Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, Sirius, Remus and Tonks would all be still alive.
Warning: OOC, but hopefully not too badly, also starts to get a little AU due to the change I made and also how it works out later.
Also for anyone reading my other stories, I know that I have a poll and everything but I just felt this need to post this story but don't worry it's going to be short-ish.
This takes place just before Snape is knocked out, literally just before.
Edit: Just read it over, added some punctuation and sentences that means it makes more sense.
Awakening
Harry saw the madness in Snape's eyes but still tried desperately for him to see reason once more.
"Please Professor?" He asked quietly and as Snape looked down at him in shock there was a loud shout from behind Harry,
"Expelliarmus!" Whipping around he saw Ron had his arm outstretched and Snape's wand flew out of his hand.
"You fool." He breathed, still looking at Harry. More specifically his eyes, almost as in a daze.
"Professor, look." Harry stated firmly. "I know that you and Sirius hated each other in school, but if he and Professor Lupin are telling the truth then jumping to conclusions was what got them here in the first place and so there should definitely be no more of that." There was a hoarse chuckle from behind him.
"You sound more like Lily than James when you use that tone of voice Harry." Sirius said while he knelt down to untie Remus.
"Well it's true." Harry said stubbornly, still using the same tone.
"Fine." Harry turned back to Snape who had his arm crossed. "I will listen." Harry grinned.
"Thanks Professor."
"Yeah that way you don't have to be tied up." Ron piped up with and Snape glowered at him.
"I still haven't forgotten that you were the one who disarmed me Weasley." He growled and then turned to Sirius. "Black say what you have to say and then I'll decide whether I think you're guilty or not."
"You're not my jury Snape." Sirius snarled but turned to Ron anyway. "I need the rat."
"It's not Scabbers. How are you so sure anyway?" Ron said defensively.
"For once in your life that is actually a good question." Snape said silkily turning to Sirius as did Remus. Sirius pulled out the Daily Prophet photo.
"I knew it was him from the number of times we had seen him transform. And look at his front paw."
"It's missing a toe." Remus said with dawning comprehension in his voice. Ron looked like he was about to disagree but Snape interrupted him.
"That does help prove your version of events Black. The largest part of Pettigrew found was his finger and he cut it off and blew up the street so that it looked like he died in the explosion. But what I don't understand is why. After all you were their Secret-Keeper Black, you were the one looking at prison." Snape explained.
"He said he did it. You said you had killed them, before Lupin showed up!" Harry asked Sirius angrily whose eyes now looked at him sadly.
"I as good as did. I convinced them to change Secret-Keepers to Peter, thinking myself too obvious. I thought it was a great plan but I didn't plan on the spy in the Order being Peter himself. I went to check on him the night they died and when I found his hiding place empty with no signs of a struggle I somehow knew. So I went to Godric's Hollow and when I found their bodies, I knew what he had done. What I had done." Sirius' voice broke and he turned away.
"And the only ones who knew the truth were you, Potter, Pettigrew and Lily. So of course you did the Gryffindor thing and went after Pettigrew." Snape sneered and Remus stepped in before Sirius could retort.
"Not the time Severus. There's only one way this can be proved, Ron I need that rat. If he isn't Peter then this spell won't hurt him." Remus assured Ron as he took the rat from him. "Together Sirius?" Together they pointed their wands at the rat who was surrounded by blue white light until he started to grow into a man.
"Peter Pettigrew." Snape confirmed everyone's thoughts. He had walked across and retrieved his wand but held it at his side rather than pointed at anyone.
"Snape." Pettigrew squeaked. "Sirius, Remus he's a Death Eater. The mark of his arm." Peter begged and Snape smiled thinly as he advanced slowly on him.
"Much like the one on your arm Pettigrew." Snape said before viciously ripping up Peter's arm sleeve. With faded black ink, a skull with a snake's tongue was painted upon Pettigrew's left forearm.
"What's that?" Harry asked unthinkingly.
"It's probably a good thing that you live in such times of peace that you don't recognise it." Remus muttered more to the two other adults than to Harry, halting any remarks Snape might make. "It's the Dark Mark Harry, Voldemort's mark. You have to be marked with it by him when you join the Death Eaters."
"Professor Snape?" Hermione asked timidly and he knew what she was referring to.
"Later Granger." He said brusquely before turning to Pettigrew and snarling. "So you were the Secret-Keeper then? That was an incredibly bad choice Black."
"To be fair it would have been a good plan if Peter hadn't been the spy." Remus stood in for Sirius as he was too busy snarling at Snape.
"And then to go and say you killed Potter and Lily before giving all the facts first was complete idiocy." Snape continued like Remus had not spoken and Sirius audibly growled.
"ENOUGH!" Harry shouted, finally fed up and all three adults turned to stare at him. "Can we please focus on the issue here? However before that Professor Snape did you know my mother?" He asked curiously. "I only ask because you call her by her first name, which is unusual since she was a Gryffindor as well."
"I agree. Let's focus on the issue. There's a time and place for such questions Potter." Snape reprimanded him before turning back to Pettigrew who finally decided to wake up.
"Severus! You have to help me! Sirius is trying to kill me and he obviously has managed to get Remus under his spell." Peter begged his hands groping at the front of Snape's robes. No one in the room had seen such a look of fury on Snape's face and all of them, except for Ron on the bed, took a step back.
"Get your filthy, traitorous, cowardly hands off me." Snape said quietly but Pettigrew recognised the anger in his voice when he heard it. He turned to Remus and Sirius.
"My old friends, you want to help me don't you?"
"You killed Lily and James." Was all Sirius could say.
"He was going to kill me Sirius! He was getting stronger every day, what was there to be gained from killing him?" Pettigrew pleaded with his old friends.
"Respect. Knowing that you died protecting your friends. Innocent lives." Sirius spat at Peter when Snape intervened.
"But doesn't that say it all? What could be gained, what could little Peter Pettigrew get for himself by standing with his friends? Nothing except death. So with a self-preservation instinct more suited to a Slytherin he crawled to the Dark Lord and offered him Order secrets if he spared his life."
"Didn't work out so well for you though did it? Voldemort dead or at least gone. I heard them talking in Azkaban Wormtail, his supporters aren't very happy with you, after all it was your information that lead to his death. And let's not forget the ones not in Azkaban." Sirius taunted.
"So that's why you chose the Weasleys because no one else would take you and you had to stay on top of the news so when Voldemort returned you could go scurrying back to him." Remus realised and Pettigrew's eyes darted from them to the door and then around the room in panic. They landed on Harry and he threw himself at him. Everyone raised their wands in warning.
"Get off him." Sirius warned Pettigrew, unknowingly echoing Snape's cold, quiet voice earlier, that promised pain to anyone who disobeyed it.
"Harry, Harry will you show me mercy? That is what your parents would have wanted. You look so like James but have Lily's eyes." There was a bang as Sirius drew breath to shout and tight ropes clutched Pettigrew tightly. Snape lowered his wand.
"Let's just do it." He snarled to Remus and Sirius. All three of them turned to Pettigrew with their wands raised.
"No don't!" Harry stepped in between Pettigrew and the wands.
"For the last time Potter get out of the way." Snape forced out through gritted teeth keeping his wand up.
"You can't kill him."
"Oh thank you, Harry. Thank you." Pettigrew sobbed and Harry threw a glare at him.
"I'm not doing it for you I'm doing it because my dad won't want his two best friends to become murderers for him." Then he turned to Snape. "And whatever you and Mum were I'm sure that she wouldn't want you to become a murderer."
"No she wouldn't but the fact is she's dead and he did it. They would have been safe if he hadn't sold them out." Snape snarled.
"Then give him to the Dementors but just don't kill him." Harry pleaded and Remus and Sirius lowered their wands.
"Hey, he stuck me in Azkaban for twelve years and killed Lily and James so if I can lower my wand so can you." Sirius said to Snape in a threatening tone of voice.
"Fine." He bit out, lowering his wand. "But I get to levitate him out of the tunnel."
"Go right ahead."
As they were crawling along the tunnel, Snape not taking particular care at preventing Pettigrew from hitting the walls of the tunnel, Sirius drew back slightly to talk to Harry.
"So if we get Pettigrew up to Fudge, you know what that means?" Sirius asked.
"You'll be free." Harry said.
"Yeah." Sirius agreed. "Anyway I was wondering whether you... well your parents made me godfather and that means if anything happens to them I become your guardian and so I was wondering whether you want to come and live with me."
"Live with you?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Don't worry if you want to live with your family, that's fine with me." Sirius said hurriedly.
"Are you mad?! Of course I want to live with you, my parents chose you. You're more family than the Dursleys have ever been. Do you have a house? I want to move in as soon as possible if that's alright." Sirius' head swivelled around and his face broke out into a smile, the first true smile Harry had seen on his face.
"That's great, yeah you can move in as soon as you want. I don't have a house at the moment but I'm sure we can move into Potter Manor." Harry tripped and crashed into Snape.
"Watch it Potter." He snapped.
"But how can I have a Manor? I mean I'm not rich, I thought it was only the house in Godric's Hollow." Harry stammered out as Sirius stared at him.
"The Potters were one of the richest pureblood families in Britain, just under the Blacks and the Malfoys."
"That's unbelievable, I mean the Dursleys always complained about how much it cost to keep me." Everyone who heard this, including Snape, frowned.
"When we get back to school we have to talk about that pup." Sirius commented as they climbed out of the tunnel.
Outside Snape lowered Pettigrew to the ground so that he stood on his feet.
"Don't even think about it." He warned Wormtail who fidgeted slightly.
"Just give us an excuse." Sirius sneered and the scene was suddenly bathed in moonlight. Sirius, Remus and Snape froze, for different reasons.
"He hasn't taken his potion, he's not safe!" Hermione warned in a high pitched voice. They watched as Remus' body changed and as Sirius changed and threw himself at the werewolf, trying to knock him off course into the forest with the help of Snape's wand. Using this distraction Peter wiggled out of his binds and managed to grab Lupin's wand.
"No!" Harry cried and Snape turned, distracted as the werewolf and the animagus ran into the forest. "Professor, Pettigrew escaped!" Harry cried desperately pointing off towards the lake. Snape dived after the rat and Harry and Hermione followed after hesitating after looking at the unconscious Ron, which Pettigrew had cursed on the way. Their decision was made when they heard a painful moan from the lake.
Harry flat out ran at the lake without stopping to consider the cold or what it meant. He stopped dead at the sight of hundreds of Dementors gliding across the lake to the three of them, no four of them since there was Sirius collapsed beside Snape. Harry held his wand out.
"Think of something happy Hermione and do the incantation!" He yelled. "Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!" They kept coming and Sirius and Snape were counting on him. I'm going to live with Sirius, I'm leaving the Dursleys. He focused on that thought as hard as he could as he felt Hermione collapse beside him. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" He yelled and thin silver mist came between the Dementor that was coming towards Harry with its hood down and its hand outstretched. It slowed down but did not stop and the others were still as risk. Harry felt the world getting colder and blacker. "No." He murmured before a burst of silver had him opening his eyes. He watched a large silver stag charge down the Dementors and saw it light up its caster.
"Dad." Harry whispered before the person dissolved into the shadows again.
"You did it Harry." Hermione whispered hoarsely from his side and Harry did not bother to correct her.
"I'm glad you're awake." Harry whispered back, as if he couldn't raise his voice above that level. "Help me wake Snape and Sirius." They knelt down and gently shook the two adults, who luckily came around quickly.
"What happened? Where are the Dementors?" Sirius asked, staggering slightly as he stood up. He caught sight of Harry.
"Did you do a Patronus?" But he fell silent when the silver stag bounded up to Harry again. "Prongs." Sirius whispered as the stag dissolved.
"How did you do that Potter?" Snape asked, unnerved at the solid Patronus.
" I've been learning with Professor Lupin but I didn't-" Harry cut himself off. "Is Professor Lupin going to be okay?"
"He's deep in the forest now, he'll run until morning." Sirius answered.
"Come on Sirius, Professor. We need to go and get Ron and then we can get you free Sirius." Harry grinned at his godfather as they climbed towards the Whomping Willow.
"I can't believe I'm helping with this." Snape grumbled.
I know it's not my best work but I wanted to post this now, so constructive crit is welcome though I probably will be improving it when I'm slightly more awake. Next chapter will be longer promise. Review please with what you liked, what you didn't.