Chapter 139: The Road Ahead

Fenrir struck Snape's second barrier hard enough to fracture the spell across its centre. Edward answered with a low fire line that forced the werewolf to turn rather than leap straight at the students. 

"Keep him moving away from them," Snape said. "Do not close the circle." 

Edward adjusted at once. A complete ring would trap Fenrir, but it would also leave an enraged werewolf with only the defenders as targets. He raised two angled walls instead, preserving an exit toward the forest. 

Snape cast binding ropes through the gap. They caught Fenrir's injured arm and one leg. The werewolf tore the lower rope loose, but the effort exposed his chest to a Stunning Spell. Red light struck him and drove him to one knee. 

"Back to the Shack," Edward told Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Stay together." 

They withdrew in a tight group. Fenrir recovered before Snape could cast again. He lunged, caught the edge of Edward's nearest wall, and came through with his fur burning. 

Edward felt the older, darker pattern of his fire answer fear. Blue appeared beneath the orange flame. He stopped it from becoming a closed ring and directed one brief surge across the ground between Fenrir and the retreating students. The heat forced Fenrir sideways without pursuing him. 

Snape noticed the colour. "End it." 

Edward closed his hand. The blue vanished. 

Fenrir looked from Snape's wand to the open route between the trees. Survival overcame rage. He tore away the remaining rope and fled into the forest, leaving blood on the brush from his reopened shoulder. 

"Do not follow," Snape said. 

"I wasn't going to." 

"Your history makes the clarification necessary." 

A crash came from the Shrieking Shack. Snape turned first, and Edward followed with the students behind them. Sirius, still in dog form, had placed his body across the inner doorway. Lupin's transformed shape pushed against him, not hunting but trying to reach the open night beyond the walls. Recognition remained in Lupin's eyes, yet pain and instinct made every movement dangerous. 

Sirius's left shoulder bled where one claw had caught him. He barked once when Snape entered, warning rather than attacking. 

"Move aside, Black," Snape said. 

Sirius held his position until Edward reached the opposite wall and raised a shield between Lupin and the students. Then he shifted enough to expose Lupin's hind legs. 

Snape cast Incarcerous. Silver-threaded ropes closed around Lupin's limbs and torso. For an instant they held. Lupin twisted at the unfamiliar pressure, struck the wall with one shoulder, and knocked Snape backward before the professor could brace. 

Snape's head hit the edge of a broken cabinet. He collapsed, wand falling from his hand. 

"Professor!" Hermione ran to him but stopped outside Lupin's reach. 

Edward reinforced the ropes from behind his shield. Harry levitated Snape's wand away from the struggling werewolf, and Ron pushed the broken cabinet aside so it could not fall on either professor. 

"Petrificus Totalus," Edward cast. 

The spell spread across Lupin's transformed body. It did not end the transformation, but it stilled his limbs long enough for Hermione to add a second restraint around the jaws and shoulders. Sirius changed back to human form and sank against the wall, one hand clamped over his wound. 

Harry moved toward him. "Are you Sirius?" 

"Unfortunately," Sirius said through clenched teeth. "Peter?" 

"Escaped into the forest." 

Sirius closed his eyes. Anger tightened every line of his face, but he did not pursue. The limit he had accepted in Dumbledore's office held when it mattered most. 

"He used Ron as his first route out," Edward said. "Chasing him now would leave Lupin, Snape, and four students exposed." 

"I know." 

The words sounded painful. Sirius took three measured breaths before looking at Harry again. 

"I wanted your first sight of me to be better than this." 

Harry glanced at the blood, the restrained werewolf, and the unconscious professor. "I think better may have been too ambitious." 

A short laugh escaped Sirius and turned into a wince. 

Hermione checked Snape's breathing without moving his neck. "He is unconscious, but his pulse is steady. We need Madam Pomfrey." 

Edward opened the Two-way Mirror. The image broke into static until he carried it closer to the passage mouth. Dumbledore answered from the grounds. Edward gave the sequence in order: Peter escaped, Fenrir retreated wounded, Lupin was restrained after taking Wolfsbane, Snape had suffered a head injury, and Sirius was bleeding but conscious. 

"Do not move Professor Snape until you can support his neck," Dumbledore said. "Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey are approaching the Willow. Keep Lupin restrained after moonset until a healer confirms the change is complete." 

Kreacher appeared only after Dumbledore authorised him through the mirror. He saw Sirius's shoulder and began an insult that dissolved into worried muttering. 

"Clean dressing first," Edward said. "No transport until the scene and his injuries are recorded." 

Kreacher obeyed. He cut away the torn cloth, cleaned the scratches, and wrapped the shoulder without magic that might obscure their shape. Hermione wrote down the treatment. Sirius gave a short statement through the mirror, then Dumbledore permitted Kreacher to take him to Grimmauld Place under the condition that a healer examine him there. 

Before leaving, Sirius faced Harry. 

"You do not owe me an answer tonight." 

"Neither do you," Harry said. "But do not disappear." 

"I won't." 

Kreacher took Sirius's arm, and both vanished with a sharp crack. 

Professor Flitwick reached the Shack with two conjured stretchers and a rigid collar for Snape. Madam Pomfrey followed, furious at everyone who remained upright. She checked Snape, stabilised his neck, and approved moving him. Lupin stayed bound on the second stretcher even after the moon began to sink. 

McGonagall arrived as Flitwick prepared the passage, carrying the sealed Marauder's Map from Dumbledore's office. She photographed the dropped wand, the broken cabinet, the first set of ropes, and every visible blood mark before anyone shifted them. Under her supervision, Edward marked where Peter had changed shape and where the tracked name disappeared. Harry, Ron, and Hermione each gave a one-sentence account separately. Their fuller statements would wait until sleep and treatment made memory less vulnerable to suggestion. 

No one celebrated Peter's escape as a partial success. They had lost the suspect, exposed Sirius's dog form to three students, and placed Lupin in a crisis despite the Potion. They had also prevented Peter from taking Ron, kept Lupin from biting anyone, and preserved the stolen wand Peter dropped. 

Edward sealed that wand in Hermione's marked pouch and handed it to Flitwick. A later examination might identify its owner and recent spells. Evidence survived even when the arrest did not. 

They began the slow journey back to Hogwarts. Harry guided Snape's stretcher beside Flitwick. Hermione watched Lupin's restraints. Ron, pale from blood loss and shock, stayed between them while Madam Pomfrey treated his arm. 

Edward walked at the rear. Near the road, he noticed a dark smear across an alder trunk and a line of crushed bracken leading parallel to their route. Fenrir's shoulder had left blood during his retreat. 

Edward did not step into the forest. 

He called Hermione back, showed her the mark without touching it, and sent warning sparks toward the castle. 

The trail could wait for adults, daylight, and witnesses.