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Alternate Ending to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Starts from page 381, after the 4th paragraph up which begins with "Too late. Pettigrew had transformed..."

"No!" Harry cried out. He ran over too where Hermione sat with Ron, who was grimacing in pain.

"Hermione! Pettigrew transformed, he's gone!" Harry panted out anxiously. "Do you know anything that we could do to find him?"

"Um, let me think...I've got it!" She jumped up, excitedly. "It's called the Encontrar spell, all you have to do is say 'Encuentra Wormtail.'"

Harry nodded to show that he understood, and brought up his wand hand. "Encuentra Wormtail!" He stated powerfully, and sure enough, his magic led him to a spot of tall grass. Looking down, he saw that the rat had not yet noticed him. Pointing his want at the traitor, he shot three spells in quick succession towards the ugly rat- the first to make him human, the second binding him in tight ropes. The final spell, " Stupefy", would not allow him to transform back into a rat, even if he was already figuratively one.

Leaving Hermione to watch over Pettigrew, Harry saw the hippogriff Buckbeak standing near the edge of the woods.

"Buckbeak! Here boy!" he called, and climbed on his back, never wondering why he was there in the first place, when he was supposedly executed earlier that very same day.

Flying towards the castle, Harry asked Buckbeak to land when they were right outside the front doors. When he ran inside, he did not stop his headlong sprint until he reached the headmaster's office.

He started spurting out as many candy names as he could think of," Licorice Wands! Ice Mice! Acid Pops! Cockroach Clusters!" And finally, it opened.

Dashing up the stairs two at a time, he pounded on the door, and heard a muffled "Come in."

Opening the door, he rushed in and came skidding to a stop, yelling, "Professor! Pettigrew! He's outside; Professor Lupin's a werewolf!"

Harry, Harry, my boy, calm down. Now- tell me what happened," he said, as calmly as ever.

"Ron got pulled under the Whomping Willow when a big black dog like the Grim grabbed him, so Hermione and I went in after him. We found him in the Shrieking Shack, with Sirius Black, but it's okay, he's innocent. Professor Luping came in and explained, and took Ron's rat and showed us that he was Pettigrew in an animagus form. He transformed into a human, and I told Professor Lupin and Sirius not to kill him, but to bring him back here to the school, but when we got into the open, Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf and Pettigrew transformed back into a rat. I found him, returned him to a human, bound him, and stunned him. Hermione's watching him now, we have to get down there!" Harry ended, distressed.

"Okay, Harry, we shall be down there in a moment. Let me get Minerva, and we will leave," Dumbledore said, and proceeded to firecall Professor Mcgonagall.

When they arrived at the seen, it was to see Pettigrew glaring up at Hermione, who looked relieved beyond belief that they had finally gotten there.

Harry went straight over to Hermione, and immediately asked where his godfather had gone.

"He went over into the woods... I think he's hurt, Harry, he was limping pretty badly," she answered quietly.

Harry went over to his head of house and told her what Hermione had said, asking her to come with him to help Sirius.

" Yes, yes of course, Mr. Potter. I still cannot believe that I ever doubted him," she muttered, following Harry into the woods, and leaving the headmaster to deal with Pettigrew and send him to the ministry.

When they finally found Sirius, he was sitting up, leaning against a giant tree, and he looked at Mcgonagall, wide-eyed.

"It's okay, Sirius, she knows you are innocent, we captured Pettigrew," Harry said, sitting down next to Sirius.

"Sirius, I just want you to know that I am so sorry that I ever doubted you, and I, in no way, doubt you now," Mcgonagall said primly, but the glistening in her eyes gave her facade away.

"Aw, Minnie, it's okay, I forgive you," he said, grinning devilishly. " Could you fix my leg though? I think I fractured it."

"Yes, just stay still, and don't call me Minnie...Episkey!" She commanded, and Sirius had a relieved expression on his face. Getting up, he turned to Harry.

"So, Harry, kid. I know nothing about you, and if we're going to live together, I think that may be a slight problem. So why don't you tell me a bit about yourself on the way up to the castle?" He said, yearning to know more about his godson, while Mcgonagall smiled, thinking about how alike the two were, and yet so different.

"Well- I would, but I don't really know where to start," Harry confessed.

"Hmmm... how about you start with your friends, the two that I met in the shack?"

" Okay, well, the red-headed boy was Ron Weasley. He has a rather large family- five brothers and a sister. They are all really nice. He's in love with quidditch, and his team is the Chudley Cannons. He hates school, especially homework, and that's where my best friend Hermione comes in, because if she wasn't there to help us study, we probably would have failed exams by now. She's been a huge help, really-" Harry got cut off by Sirius.

"Wait, isn't she your girlfriend? You two looked pretty close when she was trying to convince me not to kill you," He said, smirking.

Harry was totally speechless, and was turning redder by the minute. "Wha- no... no way!" he spluttered, as his professor tried not to laugh.

"Well, Harry, you two are very close, so to an outsider it would probably seem like that," the teacher reasoned.

"Ugh, whatever. Anyway, Hermione is brilliant, really, there's no other way to put it. She's the smartest witch in our year, that much is obvious, maybe even the whole school, which is highly likely. She hates quidditch, but has never missed one of my games; and yes, I have been seeker since first year, by the way. Hermione loves books, if you can't find her, look in the library. Oh, look, there she is," he ended, and waved to his best friend.

"Hi Harry, Professor Mcgonagall, Mr. Black," she greeted them.

"Hermione, Hermione, call me Sirius, or Padfoot if you want, but Mr.Black makes me feel old. And plus, I can't have my godson's best friend call me that, now can we?"Sirius said, as she turned to Harry, and gushed,

"Harry, did you really say that? Oh Harry!" she said, throwing her arms around his neck, as he blushed heavily, trying to figure out what to do.