Chapter 141 — Translation
Harry and Hermione froze, stunned by that revelation.
Hermione spoke first, incredulous: "Is that why you wanted to tell Harry the truth alone—so Ron's rat wouldn't hear it?!"
Albert answered, "Yes that's exactly why. If Peter learns that I know he's the culprit, he'll slip away from my hands. Everything I've been preparing will fail. I want him to fall into my trap at the right moment. So don't talk about this if Peter is nearby, and don't show any strange reaction."
Harry still couldn't take it in.
His mind refused the idea that a criminal could turn into a rat. He'd never imagined a human could change into an animal.
"Can a human really transform?" Harry asked, looking at Albert. "I've never seen anyone change into an animal like you're saying!"
Hermione cut in to reassure him: "No Albert's right. I saw it myself in first year at Hogwarts: Professor McGonagall transformed from a cat into her true form. So what Albert says makes sense. But that raises another suspicious point: how could the senior teachers, who have so much experience, have failed to notice the criminal living at the school as a rat?"
"Especially since Dumbledore is the most powerful person here how didn't he realise Peter was disguised as a rat?"
The three of them walked on; Albert led, with Harry and Hermione following, listening as Albert spoke.
Albert: "Everyone at the time or at least everyone who knew about that night thought Peter Pettigrew was dead."
He continued: "Pettigrew staged his death. When my father left the Ministry searching for Peter, Peter faked his own death. He cut off a finger and left it on the battlefield as evidence the explosion charm he used made it look like he'd simply been obliterated. If the Ministry investigated, they'd conclude my father had blasted him away, leaving only a finger behind."
"And as for why Dumbledore didn't detect Peter: when someone stays in animal form for a very long time, the magical aura on their skin disappears. They effectively become both human and animal at once. That's why even Dumbledore couldn't detect Peter's disguise."
Harry reeled from the story; he sat down hard, shocked.
He spoke slowly: "Yes one of Ron's rat's fingers was cut off… that means what you're saying could be true."
Hermione interrupted, pressing Albert, her hand on his shoulder: "But where did you learn all of this? How is it that nobody else knows this truth except you and your father? And you told us your father hasn't seen you since you were very small because he's in Azkaban how could you know this?"
Albert fell silent; he didn't want to tell them that, when he was very small, he had actually entered Azkaban with his father.
He walked a short distance, then said in a low voice, "I can't tell you that yet. The time will come. What matters now is that you know my father was not responsible for your parents' deaths, Harry."
Harry stepped closer. "If you know the truth, tell me why did Voldemort want to kill me?"
Albert answered: "Everything began the day Professor Trelawney was hired."
He explained: "Dumbledore was looking for a seer whose prophecies could be trusted. When he hired Trelawney who had a reputation for accurate prophecies she succeeded in divining a particularly important prediction. But the traitor Peter, disguised as a rat, overheard Trelawney's words."
Albert continued: "She foretold that one of three children, born on the same day July 31st of that year would be the one to stand up to the Dark Lord. There was a condition: the child's parents must have faced the Dark Lord in combat."
(continued…)