June 6th, 1994

On the day of Buckbeak's execution, we—Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I—had been walking around the grounds. Then, a huge, shaggy, black dog appeared and dragged Ron through a secret tunnel at the base of the Whomping Willow.

Harry, Hermione, and I stood before the door barring our way.

I kicked the door down without a second's hesitation, revealing a dusty old room. There was a four-poster bed against a wall; Crookshanks was laying on it. Beside the bed, on the floor, clutching his broken leg was Ron.

We rushed to him.

"Ron, are you alright?"

"Where's the bloody dog?"

I remained silent, casting a swift spell to check on his leg. Yep, it was broken.

"Not a dog," Ron moaned. "Harry, Bella, it's a trap!"

"What—" Harry began.

"He's the dog! He's an Animagus!"

He'd been staring behind us, over our shoulders. I spun, just in time to see a man in the shadows slam the door shut behind us.

The man looked terrible, honestly. His dark hair was filthy, greasy, and matted. His face was thin and gaunt, haggard, with dark shadows under his dark, hard eyes. His eyes were hard, haunted, like he had seen too many horrors in his life, but not cold. His pale skin was waxy as if he hadn't seen the sun in years—he probably hadn't, really. He was bony and skeletal. I could see his teeth were a nasty yellow, as he grinned.

I cursed mentally. Sirius Black. Of course.

And he had Ron's wand in his hand. I cursed again.

Expelli—but my thought was cut off by Black using the same spell. All three of our wands flew from our hands. He caught them. This time I cursed aloud.

His eyes were fixed on Harry and me, barely noticing Ron or Hermione. Subtly, I inched to my right, blocking Ron in case the man tried to curse my already injured friend.

"I thought you'd come, to help your friend." He said hoarsely. "Your father would have done the same for me, Harry. Brave of you, not to run you a teacher. I'm grateful…it will make everything much easier."

Even though my eyes did not move from Black, I saw Harry stiffen, angry at the taunt about his father. I inched in front of him, trying to block all three of my friends, and trying to stop Harry from killing the man. I did not blame him. I hated Black too.

Ron spoke up from behind us. "If you want to kill Harry and Bella, you'll have to kill us, too!" He was trying to stand, paling as he did, in front of the bed.

Something in Black's eyes flickered. "Lie down," he said to Ron quietly. "You will damage that leg even more."

Ron protested, repeating what he'd said not a minute before. Glancing at him from the corner of my eyes, I impatiently flicked my hand, as if brushing off an annoying fly. Ron was lifted into the air and landed gently on the bed behind him. As much as I hated Black, I knew he was right about that.

Harry was seething with anger. He yelled at Black, blaming him for killing Lily and James Potter. I grabbed his shoulder, trying to restrain him.

"Harry! Be quiet!" Hermione whimpered.

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared, fighting Hermione's and my grips on him. When he broke our grasps, he lunged at Black, forgetting that he was only a short, skinny thirteen year old, trying to harm a tall, full grown man.

In shock, Black did not think to raise the wand. I was staring as Harry fought the Azkaban escapee.

But when Black's hand reached Harry's throat, I snapped. I punched the murderer right in the face, causing him to lose his grip on Harry.

Still moving swiftly, made a motion with my hands, pushing them apart, palm out. Sure enough, Harry and Black flew apart, hitting opposite walls with small grunts of pain—Black much harder and forceful than Harry. In the confusion of their brawl, the wands had fallen to the ground. With my natural Seeker reflexes, I threw myself at them while Black was distracted. Crookshanks oddly tried to stop me, but I grabbed the wands anyways and tossed them to their respectful owners, tucking mine into my robe pocket, so it could not be used against me. After all, I could do wandless magic fairly well for a third year.

I had my right hand out, not four inches from the murderer's face. My hand has half curled into a fist, my index finger extended, pointed at the spot in between his eyes.

Harry was beside me, his wand pointed at Black's heart.

"Going to kill me, Harry, Bella?" he whispered, his eyes flicking repeatedly from my hand to Harry's wand and back again.

A bruise was forming around Black's left eye and his nose was bleeding a bit.

"You killed my parents," Harry said shakily.

Black stared at him, and then said how he hadn't been the one to betray the Potters. I could see a vein near his right temple pulsing in fury.

Crookshanks suddenly leapt onto Black's chest, settling on his heart, in front of Harry's wand. When Black tried to remove the cat, Crookshanks sank his claws into his robes and refused to move. Hermione sobbed dryly in betrayal once behind us.

We stood in silence. Then, after minutes, there was the sound of footsteps heading our way. Hermione screamed to whoever it was that we were up here and that Black was here, too.

I could only gape when Professor Lupin ran into the room, bloodlessly pale, his wand at a ready, his eyes swept over the scene before him, then shout, "Expelliarmus!"

All four of the wands—even mine from my pocket—soared away from us, to Lupin. My face reddened in fury and betrayal.

"Where is he, Sirius?" he asked quietly. Black pointed to Ron, who looked absolutely confused.

"But then…why hasn't he shown himself before now?" Lupin asked, his eyes far away, deep in thought. "Unless—unless he was the one…unless you switched…without telling me?"

Slowly, Black nodded.

Beside me, Harry interrupted, "Professor? What's going on—?"

But his voice died away as Lupin lowered his wand and helped Black up and embraced him like a brother.

Betrayal raged through me like wildfire.

"HOW DARE YOU!" I shrieked, my face reddening in fury. My temper rivaled even McGonagall's when she was truly furious. "I trusted you—you—you—"

"Bella—"

I ignored Ron. "You—and him! I didn't tell anyone—" I looked to Hermione, who looked as betrayed as I felt. "—we didn't tell! We covered up for you! And—after all this time—you were his friend!"

"You're wrong," Lupin disagreed. "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 into the castle—he wants you dead too, as well as Bella! He's a werewolf!"

A shocked silence followed. Lupin looked calm, albeit pale. Harry and Ron gaped. My face was set like stone—cold and stubborn.

Lupin replied, "Only one out of three, Miss Granger, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius into the castle and I most certainly do not want Harry and Bella dead." He shuddered. "But I don't deny that I am a werewolf."

I listened, seething with anger, to my friends bicker and speak about his condition.

"I have not been helping Sirius," Lupin eventually said. "If you give me a chance to explain—"

I couldn't hold in my anger, my betrayal. I had thought that I had finally found a father figure—a family member. Someone who loved me.

But no. I had been deceived and tricked into thinking that—into trusting him.

Completely ignoring the fact that he was the one with our wands and that I was wandless, I snapped. I stepped toward him and slapped him right across the face. Blimey, I did that a lot—punching or slapping, I mean.

The red mark contrasted drastically on his pale face.

"I trusted you!" I spat quietly, my anger almost beyond words. "And you betrayed me. Betrayed all of us. After all we did for you—lying, hiding your secret, and covering up for you!"

Lupin interrupted me. "There!" he thrust our wands into our hands, and gave me his. "Now you are armed and we are not! Now will you listen?"

I quieted as I stuffed my wand into my robe pocket. This earned me a confused look from Black. "Why did you put your wand away?" he asked quietly.

I shrugged and explained nonchalantly. "Wandless magic comes easily to me."

"If you haven't been helping him," Harry said, ignoring Black's question for me, with a furious glance at Black, "how did you know he was here?"

"The map," said Lupin. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it —"

"You know how to work it?" Harry said 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 —?" I started, but was cut off.

"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, 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?"

"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!"

"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"

"No one was with us!" said Harry.

"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black… I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow —"

"One of us!" Ron said angrily.

"No, Ron," Lupin disagreed quietly. "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?"

Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him 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 —"

"No, he's not," said Lupin quietly. "He's a wizard."

"An Animagus," said Black, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

It took a few seconds for the absurdity of this statement to sink in. Then Ron voiced what I was thinking.

"You're both mental."

"Ridiculous!" said Hermione faintly, and I nodded in agreement, but then froze, thinking.

"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.

Lupin yelled at Black, "Sirius, NO! WAIT! You can't do it just like that—they've got to understand—we've got to explain!"

"We can explain afterwards!" Sirius snarled, struggling to get Scabbers from Ron.

"They've got a right to know!" panted Lupin, struggling to restrain Black. "Ron has kept him as a pet! There are parts even I don't understand! And Harry and Bella—you owe them the truth, Sirius!"

Black stopped struggling at once, his hollowed eyes focused on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, bleeding, scratched hands.

Then he turned, looking to me. "Bella? Isabella Lestrange?" he guessed quietly. A bit reluctantly, I nodded but replied, "I go by Bella Swan, but essentially you are correct."

He looked back to Lupin. "All right then. Tell them whatever you want. But make it quick. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…"

"You're nutters, both of you," said Ron shakily, looking round at Harry 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 and me caught him and pushed him back down to the bed. Then, ignoring Black, we looked to the DADA professor.

"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.

"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."

I was frozen, thinking, trying to find a loophole…trying to know that Black and Lupin were both out of their minds. Their story made sense, reluctant as I was to admit it…

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."

Lupin started to laugh.

"Right again, Hermione!" he said. "But the Ministry never knew that here used to be 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 five of them stared at it. Then Lupin strode toward it and looked out into the landing. "No one there…"

My eyes narrowed—and a thought came to my mind: where was Harry's Cloak?

"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."

He 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 and I shushed him. 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 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.

"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 and me. "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."

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.

"Now, 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, Hermione, Bella, worked out the truth…

"And 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, 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, 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 — er — 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, 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?"

I was about to correct Harry, that it was Professor Snape, when—

"That's right," sneered a cold, familiar voice from behind Lupin.

Severus Snape pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointed at Lupin. Well, I knew the shack wasn't haunted. Hermione screamed from beside me. Black leapt to his feet. Harry only stared in shock.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," he sneered, tossing it aside, it landing at Harry's feet. "Very useful, Potter; I thank you." Good job Harry.

He looked to Lupin and continued, explaining how he'd gone to the werewolf's office to bring him the potion, to find him gone and the Marauder's Map laying on his desk; how he'd suspected Lupin all along for helping Black.

I cried out in shock when snakelike cords burst from Snape's wand, wrapping around Lupin's mouth, wrists and ankles, causing the poor man to topple over, unable to move.

I felt both Hermione and Harry holding me back.

Black roared in rage and started towards Snape, but Snape was quicker. His wand was already pointed at Black, right in between the eyes. "Give me one reason," said Snape, in a soft, but dangerous tone. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."

Black stopped dead. Both had similar expressions of hatred.

I listened, internally debating what to do, as they argued. I watched as Harry blocked the door and defended Lupin and Black.

Then, simultaneously, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I attempted to Disarm Snape. Snape, in response, was knocked unconscious.

"You shouldn't have done that," Black muttered. "You should've left him to me…" He looked to me, as if scrutinizing me. "I guess you can do wandless magic."

"Like I said," I replied rather smugly, shrugging, "it comes easily to me."

He looked at me for a long moment. "I guess so…" He paused, then muttered, "You do look like my cousin…"

"Your cousin?" Hermione asked from beside me.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," he replied, frowning. "I couldn't stand her. But I knew her well enough to know you look almost exactly like her when she was fourteen."

Hermione looked back to Snape. "We attacked a teacher," she whimpered. "Oh, we are in so much trouble…"

Black tried to untie Lupin, who had still been struggling.

"I'm not saying I believe you," Harry said. I nodded in agreement as I flicked my hand, causing the ropes to fall to the floor, freeing Lupin.

"How do you even know Scabbers is Pettigrew? How do you know it's this rat?"

"You know, Sirius," Lupin said, "that's a fair question. How did you know?"

Black reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled old article from the Daily Prophet. It was the photo of the Weasleys that had been in the newspaper the previous summer. There, I realized, sitting on Ron's shoulder was Scabbers.

"How did you get…?" Lupin began.

Some of the minister's words came back to me. I blinked and asked Black, "When you asked Fudge for the newspaper, right? When Fudge was visiting Azkaban?"

He looked at me curiously. "How do you…?"

Again, I shrugged. "Long story. Basically, neither Harry nor I got permission from our legal guardians to go to Hogsmeade. We shuck out—Harry using the Invisibility Cloak and me using a Disillusionment Charm. We overheard Fudge and Madam Rosmerta and a few of the teachers talking. Fudge mentioned it in passing…"

Black nodded. "Yes, that was it."

"My God…" I muttered. "Scabbers is missing a toe…"

Lupin's eyes widened in realization. "All they could ever find of Pettigrew was his finger!" He murmured, his eyes on the struggling rat.

They explained, then, to the others. That Sirius hadn't been the one who'd given the Potters away. At the last minute, they'd switched to Peter Pettigrew. Sirius Black was an innocent man.

Eventually, when Ron finally gave the two friends the rat—if he really was a rat—Lupin counted down, "One—two—THREE!"

There was a brilliant flash of light. Scabbers was gone, replaced by a small, short, plump man with rat-like features, small watery eyes, and an overall unhealthy appearance.

I watched, shocked, horrified, as Black and Lupin interrogated the man, who groveled at their, Hermione's and Ron's feet, making pitiful, un-Gryffindor excuses.

He was at Harry's and my feet. "Isabella, Harry, James wouldn't want my killed….he would have shown me mercy…he would have understood! Harry you look so much like him…please!"

Black and Lupin pulled him away from Harry and me.

I listened, stoic, to his pitiful excuses.

"…he would've killed me!" Pettigrew whimpered.

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

Both Black and Lupin had their wands raised, pointed at Pettigrew.

"You should have realized, Peter, that if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would," Lupin growled quietly.

Beside me, Hermione buried her face in her hands, not wanting to watch this. I almost did the same. I couldn't watch this. They shouldn't do this!

"NO!" I said, going to the two friends. "You can't kill him! You can't…." I paused, seeing the looks of hesitance on their faces. "But if you want to clear your name, Bla—Sirius, he needs to be alive. He can serve as evidence: you never killed Peter Pettigrew. And, also, I don't think James would want his two best friends to become murderers…this rat isn't worth going to Azkaban for."

"I agree," Harry said. "You shouldn't be sent to Azkaban like that. You shouldn't have been in the first place, actually…"

"Harry! Isabella!" Pettigrew gasped, flinging his arms around our knees in a grateful sort of way. "You—thank you—it's more than I deserve—thank you—"

"Get off us," Harry spat, shaking Pettigrew away. "We aren't doing this for you, you bloody rat. It just wouldn't do either of us good to have our godfathers sent to Azkaban."

I nodded in agreement. Pettigrew seemed to shrink at our glares.

And so began the adventure of the night…

AN: Sorry for the insanely long brake! I've been writing non-stop on both MS Prologue and 2, as well as the new story I'm working on...I haven't posted it, but will soon. BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE LINK ON MY PROFILE FOR THE TRAILER I MADE FOR MY COMING-SOON STORY, entitled:

"The Tale of Civia Potter"

PS - VOTE ON MY POLL TOO!