her mind had gone blank with shock. the four 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. he made to turn back, but elara seized his arm and yanked him back towards her.

"we can't," said ron, who was paper-white. "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?"

without thinking much about it, harry slipped his hand into elara's for comfort. elara herself barely noticed; she was so lost in her mind. she felt guilty. draco was her cousin and lucius was her uncle. they caused hagrid so much grief and pain. elara wondered why her family was so cruel.

"come on," said ron, whose teeth seemed to be chattering.

they set off back toward the castle, walking slowly to keep themselves hidden under the cloak. the light was fading fast now.

harry noticed elara had that look on her face. her nose was scrunched and her eyebrows were laced together ever so slightly. he squeezed her hand gently to get her attention.

"lara, i know that look. this isn't your fault." he said firmly.

"i know, but -- "

"no. this isn't your fault."

elara looked down at the ground but nodded nevertheless. by the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them.

"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, be quiet!" hermione whispered urgently. "fudge'll be out here in a minute —"

"he won't — stay — put —"

scabbers was plainly terrified. he was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of ron's grip.

"what's the matter with him?"

but elara had just seen — stinking 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's squeaks, elara couldn't tell.

"crookshanks!" hermione groaned. "no, go away, crookshanks! go away!"

but the cat was getting nearer —

"scabbers — NO!"

too late — the rat had slipped between ron's clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. in one bound, crookshanks sprang after him, and before harry or elara or hermione could stop him, ron had thrown the invisibility cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness.

"ron!" elara hissed after him.

then the trio 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 ron; they could hear his feet thundering along ahead and his shouts at crookshanks.

"get away from him — get away — scabbers, come here —"

there was a loud thud.

"gotcha! get off, you stinking cat —"

harry, elara and hermione almost fell over ron; they skidded to a stop right in front of him. he was sprawled on the ground, but scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump.

"ron — come on back under the cloak —" hermione 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 tried reaching for his wand, but too late — the dog had made an enormous leap and elara watched in horror as its front paws hit him on the chest; he keeled over backward in a whirl of hair. but the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off him. harry tried standing up, and elara rushed over to him.

the dog pushed elara aside before she could get to harry and it ran after ron. the dog's jaws fastened around ron's outstretched arm. elara dove forward with harry as they tried to grab the dog but it was dragging ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll

then, out of nowhere, something hit elara so hard across the face she was knocked off her. she heard hermione shriek with pain and harry fall too.

elara groped around for her wand, the dizzying pain in her forehead made it difficult to see.

"lumos," she cried hoarsely.

the wandlight showed her 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 ron backward into a large gap in the roots — ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight —

"ron!" 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 ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground — but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight.

"we've got to go for help —" hermione gasped as she held a hand over her bleeding shoulder.

"that thing's big enough to eat him!" elara protested, wiping the back of her hand on her forehead.

"we haven't got time!" harry agreed with elara.

another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles.

"if that dog can get in, we can," harry panted, darting here and there with elara, the two of them trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but they couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows.

"oh, help, help," hermione whispered frantically, dancing uncertainly on the spot, "please..."

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!" hermione whispered uncertainly. she now grasped elara's arm painfully hard. "how did he know —?"

"he's friends with that dog," said harry grimly. "i've seen them together. come on — and keep your wands out —"

they covered the distance to the trunk in seconds, but before they had reached the gap in the roots, crookshanks had slid into it with a flick of his bottlebrush tail. harry went first and elara followed after him. she crawled forward, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from harry's wand. seconds later, hermione slithered down beside them.

"where's ron?" hermoine whispered in a terrified voice.

"this way," said harry, setting off, bent-backed, after crookshanks.

"where does this tunnel come out?" elara asked breathlessly from beside him.

"i don't know... it's marked on the marauder's map but fred and george said no one's ever gotten into it... it goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for hogsmeade..."

the trio embarked down the tunnel 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. all elara could think of was ron and what the enormous dog might be doing to him... she was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch...

and then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and crookshanks had gone. aheadelara could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.

they paused, gasping for breath, edging forward. 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. raised their wands to see what lay beyond.

harry glanced at elara, who had a stoic expression on her face, and then to hermoine, who looked very frightened but nodded.

elara pulled herself out of the hole, staring around. the room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. hermione suddenly grabbed harry and elara's arms. her wide eyes were traveling around the boarded windows.

"i think we're in the shrieking shack."

elara looked around. her eyes fell on a wooden chair near them. large chunks had been torn out of it; one of the legs had been ripped off entirely.

"ghosts didn't do that," harry said slowly.

at that moment, there was a creak overhead. something had moved upstairs. the trio looked up at the ceiling. hermione's grip on harry's and elara's arms was so tight they were losing feeling in their fingers. noticing she was hurting them, hermoine let go.

before elara could make a movement towards the staircase, harry grabbed her hand again.

"you'll stay with me, right?" he whispered.

elara's expression turned unreadable. "'til the end."

satisfied with the answer, harry dropped her hand. quietly as the trio could, they crept out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs.

they reached the dark landing.

"nox," they all 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 low moan, and then adeep, loud purring. they exchanged last looks, and last nods.

wand held tightly before her, elara recklessly 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 his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was ron.

they dashed across to him.

"ron — are you okay?"

"how's your leg?"

"where's the dog?"

"not a dog," ron groaned. his teeth were gritted with pain. "harry, it's a trap —"

"what —"

"he's the dog... he's an animagus."

ron was staring over their shoulders. elara wheeled around. with a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them.

"shit." elara muttered, raising her wand along with harry and hermoine.

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.

"expelliarmus!" he croaked, pointing ron's wand at them.

harry's, elara's and hermione's wands shot out of their hands, high in the air, and black caught them. then he took a step closer. his eyes were fixed 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..."

a split second passed, and then harry lunged for black. elara and hermione grabbed him and pulled him backwards. elara knew how much satisfaction harry would gain from hurting black, but harry wouldn't have been able to do much before black killed him.

"harry, no!" said hermoine in a petrified whisper.

"if you want to kill harry, you'll have to kill us too!" elara said fiercely.

something flickered in black's shadowed eyes.

"did you hear her?" ron said weakly, fighting to stand up. "you'll have to kill all four of us!"

"there'll be only one murder here tonight," said black, and his grin widened.

"real dramatic, black. but you 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?" elara quipped, the ends of her hair reddening slightly.

"lara, no!" hermoine whimpered.

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" harry roared, and with a huge effort he broke free of elara and hermoine's restraint and lunged forward —

perhaps it was the shock of harry doing something so stupid, but black didn't raise the wands intime — 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 —

hermione was screaming; ron and elera were yelling; there was a blinding flash as the wands in black's hand sent a jet of sparks into the air that missed harry's face by inches; harry clung on, his other hand punching every part of black it could find.

but black's free hand had found harry's throat

"no," he hissed, "i've waited too long —"

elara lost it. she took one step and with all her might swung her leg at the skinny body of sirius black. he let go of harry with a grunt of pain; ron had thrown himself on black's wand hand and the faint clatter of signified ron had succeeded.

elara saw harry's wand rolling across the floor and she dove for it, but crookshanks had joined the fray. both sets of front claws had sunk themselves deep into elara's arm; elara threw him off, but crookshanks now darted toward harry's wand —

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" roared elara, and she aimed a kick at crookshanks that made the cat leap aside, spitting; elara snatched up harry's wand and tossed it to harry, who thankfully caught it.

"get out of the way!" he shouted at ron, elara and hermoine.

they didn't need telling twice. hermione, gasping for breath, her lip bleeding, scrambled aside,snatching up her, ron's and elara's wands. ron crawled to the four-poster and collapsed onto it, panting,his white face now tinged with green, both hands clutching his broken leg. elara's hair was falling out of her plaits and messily in her face and she huffed as she retied it back quickly, glaring at black.

black was sprawled at the bottom of the wall. his thin chest rose and fell rapidly as he watched harry walking slowly nearer, his wand pointing straight at black's heart.

"going to kill me, harry?" he whispered.

harry stopped right above him, his wand still pointing at black's chest, looking down at him. a livid bruise was rising around black's left eye and his nose was bleeding. the darker part of elara enjoyed this. seeing black get what he finally deserved.

"you killed my parents," said harry, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady.

black stared up at him out of those sunken eyes.

"i don't deny it," he said very quietly. "but if you knew the whole story."

"for fuck's sake," elara muttered. she had personally known sirius black for a short amount of time, but during then she learned he had a certain flair for dramatics.

"the whole story?" harry repeated furiously. "you sold them to voldemort. that's all i need to know."

"you've got to listen to me," black said, and there was a note of urgency in his voice now."you'll regret it if you don't... you don't understand..."

"i understand a lot better than you think," said harry, and his voice shook more than ever. "you never heard her, did you? my mum... trying to stop voldemort killing me... and you did that...you did it..."

before either of them could say another word, something ginger streaked past harry; crookshanks leapt onto black's chest and settled himself there, right over black's heart. black blinked and looked down at the cat.

"get off," he murmured, trying to push crookshanks off him.

but crookshanks sank his claws into black's robes and wouldn't shift. he turned his ugly, squashed face to harry and looked up at him with those great yellow eyes. hermione gave a dry sob.

harry raised the wand. with bated breath, elara watched as seconds lengthened. and still Harry stood frozen there, wand poised, black staring up at him, crookshanks on his chest. ron's ragged breathing came from near the bed; hermione was quite silent.

and then came a new sound —

muffled footsteps were echoing up through the floor — someone was moving downstairs.

"WE'RE UP HERE!" hermione screamed suddenly. "WE'RE UP HERE — SIRIUS BLACK —QUICK!"

black made a startled movement that almost dislodged crookshanks; harry gripped his wand convulsively but the footsteps were thundering up the stairs and harry still hadn't done it.

the door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and elara wheeled around as professor lupin came hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. his eyes flickered over ron, lying on the floor, over hermione, cowering next to the door, over elara, standing in an attack stance, to harry, standing there with his wand covering black, and then to black himself, crumpled and bleeding at harry's feet.

"expelliarmus!" lupin shouted.