Y/n stood rooted to the spot with shock. The other three 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. Without thinking about what he was doing, he made to turn back, but Y/n and Ron seized his arms.
"I know how you feel but we cannot Harry." said Y/n, whose face was now sporting a look of both regret and anger.
"He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him." Ron added.
Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven. "How...could...they?" she choked. "How could they?"
"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.
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 on earth is the matter with him?" Y/n asked.
But Harry 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, Harry couldn't tell.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"
But the cat was getting nearer...
"Scabbers...NO!" Ron cried.
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, Y/n or Hermione could stop him, Ron had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness.
"Ron!" Hermione called.
She and Y/n looked at each other, and then the three 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, Y/n and Hermione almost fell over Ron as 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 and the Minister... they will be coming back out in a minute..." Y/n said also out of breath.
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 of an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog.
Y/n and Harry quickly reached for their wands, but it was too late, the dog had made an enormous leap and the front paws hit Harry on the chest and he keeled over backward into Y/n and both boys fell to the ground. Y/n could feel the dog's hot breath, saw inch-long teeth...
But the force of its leap had carried it too far, it rolled off Harry.
Dazed, feeling as though his ribs were broken, Harry tried to stand up, he could hear the dog growling as it skidded around for a new attack.
Ron was on his feet. As the dog sprang back toward them he pushed Harry aside, the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward, he seized a handful of the brute's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll...
Y/n pushed himself up now as he rushed forward to try and help Ron but then, out of nowhere, something hit him and Harry so hard across the face that they were knocked off their feet again. Y/n heard Hermione shriek with pain and fall too.
Y/n painfully turned his head in her direction to see if she was alright.
Harry meanwhile groped for his wand, blinking blood out of his eyes "Lumos!" he whispered.
The wand light showed him 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.
"Harry... Y/n...we've got to go for help..." Hermione gasped. She was bleeding too, the Willow had cut her across the shoulder.
"No! That thing's big enough to eat him." Harry quickly said.
"We have not got time to wait Hermione..." Y/n said in agreement with Harry.
"We're never going to get through without help..."
Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles.
"If that dog can get in, we can." Harry pointed out.
"Let us split up and see if one of us can make it through." Y/n said to Harry and he nodded.
Harry and Y/n panted, darting here and there, both trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but neither could get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows. Y/n received a blow to the face and it cut his lip open as he fell back.
"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 Y/n's arm painfully hard as she helped him up. "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 with Y/n going after him, he crawled forward, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel.
Y/n lifted his wand up now. "Lumos."
Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from Y/n's wand. Seconds later, Hermione slithered down beside him.
"Where's Ron?" she whispered in a terrified voice.
"This way." said Harry, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks.
Y/n and Hermione followed behind him.
"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly from behind them.
"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."
"Well, I have a theory on where it leads...I just really hope I am wrong." Y/n whispered.
They moved 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, it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes. All Harry could think of was Ron and what the enormous dog might be doing to him. He 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. Ahead Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.
He, Y/n and Hermione paused, gasping for breath, edging forward. All three raised their wands to see what lay beyond.
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.
Harry glanced at Hermione, who looked very frightened but nodded.
Harry pulled himself out of the hole, staring around. The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Y/n lifted himself out of the hole next before he crouched down and helped Hermione out.
Once all three were out Hermione suddenly grabbed Y/n's arm again. Her wide eyes were traveling around the boarded windows. "Y/n." she whispered, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack."
"I know I promised to visit it with you Hermione...but this is not quite what I had in mind." Y/n whispered back.
Harry looked around. His 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." he said slowly.
At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. The three of them looked up at the ceiling. Hermione's grip on Y/n's arm was so tight he was losing feeling in his fingers. He looked at her and she nodded letting go.
Quietly as they 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 a deep, loud purring. Y/n and Harry exchanged a last look, a last nod.
Wand held tightly before him, Harry 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 the cat, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron.
Harry, Y/n and Hermione dashed across to him.
"Ron are you okay?" Harry asked.
"Where is the dog?" Y/n asked him.
"Not a dog." Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain. "It's a trap..."
"What?" Hermione asked worried.
"He's the dog...he's an Animagus." Ron was staring over Harry's shoulder.
Y/n wheeled around. With a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them.
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, Y/n 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..."
The taunt about his father rang in Harry's ears as though Black had bellowed it. A boiling hate erupted in Harry's chest, leaving no place for fear. For the first time in his life, he wanted his wand back in his hand, not to defend himself, but to attack... to kill. Without knowing what he was doing, he started forward, but there was a sudden movement on either side of him and three pairs of hands grabbed him and held him back.
"No, Harry!" Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper.
Ron, however, spoke to Black. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke.
Something flickered in Black's shadowed eyes. "Lie down." he said quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more."
"Did you hear me?" Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry and Y/n to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"
"There'll be only one murder here tonight." said Black, and his grin widened.
"Why's that?" Harry spat, trying to wrench himself free of Ron, Y/n and Hermione. "Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew... But you couldn't finish off Y/n in the dormitories! What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"
"Harry!" Hermione whimpered. "Be quiet!"
"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared, and with a huge effort he broke free of Hermione Y/n and Ron's restraint and lunged forward. He had forgotten about magic, he had forgotten that he was short and skinny and thirteen, whereas Black was a tall, full-grown man. All Harry knew was that he wanted to hurt Black as badly as he could and that he didn't care how much he got hurt in return...
Perhaps it was the shock of Harry doing something so stupid, but Black didn't raise the wands in time, 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 was 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 felt the shrunken arm under his fingers twisting madly, but he 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..."
The fingers tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew.
"Get off of him!" Harry heard Y/n shout as he saw the fist of Y/n connect with Black who let go of Harry with a grunt of pain. Ron threw himself on Black's wand hand and Harry heard a faint clatter of wood.
Harry fought free of the tangle of bodies and saw his own wand rolling across the floor, he threw himself toward it but...
"Argh!"
Crookshanks had joined the fray, both sets of front claws had sunk themselves deep into Harry's arm. Harry threw him off, but Crookshanks now darted toward Harry's wand.
"NO YOU DON'T!" roared Harry, and he aimed a kick at Crookshanks that made the cat leap aside, spitting. Harry snatched up his wand and turned. "Get out of the way!" he shouted at Ron, Y/n and Hermione.
They didn't need telling twice. Hermione, gasping for breath, her lip bleeding, scrambled aside, snatching up her own wand along with Y/n and Ron'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.
Hermione held out Y/n's wand to him now and he looked at her as he took it back. "You are bleeding..." Y/n said as he gently ran a thumb below her lip to wipe away the blood that had trickled down.
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 from where Y/n had punched him.
"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..."
"The whole story?" Harry repeated, a furious pounding in his ears. "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..."
Black had gotten Y/n's attention now as he turned to face the man.
"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. To his right, Hermione gave a dry sob.
Harry stared down at Black and Crookshanks, his grip tightening on the wand. So what if he had to kill the cat too? It was in league with Black. If it was prepared to die, trying to protect Black, that wasn't Harry's business. If Black wanted to save it, that only proved he cared more for Crookshanks than for Harry's parents.
Harry raised the wand. Now was the moment to do it. Now was the moment to avenge his mother and father. He was going to kill Black. He had to kill Black. This was his chance.
"Harry you cannot do this...Something is not right about all of this." Y/n said to him.
The seconds lengthened. And still Harry stood frozen there, wand poised, Black staring up at him, Crookshanks on his chest. Y/n stood near his side, 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.
The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and both Harry and Y/n 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, to Harry, standing there with his wand covering Black, and then to Black himself, crumpled and bleeding at Harry's feet.
"Expelliarmus!" Lupin shouted.
Both Y/n and Harry's wands flew once more out of their hands. So did the two Hermione was holding. Lupin caught them all deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Black, who still had Crookshanks lying protectively across his chest.
Harry stood there, feeling suddenly empty. He hadn't done it. His nerve had failed him. Black was going to be handed back to the Dementors.
Y/n watched Lupin with apprehension and curiosity. Wondering how he had known they were here?
Then Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice. "Where is he, Sirius?"
Harry looked quickly at Lupin. He didn't understand what Lupin meant. Who was Lupin talking about? He turned to look at Black again.
Black's face was quite expressionless. For a few seconds, he didn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raised his empty hand and pointed straight at Ron. Mystified, Harry, Y/n and Hermione glanced around at Ron, who looked bewildered.
"But then..." Lupin muttered, staring at Black so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "...why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless..." Lupin's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest could see. "Unless he was the one...unless you switched...without telling me?"
Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Lupin's face, Black nodded.
"Professor." Y/n interrupted loudly. "What are you..."
But he never finished the question, because what he saw made his voice die in his throat. Lupin was lowering his wand, gazing fixed at Black. The Professor walked to Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet so that Crookshanks fell to the floor, and embraced Black like a brother.
Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed.
Lupin let go of Black and turned to her. She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild-eyed. "You...you..."
"Hermione..."
"You and him!"
"Hermione, calm down..." Lupin tried to say.
"We didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "Y/n and I have been covering up for you this whole time!"
"Hermione, listen to me, please." Lupin shouted. "I can explain..."
Harry could feel himself shaking, not with fear, but with a fresh wave of fury. "I trusted you!" he shouted at Lupin, his voice wavering, out of control. "And all the time you've been his friend!"
"You're wrong." said Lupin. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now...Let me explain..."
"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too ...he's a werewolf!"
There was a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes were now on Lupin, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.
"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione." he said. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead." An odd shiver passed over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf. "
Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain. Lupin made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped. "Get away from me, werewolf!"
Lupin stopped dead. Then, with an obvious effort, he turned to Hermione and said, "How long have you known?"
"Ages." Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay..."
"He'll be delighted." said Lupin coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant. I'm afraid however that Y/n worked it out before you. Did you check the lunar chart like him and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"I connected the dots when he mentioned both to me." Hermione said quietly.
Lupin forced a laugh. "You two really are the cleverest witch and wizard of your age I've ever met."
"We're not." Hermione whispered. "If we'd been a bit cleverer, We'd have told everyone what you are!"
"But they already know." said Lupin. "At least, the staff do."
"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf." Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"
"Some of the staff thought so." said Lupin. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy..."
"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!" He was pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand. Crookshanks leapt up beside him and stepped onto his lap, purring. Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg.
"I have not been helping Sirius." said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look..."
He separated Harry's, Ron's, Y/n's and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner Y/n caught his and looked at it before he raised it up to point at Lupin.
"There." said Lupin, sticking his own wand back into his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"
Harry didn't know what to think but Y/n stepped forward now gaining Lupin's attention.
"Let us say we believe you for a moment. That you have not been helping him." Y/n nodded his head toward Black. "How did you know he was here?"
Harry wanted to know this too.
"The map." said Lupin. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it..."
"You know how to work it?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Of course I know how to work it." said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony...that was my friends' nickname for me at school."
"You wrote..." Y/n began.
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening because I had an idea that you, Harry, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"
He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet. "You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry..."
"How d'you know about the cloak?" Harry asked now moving to stand beside Y/n.
"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it..." said Lupin, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."
"What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!"
"Who was supposedly accompanying us?" Y/n asked.
"I couldn't believe my eyes." said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption and Y/n's question. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"
"No one was with us!" said Harry again.
"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black... I saw him collide with you Harry, I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow..."
"One of us!" Ron said angrily.
"No, Ron." said Lupin. "Two of you." He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron. "Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he said evenly.
"What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything." said Lupin. "Could I see him, please?"
"Just show him Ron." Y/n said, his curiosity was getting the better of him.
Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately. Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him from escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise.
Lupin moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers.
"What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"
"That's not a rat." croaked Sirius Black suddenly.
"What d'you mean...of course he's a rat..." Ron argued.
"No, he's not." said Lupin quietly. "He's a wizard."
Y/n's eyes darted to Scabbers now. "Impossible. Are you saying that Scabbers is a..."
"An Animagus." said Black cutting him off. "By the name of Peter Pettigrew."
It took a few seconds for the absurdity of this statement to sink in. Then Ron voiced what he was thinking. "You're both mental. "
"Ridiculous!" said Hermione faintly.
"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!" He pointed at Black, whose face twitched convulsively.
"I meant to." he growled, his yellow teeth bared. "But little Peter got the better of me...not this time, though!" And Crookshanks was thrown to the floor as Black lunged at Scabbers. Ron yelled with pain as Black's weight fell on his broken leg.
"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, launching himself forward and dragging Black away from Ron again, "WAIT! You can't do it just like that...they need to understand... we've got to explain..."
"We can explain afterwards!" snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. One hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape.
"They've... got...a ...right... to... know...everything!" Lupin panted, still trying to restrain Black. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand, and Harry... you owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"
Black stopped struggling, though his hollowed eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, and bleeding hands.
"All right, then." Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."
"You're nutters, both of you," said Ron shakily, looking around at Harry, Y/n and Hermione for support. "I've had enough of this. I'm off." He tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Lupin raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers.
"You're going to hear me out, Ron." he said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."
"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard. Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him am pushed him back down to the bed.
Then, ignoring Black, Harry turned to Lupin. "There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die." he said. "A whole street full of them..."
"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" said Black savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands.
"So what did happen on that night?" Y/n challenged.
"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter." said Lupin, nodding. "I believed it myself...until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's map never lies... Peter's alive. Ron's holding him."
Harry turned his head and looked down at Ron, and as their eyes met, they agreed, silently. Black and Lupin were both out of their minds. Their story made no sense whatsoever. How could Scabbers be Peter Pettigrew? Azkaban must have unhinged Black after all... but why was Lupin playing along with him?
Then Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Professor Lupin to talk sensibly. "But Professor Lupin.... Scabbers can't be Pettigrew...it just can't be true, you know it can't..."
"Why can't it be true?" Lupin said calmly, as though they were in class, and Hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with Grindylows.
"Because... because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework, the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals. There's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things... and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list. "
"But what if..." Y/n began hard in thought now as the others looked at him. "What if Peter never registered..." Y/n proposed to Hermione who was left stunned by such an idea. "After all we know Sirius Black is one and he is most definitely not on that register."
It was only when Lupin started to laugh did they look at him. "Right again, you two!" he said. "The Ministry never knew that here used to be not only one but three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."
"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus." said Black, who was still watching Scabbers's every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."
"All right, but you'll need to help me, Sirius." said Lupin, "I only know how it began..." Lupin broke off. There had been a loud creak behind him.
The bedroom door had opened of its own accord. All six of them stared at it. Then Lupin strode toward it and looked out into the landing. "No one there."
"This place is haunted!" said Ron.
"It's not." said Lupin, still looking at the door in a puzzled way. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted. The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."
"By you?" Y/n asked him.
Lupin pushed his graying hair out of his eyes, thought for a moment then said, "That's where all of this starts, with my becoming a werewolf, None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten...and if I hadn't been so foolhardy... "
He looked sober and tired. Ron started to interrupt, but Hermione, said, "Shh!" She was watching Lupin very intently.
"I was a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me, The one you worked out is Wolfsbane Y/n, is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week, preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform. I'm able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again. Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me."
Y/n looked at Lupin with a small amount of sympathy but kept his wand raised.
"But then Dumbledore became Headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school." Lupin sighed, and looked directly at Harry. "I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house." Lupin looked miserably around the room. "The tunnel that leads to it, they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous."
Harry couldn't see where this story was going, but he was listening raptly all the same. The only sound apart from Lupin's voice was Scabbers's frightened squeaking.
"My transformations in those days were... were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor. Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it... But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black. Peter Pettigrew. and, of course, your father, Harry...James Potter."
"Three friends...Three unregistered Animagi..." Y/n uttered slowly starting to work things out.
"That's right Y/n, my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her. I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you and Hermione, worked out the truth. But they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."
"My dad too?" said Harry, astounded.
"Yes, indeed." said Lupin. "It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong. One reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. Peter needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."
"But how did that help you?" said Hermione, sounding puzzled.
"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals." said Lupin. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed. Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."
"Hurry up, Remus." snarled Black, who was still watching Scabbers with a horrible sort of hunger on his face.
"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there...well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did. And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."
"What sort of animal..." Harry began, but Hermione cut him off.
"That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?"
"A thought that still haunts me." said Lupin heavily. "And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless, carried away with our own cleverness... I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed..."
Lupin's face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice. "All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me... and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it. So, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along."
"Snape?" said Black harshly, taking his eyes off Scabbers for the first time in minutes and looking up at Lupin. "What's Snape got to do with it?"
"He's here, Sirius." said Lupin heavily. "He's teaching here as well." He looked up at Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione.
"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons, you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me..."
Black made a derisive noise. "It served him right." he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to...hoping he could get us expelled."
"Severus was very interested in where I went every month. " Lupin told Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione. "We were in the same year, you know, and we...er...didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field. Anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be... amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it, if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf. But your father Harry, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life. Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was."
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you." said Harry slowly. "Because he thought you were in on the joke?"
"That's right." sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin. Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing directly at Lupin.