peter Pettigrew out from the wall and into the middle of the room. At the same time, me and Parker draw our wands and point them at Pettigrew.
"Remus? Sirius." Peter says. "My old friends." He makes the dumb decision to try and run out the door but Lupin and Sirius catch him and throw him back to the center of the room.
"Harry, look at you. You look so much like your father." He says as he turns and walks towards Harry. "Like James, we were the best of friends." He tries to continue but Sirius interrupts and pulls him away.
"How dare you talk about James in front of him?" Sirius practically snarls as he chases him behind the piano. Remus runs up and joins Sirius, pointing their wands at Pettigrew.
"You sold James and Lily to Voldemort didn't you?" Remus accuses.
"I didn't mean to!" Pettigrew cries. "The dark lord. You don't know the kind of weapons he possesses."
"Nothing you could've fought against." I say confidently as I slightly walk towards them, my wand pointed at him. "Unless you were too weak to." The words flood out of my mouth. I don't know where they are coming from but I like this confidence.
"Potter? Your mother would've joined. So would you." I look at him confused for a second, but shake my head. He was probably trying to talk to Harry.
"I'm not my mother. I would've rather died than let Voldemort get to my friends. You're a coward and you have no right calling yourself James and Lily's friends." I say, anger rising in my voice. He backs away frightened, then runs under the piano towards the door but is stopped by Harry. He tries to whisper something in Harry's ear but gets pulled away by Remus and Sirius. I look over at Parker and Hermione. They are both staring at me with confused and kind of frightened looks on their faces. To be fair I am just as confused as they are. I have anger problems but it's not like me to burst out like that unless someone is provoking me.
"You should have realized Peter. That if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Together." Sirius shouts. I turn around and point my wand at Pettigrew once again, aimed to kill.
"No!" Harry shouts, making everyone turn to look at him.
"Harry this man..."
"I know what he is." Harry cuts Remus off. "But we'll take him to the castle." He continues as he walks forward towards the men.
"Bless you, boy. Bless you." Pettigrew cries as he falls to his knees.
"Get up." Harry says. "I said we'd take you to the castle. After that the dementors can have you." Pettigrew cowers in fear. The mention of dementors scaring him. I don't blame him. Dementors are scary as hell. I mentally shudder at my own experiences with them.
Remus grabs hold of Pettigrew, while Sirius and Harry help Ron off the bed and down the stairs. Hermione and Parker follow after them but I stay where I am.
"Do you need any help Professor?" He shakes his head no and tells me to go on.
"I think Ron needs your help more than I do." He says as I leave the room. The pain in my chest starts to increase with each step I take. Now that the adrenaline has worn off it hurts as if a fucking train hit me. I stop for a second to stop myself from staggering backwards. I try to take a deep breath but turns out that was a mistake. My chest starts burning, like it's been lit on fire. I close my eyes, trying not to cry, then continue on, so I can help Ron.
I carefully climb down the ladder, where I hear Hermione's voice just ahead.
"How is he?" I ask as I leave the tunnel.
"I'm doing fine, thanks." Ron responds bitterly. I roll my eyes and say, "I was talking about Harry," with sarcasm. I kneel down beside him and pull up his pant leg, taking a look at the wound. It looks terrible and looks like it hurts like a mother fucker.
I slowly trace my fingers over the bite and heal it. He hisses every time I touch an unhealed part of the wound. Not that I blame him. That must hurt.
The feeling of blood trickling down my leg, made me stop healing him. As soon as I stopped, the small wound on my leg closed up.
"I can't heal you anymore than that." I whisper, then stand up and walk over to Parker.
"You ok?" I ask as I stop next to her.
"Yeah. Just worried about this next part." I nod my head and wrap my arm around her shoulders.
"Harry!" Hermione shouts, making everyone turn around. I transform into my animagus and run over, standing by Harry.
Remus unintentionally throws Sirius over to the side as he transforms into a werewolf. He makes a low pitched whimper. Almost like he is in pain. He probably is. That looked terrible.
Hermione tries to walk up to him but immediately backs away as Lupin raises his head to the sky and howls. I step forward and start growling baring my teeth. Trying to look intimidating. If I stood on my hind legs I would be taller than him so that's a good thing. Let's just hope I can attack him.
Lupin lunges towards the group. I attack him from underneath, while Sirius runs and attacks him from the top, making him topple on top of me. I snap at his neck, trying to push him off of me. Once he's off, me and Sirius run in front of him, keeping eye contact and making sure we stay in between Remus and the group.
Remus runs at us first. As he does, Sirius and I run and jump on him, attacking him to make sure he stays back. My friends need to stay safe. That's more important than my safety right now. Snape I'd let him attack but he's important to the plot so I have to keep him safe too.
I jumped up again, biting his arm. The next thing I know, my back and shoulder blades hit a tree and I drop to the ground with a thud. Pain explodes through my body, making me whimper. It feels like someone took a baseball bat and just beat the hell out of me.
"Felicity!" I hear Parker scream. She runs over and kneels down next to me.
"Are you ok?" I nod my head and slowly transform back into my regular form. (Human form.) Parker helps me sit up against the tree but I wince as my back hits the bark.
"I think my shoulder might be broken." I whisper.
After a couple of minutes, Parker helps me stand up, then we start walking to the hospital wing. Hermione helps Ron, Snape has a hold of Sirius and Harry, and Parker is helping me.