The Convict Trio and the Wings of the Heir

Arrival At Azkaban

Being carted away by the Ministry's Aurors, Remus Lupin found that he had very little to say. But he said it anyway.

"This is all your fault, Severus."

"MY fault?" Snape snarled at the werewolf, a few gashes here and there still bleeding. "I seem to recall that you were the one to start it up, Remus."

"I can't help it if your natural greasiness made me. Greasier than a fat rat's bottom, you are." Lupin growled.

"......Snapy."

"Well, WHO, pray tell, was the one who was friends with SIRIUS BLACK, Moony!?!?!" Severus shrieked.

"Well, I don't rightly know. But I sure do know someone who was LICKING LORD VOLDEMORT'S BOOTS, SNAPY!!!" Lupin screamed back.

"I HAVE NEVER LICKED LORD VOLDEMORT'S BOOTS, MOONY!!!" Snape screamed, oblivious to the dragging away. "BUT FOR ALL WE KNOW, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SHELTERING SIRIUS BLACK FOR YEARS UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE!!!"

"WELL THEN YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN LICKING HIS ARSE, SNAPY!!!" Lupin shouted, completely unaware that they were at the Ministry building already. "YOU WERE PASSING VALUABLE INFORMATION TO THE ENEMY, YOU FILTHY SPY!!!

"SPY?!?! SPY?!?!" Snape was in hysterics. He hadn't noticed the Ministry building, either. "SPY FOR THE DARK LORD?!?! I COULD ACCUSE YOU OF THE SAME THING! I HAVEN'T BEEN UNDER VOLDEMORT'S CONTROL FOR THE PAST ELEVEN OR TWELVE YEARS!!!" You'd think their throats would be getting raw, huh? "Have your FLEAS been bothering you, Werewolf?! You seem a bit under the weather lately!!!!"

"HAVE I BEEN UNDER VOLDEMORT'S CONTROL?!! WHO HAS THE DARK MARK BRANDED INTO THEIR RIGHT ARM!?!?!" Lupin wasn't known as Loopy fer nothing. "IS THAT TATTOO FEELING ANY BETTER NOW THAT IT'S EXPOSED, DEATH EATER?!?!

"The scar's not burning, you moron! Lord Voldemort's been out of power for years!!!" Snape screeched back. "AND I'VE NEVER SEEN YOUR BARE ARM! PERHAPS YOU DO HAVE THE DARK MARK BRANDED INTO YOUR FLESH!"

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The Aurors abruptly dragged up Lupin's sleeve, revealing a Tattoo. The others gasped, for it was a tattoo of...

A naked woman. :D *dun dun DUN*

Snape...didn't say anything at first. He simply gave the tattoo an accusing glare, as if it were its own fault for not being a Dark Mark. After a deep breath (or five), he composed himself and opened his mouth to give the werewolf another verbal assault:

"Why, Lupin, I had no idea you were interested in such SMUT. I'd think you'd at least choose something of your own kind. A wolf, perhaps...."

Lupin gave Snape a disdainful glare. "It's not smut, you moronic fool. It's ART," he said bitingly, as if he didn't know that all the words in the world couldn't change the fact that there was a naked woman dancing around on his right arm. Hee.

"Art?" snorted Snape disbelievingly. "And when you had that branded into your arm, all you were thinking about was its...artistic qualities?"

"As a matter of fact, YES, Snapy." Lupin snarled. "Although I don't expect your perverted mi-"

Lupin's voice was abruptly cut off by the loud banging sound of a gavel. He looked around and noticed that he and Snape were in a large room full of witches and wizards. Most prominently was a man in his late fifties, with gray hair and icy blue eyes. His name was Bartemius Crouch, Sr. He stood up and addressed them in a glacial voice.

"Professors Remus J. Lupin and Severus Snape, you are accused of destruction of school property, attempted murder, use of the Unforgivable Curses, and terrorism. Suggested punishment is 3 consecutive life sentences in Azkaban. How do you plead?" said he.

Lupin immediately replied, "Not guilty. Snape is a death eater, I was merely attempting to bring him down before he could wreak further havoc on the impressible minds of the Hogwarts students, your honor."

Cough. Cough. Nudge. Wink. :D

"WHAT?!" Snape exploded in rage, eyes lighting up in hatred. "Not guilty!" Snape scowled. "Not guilty, indeed..." he muttered softly with a vicious sneer before looking up to Bartemius Crouch for his own pleading.

"Not guilty. I was merely defending myself and the Hogwarts students against the obvious threats of a werewolf. Headmaster Albus Dumbledore has cleared my name as a Death Eater long ago."

"I seem to recall you casting the Killing Curse first in front of children, Severus," Lupin said icily.

Murmurs rose from the benches.

"Ah, but instead of immediately trying to disarm me, he had thrown the Killing Curse right back," Snape was quick to say, albeit there's still the fact that he had, indeed, cast it first. If he had to go to Azkaban, he was taking the werewolf with him. "I was the one who ended up disarming Lupin. Unfortunately, I could not restrain him before he tackled me to the ground." Snape gave Lupin a flash of a greasy smile before continuing. "He was just as much of a danger to the students...perhaps even moreso, with his transforming body and lack of rational mind...as I."

Crouch stood for a moment. Then he turned to a group of about twenty wizards and witches, who had been talking throughout Lupin and Snape's testimonies. He nodded once, and their ranks parted to let out an extremely old wizard, who cleared his throat once, and began speaking.

"We, the jury, declare Severus Snape... guilty of the accused crimes."

Lupin looked remarkably like the cat that had not only eaten the canary, but also found his water bowl filled with goldfish.

"...and we declare Remus Lupin guilty as well," the old codger finished.

Lupin's smug look disappeared as if it had been erased by Voldemort himself, and he gave no resistance as the security Aurors came forward to put handcuffs on him and Snape, leading them to the island prison of Alcatr- err... Azkaban.

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"We, the jury, declare Severus Snape... guilty of the accused crimes....and we declare Remus Lupin guilty as well."

At least Snape won a small victory over Lupin; he wouldn't go down alone. He allowed himself a small, triumphant smirk as the Aurors cuffed him and dragged him away alongside the werewolf.

On the other hand, this story was SURE to reach the tabloids. 'HOGWARTS PROFESSORS SENT TO AZKABAN!' 'DEATH EATER Vs WEREWOLF...HOGWARTS PROFESSORS?!'

That sure would tarnish the reputation Dumbledore had set for the school.

"Well, what a fine mess you've gotten us into, Lupin," Snape muttered dejectedly as he realized he wouldn't be allowed to keep the few good memories he had, among other unfortunate drawbacks.

May as well kiss the memory of the day James Potter died good-bye. XD

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The Aurors shoved Lupin and Snape into separate cells, with one inmate between them. Lupin quickly settled into his surroundings, trying not to mind the dementor standing right beside his cell. Especially when it was making that annoying sound...

"Would you stop trying to imitate that fool from the Muggle movies?" Lupin snapped.

The 'Kuuuuuuh-puuuuuuu' noise that had been bothering him abruptly stopped. The dementor left with a sucking sound that was suspiciously similar to 'Hmph' and was soon replaced by another one, although this one seemed to have the same habits...

Five Darth Vader impersonators later, Lupin was finally guarded by a dementor which got right down to sucking away his good feelings. Soon he was left with only bad memories like...

"Oh Padfoot, why did you betray James?" he moaned softly.

He was about to bemoan past disasters even more when a husky voice from the cell beside him spoke.

".....Moony?"

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Snape scrabbled up to a sitting position as an Auror slammed his cell door shut. Those dementors guarding the door...they COULD be held off with a Patronus charm. Too bad there's a never-ending stream of the damn creatures, not to mention that HE WAS NO LONGER IN POSSESSION OF HIS WAND.

So, after a few minutes of shouting at the dementor to shut that irritating noise up, all of Severus's good memories (however few they may be) were sucked dry. This only brought him to think of his old school days with the renowned Marauders...

"Curse you, Black!" Snape sneered to his cell for lack of any other company. And then, as if right on cue, a voice rose up from next door. A voice he had hoped never to hear ever again. A voice that made the former Death Eater's blood run cold.

".....Moony?"

Of all the rotten luck...

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Lupin froze, completely ignoring the curse that drifted from Snape's cell. he scrabbled to the bars, ignoring the dementors and trying to get a look into the cell beside his. He gasped as he caught sight of a disheveled, unshaved man, his hair unwashed and greasy, his face smeared with grime and dust, but unmistakably his friend of 11 years past, Sirius Black.

Lupin sat back, completely lost for words. Dozens of questions spun around his mind, until finally, he settled on the one that pressed him most.

"Padfoot," he began, hardly able to speak. "Why? Why did you do it?"

He was surprised to hear a short, barking laugh from Sirius. "I thought it would save their lives. I was wrong, I guess." A part of Lupin noticed that Black's voice sounded bitter and angry, far from the voice of a convicted and unrepenting murderer. But that part was drowned out by an overpowering rage.

"YOU THOUGHT THAT BETRAYING JAMES TO VOLDEMORT WOULD SAVE THEIR LIVES?!" he roared. "You are a madman!"

Black blinked, obviously taken aback by Lupin's sudden anger. "...Voldemort? What are you talking about?"

"You were the Potters' secret keeper. You should have kept their secret with your life! But instead you betrayed them... to the Dark Lord." Lupin growled, his voice tinted with disgust.

"But I wasn't the Potters' secret keeper, Moony," Sirius said. "I switched. At the last moment."

Now it was Lupin's turn to blink. His mind processed Black's words for a moment, then he gasped. "Then you mean..?"

Sirius nodded. Apparently he and Moony could communicate telepathically. "Yes."

"Then..."

They both stood in unison, their eyes burning with righteous (?) bloodlust.

"PETER PETTIGREW DIES!!!"

After a good while of secret plotting, Lupin went to sleep on his pallet of straw, his newfound thirst for revenge staving off the dementor's power.

On the other hand, Sirius Black snapped his fingers, remembering something that he had forgotten in the excitement of meeting his old friend. He walked over to the cell to his right.

"You were saying, Snapy?"

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Snape sat miserably in the center of his nearly bare cell. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be back at Hogwarts, teaching another wretched lesson of Potions class.

Severus sneered as Sirius Black and Remus Lupin had their joyful little reunion with their talk of revenge against one Peter Pettigrew. Black? Innocent? Bah. Not as far as Snape could help that.

With a scowl, the 'former' Potions Master spoke up to his ... inmates? XD as Sirius addressed him, to his dismay. "I'd hate to break it to you, but I daresay that Peter Pettigrew died by your hand years ago," he pointed out dryly to the 'old friend' from his Hogwarts days...

Black turned to face Snape, or at least get a good look at him. His appraising glare noted the Potions professor's greasy hair, yellowing teeth, and sallow skin. "The years haven't been kind to you, Snapy." He gave another short, bitter laugh. "But then again, they haven't been kind to me, either."

Sirius squatted at the bars of his cell, watched (?) closely by his dementor guards. He toyed with the gravel and pebbles at the base of the iron pillars, speaking casually.

"I assume you know how the Potters were hidden from Voldemort using the Fidelius Charm? How I was their secret-keeper? I have something to tell you," he said grimly. "I switched at the last minute with Peter. I'm sure you remember him, the watery-eyed, pointy-faced guy who was one of me and James' best friends... or so we thought." Black spat at a dementor's robe, disgust contorting his motley features.

"He betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort, and then came after me, knowing that I had told no-one of the secret switch. He blew up the road behind him with a wand hidden in his sleeve and escaped." Sirius smacked the wall with his fist angrily. Regret clouded his eyes, and he blink rapidly for a moment before he continued, "I should have told Moony over there. It would have saved their lives, you know. I thought he was the spy. Werewolves are dark creatures after all..."

A small, small portion of Sirius Black wondered why the hell he was pouring out 12 years of pent-up frustration to one of his worst enemies, and a former death eater to boot.

"...So through my mistakes, James and Lily Potter died. I'm guilty of murder, yes, but not in the way that most people think of me as. But I will escape, and I will clear my name, no matter what the cost," he said, a sudden burning light replacing the regret in his eyes. "Avenging Lily and James... making the world just that much safer for young Harry..." A sudden wistful expression crossed his face.

"It will be 10 years worth of birthday presents for him."

((Ja, ja. Extreme OoCness. I dun care. *mwaars*))

Snape, disinterested, waves his hand dismissively. "You will not sway me with your lies, Black," he hissed, voice oozing with venomous hate. "The evidence was entirely against you, if I remember correctly." The former Professor snorted and shot his archenemy a nasty glare. Of COURSE the man didn't believe Sirius for a second--not that he would truly relent even if blatant proof were given. "How would Pettigrew escape, anyway? There was nothing but a finger left over after you were through with him."

Sirius thought it over, and decided against telling Snape about the trio of Animagi (and one werewolf) who had once marauded *cough* on Hogwarts grounds.

"I... can't tell you."

"Of course you can't," Snape spat out. "Having a difficult time devising the rest of your extravagant tale, are you? You should have known you couldn't fool me."

Black sighed and considered telling Severus everything. He certainly deserved it after the shock that Moony had given him, so long ago at the Shrieking Shack. He thought better of it and heaved a heavy sigh once more. "You'll find out later, Snape. Good night." With that, he rolled over and instantly plunged into the first dreamless sleep he had experienced in over eleven years.

A beetle attached to the wall in his cell briefly fluttered its wings before buzzing away, across the sea.