Harry Potter 03 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

silhouette. He had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.
    ‘Oh my –‘ Hermione gasped. ‘He didn’t take his Potion tonight! He’s not safe!’
    ‘Run,’ Sirius whispered. ‘Run! Now!’
    But Harry couldn’t run. Ron was chained to Pettigrew and Lupin. He leapt forwards but Sirius caught him around the chest and threw him back.
    ‘Leave it to me – RUN!’
    There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin’s head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws. Crookshanks’s fur was on end again, he was backing away –
    As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from Harry’s side. He had transformed. The enormous, bear-like dog bounded forwards. As the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backwards, away from Ron and Pettigrew. They were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other –
    Harry stood, transfixed by the sight; too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. It was Hermione’s scream that alerted him –
    Pettigrew had dived for Lupin’s dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light – and Ron lay motionless on the ground. Another bang – Crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.
    ‘Expelliarmus!’ Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin’s wand flew high into the air and out of sight. ‘Stay where you are!’ Harry shouted, running forwards.
    Too late. Pettigrew had transformed. Harry saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on Ron’s outstretched arm, and heard a scurrying through the grass.
    There was a howl and a rumbling growl; Harry turned to see the werewolf taking flight; it was galloping into the Forest –
    ‘Sirius, he’s gone, Pettigrew transformed!’ Harry yelled.
    Sirius was bleeding; there were gashes across his muzzle and back, but at Harry’s words he scrambled up again, and in an instant, the sound of his paws was fading to silence as he pounded away across the grounds.
    Harry and Hermione dashed over to Ron.
    ‘What did he do to him?’ Hermione whispered. Ron’s eyes were only half-closed; his mouth hung open. He was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn’t seem to recognise them.
    ‘I don’t know.’
    Harry looked desperately around. Black and Lupin both gone … they had no one but Snape for company, still hanging, unconscious, in mid-air.
    ‘We’d better get them up to the castle and tell someone,’ said Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes, trying to think straight. ‘Come –’
    But then, out of the darkness, they heard a yelping, a whining; a dog in pain …
    ‘Sirius,’ Harry muttered, staring into the darkness.
    He had a moment’s indecision, but there was nothing they could do for Ron at the moment, and by the sound of it, Black was in trouble –
    Harry set off at a run, Hermione right behind him. The yelping seemed to be coming from near the lake. They pelted towards it, and Harry, running flat out, felt the cold without realising what it must mean –
    The yelping stopped abruptly. As they reached the lake’s shore they saw why – Sirius had turned back into a man. He was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.
    ‘Nooo,’ he moaned. ‘Noooo …. please …’
    And then Harry saw them. Dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake towards them. He spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating his insides, fog starting to obscure his vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them …
    ‘Hermione, think of something happy!’ Harry yelled, raising his wand, blinking furiously to try and clear his vision, shaking his head to rid it of the faint screaming that had started inside it –
    I’m going to live with my godfather. I’m leaving the Dursleys.
    He forced himself to think of Sirius, and only Sirius, and began to chant: ‘Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!’
    Black gave a shudder, rolled over and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death.
    He’ll be all right. I’m going to go and live with him.
    ‘Expecto patronum! Hermione, help me! Expecto patronum!’
    ‘Expecto –’ Hermione whispered, ‘expecto – expecto –’
    But she couldn’t do it. The Dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from them. They formed a solid