Okay, I'm sorry, but this is sort of a cliffy too...
I hope you enjoy it! Please review!
Chapter Ten
So, we were in an abandoned old house at the end of a deserted street in Hogsmeade that everyone's too scared to go into anyway, with a mass murderer. Right. Omi tried to stand up, hobbling over to stand with the two of us, still clutching Scabbers in his hand. "You will not kill us. We are the Xiaolin Dragons." He seemed to notice Clay's absence. "Uh…well, three of the Xiaolin Dragons."
A flicker of concern crossed Sirius Black's eyes. "Lie down, or you'll damage that leg even more." That seems like an odd thing for a mass murderer to say…
Omi seemed to think so too, for his voice lost its usual confidence. "Did you hear me? You cannot kill us."
"I'm not going to. Only one will die tonight."
"You didn't seem to have that point of view eleven years ago."
Okay, so perhaps taunting a mass murderer isn't the best of things to be doing when in this situation, but hey, we're the Xiaolin Dragons – impulsive and ready to rush into things without thinking about it. Then we realise as an afterthought that it wasn't the best idea…
He didn't say anything and we stared each other down. There were creaking sounds from downstairs and Professor Lupin entered the room. Sirius's eyes lit up excitedly. "Is it really him?"
Lupin nodded eagerly. "He's here!"
"At last! Let's kill him!" The two men behaved like brothers and Lupin didn't seem to object with the plan of murder.
"I don't believe it." Raimundo gasped; him and Omi gaping like fish. "You…you…"
"Now, I can explain-"
I shook my head in disbelief. "I trusted you, and all this time you've been his friend. He's a werewolf!" Raimundo's gaze flickered between my accusing glare and Lupin's calm face. Omi sunk back down to the bed.
"How long have you known?"
"I've had my suspicions since the boggart. Then when you started missing class once a month…"
He shook his head, a small smile forming on his face. "Kimiko, you really are the brightest witch of your age."
"No. If I was smart I wouldn't have trusted you." Lupin looked slightly upset at this.
"How did you know we were here?" Raimundo cut in.
"The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it-"
"You know how to work it?" Raimundo asked; partly suspicious, partly astonished. Whoops. Did I not tell him that? Oh, well…
"Of course I know how to work it, I helped write it. I'm Moony – that was my friends' nickname for me at school." He answered impatiently.
Raimundo gaped. "You wrote-"
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I thought you would try to go to Hagrid's to comfort him before his Hippogriff was executed. I thought you might be wearing your mother's cloak-"
"How d'you know about the cloak?"
Lupin waved off our interruptions impatiently. "The number of times I saw Lily disappearing under it… The point is, even if you're wearing it, you still show up on the map. Not that that mattered since you didn't use it. I watched you visit Hagrid but as you left, you were accompanied by someone else."
"What? No we weren't!" Raimundo exclaimed but I quickly shushed him. I wanted to hear the story.
"Then there was another dot, labelled 'Sirius Black', moving fast towards you. It collided with you and dragged two of you into the Whomping Willow-"
"One of us!" Omi exclaimed, looking utterly lost.
"No, Omi. Two of you." He stepped closer to Omi. "Do you think I could have a look at that rat?"
"What has Scabbers got to do with this?" Omi demanded suspiciously. We knew that Clay was protective of Scabbers and none of us wanted to let him down.
"Everything. Can I see him please?"
Omi reluctantly held him out, and as soon as Lupin approached, he began to struggle with renewed vigour. "What has Clay's rat got to do with anything?" Omi demanded as Lupin looked intently at Scabbers.
"That's no rat." Sirius Black spoke up from behind Lupin, a glint emerging in his eyes.
"What? Of course he's a rat!"
"No." Lupin said quietly. "He's a wizard."
"An Animagus," Sirius Black added, "named Peter Pettigrew."
The room was silent. "You're mental." Raimundo muttered, shaking his head. "Pettigrew's dead. You killed him eleven years ago."
"I meant to." Sirius muttered darkly. "But little Peter got the better of me…not this time, though!"
He made as if to lunge at Omi and Scabbers but Lupin held him back. "No, Sirius! We have to explain!"
"We can explain later!" He snarled, still trying to reach the rat and Raimundo and I moved protectively in front of Omi.
"They have a right to know everything. They need to tell Clay later and he's kept him as a pet! And Kimiko, we owe Kimiko the truth."
Sirius sagged and Lupin let him go. "There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die." Raimundo cut in. "A whole street full of them…"
"They didn't see what they thought they saw."
"You saw Peter yourself on the map, Kimiko."
"The map must've been lying, then." Raimundo continued to protest.
A strange gleam seemed to come into their eyes. "The map never lies." Sirius spoke seriously.
"But…people would know if he was an Animagus… I mean, we mentioned Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall, so I looked them up. The Ministry keeps tabs and you have to register…"
"Yes, but the Ministry never knew that there used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts." Lupin chuckled.
"If you're going to tell the story, Remus, be quick." Sirius added; his eyes fixed on Scabbers. "I've waited eleven years; I don't want to wait much longer."
Lupin went to begin his story but a creak was heard from below. "This place is haunted!" Omi whimpered.
"No, it isn't." Lupin interjected. "The Shrieking Shack has never been haunted. The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me. When Master Fung became headmaster of Hogwarts, he allowed me to come, as long as there were precautions. This house and the tunnel that leads to it were built for my use and the Whomping Willow planted over it. When I transformed, I was smuggled out here so I couldn't hurt anyone."
I had no idea where Lupin was going, but it was a very interesting story, none the less. The only interruptions were from Scabbers, still trying to escape.
"I was happier than I had ever been, at Hogwarts. I had friends – three great friends – Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and, of course, your mother, Kimiko – Liliana Brava. I didn't tell them. I knew they noticed, but I couldn't. I was afraid they would desert me if they did. Your mother figured it out, just as you did, Kimiko, but they didn't desert me. Instead, they became Animagi."
"Even mama?"
"Yes. It took them years to do it, but by fifth year they did it. Though Peter needed help from Lily and Sirius, who were the smartest students in the school."
"But how would that help you?" Raimundo cut in.
"They could accompany me. A werewolf is only dangerous to humans. They would transform when I did and keep me company. I was less wolfish under their influence; my mind came back to me. So, we began to explore the castle. I doubt whether any Hogwarts student ever found out more about the castle and its grounds than we did. So we wrote the Marauder's Map and signed it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. Lily was Prongs."
"What a touching story." A greasy voice drawled form the doorway and we turned to see Snape standing there, a triumphant smirk on his face. "Wondering how I'm here? I dropped by your office to give you your potion tonight and what did I see? You, scurrying along this passageway, on that old map of yours."
"Severus, you're making a mistake-"
"I told the Headmaster again and again that you were helping your old friend into the castle – and here we are! Two for Azkaban, tonight!"
"Don't be a fool! Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting innocent men in Azkaban?"
With a bang, cords flew out of the end of Snape's wand and tied Lupin up. Sirius lunged forward to help him but Snape held his wand right in his face. "Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will." He hissed. Sirius froze and Snape went to bring him out the door, but Raimundo and I stood before it. "Move out of the way, you're already in enough trouble."
"Professor Lupin could've killed me about a hundred times this year. That time with the defence lessons against Dementors. If he was a murderer and wanted to kill us, why didn't he do it then?"
"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works." Snape hissed.
In a split second decision, I raised my wand. "Expelliarmus!" Snape flew into the wall and sunk to the floor, unconscious. Raimundo and Omi had cast the spell with me. I walked to Lupin and helped him from his bonds. It reminded me of last year when Quirrel had Raimundo tied up.
"Thank you, Kimiko."
"This doesn't mean I believe you." I shot back, still unsure. I suppose you could say I had trust issues after the various kidnapping attempts of my childhood.
"Then it's time we offered you some proof. Omi, give me Peter. Now."
"Come off it! How would you even know which rat was Pettigrew?" Raimundo scoffed.
"His front paw."
"What about it?"
"He's got a toe missing."
"All they could find of Pettigrew was his…" Raimundo trailed off and I finished. It was starting to make sense.
"…finger…"
"He cut it off just before he transformed. When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed James and Rosemary. Then before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself – and sped down into the sewer with the other rats…"
"Scabbers probably got into a fight with another rat." Omi argued, still not understanding. "Clay has had Scabbers for-"
"Twelve years. Curiously long life for a common garden rat."
"They took good care of him…" but even Omi could tell that his argument was useless.
"Why were you trying to kill him, anyway?" Sirius and Lupin's faces fell.
"When James and Rosemary were taking you into hiding, they made me their Secret Keeper." Sirius started. "I wanted to do as much as I could for them since I ran away from home and lived with them when I was sixteen. But I thought that Wuya would expect it to be me, so I persuaded them to change to Peter. On the night they died, I'd arranged to check up on Peter, to make sure he was alright. But he was gone…no sign of struggle. So, I went to your grandparents' house, straight away. And when I saw the house destroyed…and their bodies…I realised what Peter had done…what I had done…" his voice broke.
"There's only one way to prove it. Omi, give me that rat. If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him." At this assurance Omi handed him over.
The two men raised their wands and shot some sort of blue light at the rat. But it wasn't a rat anymore, but a short man, slightly plump but it looked as if he had lost a lot of weight recently, with small, watery eyes and a pointed nose.
"Well, hello, Peter."
I'm writing the next chapter now, I'm just too into this story to stop!