Bryt was completely dumbfounded by the claim. She just couldn't believe it. Lupin and Black were actually suggesting that Scabbers, the rat who had been in the Weasley family for years, was actually a wizard who had died twelve years ago?

"You're both mental," Ron was the first to speak, and Bryt couldn't agree more.

"Ridiculous!" Hermione added.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" Harry said, before pointing at Black, "He killed him twelve years ago!"

"I meant to," Black said lowly, "But little Peter got the better of me...not this time, though!"

Black lunged for Scabbers in Ron's hands, but Bryt threw her arms out, blocking him. Bryt barely managed to stay upright as she glared at Black while Lupin rushed forward, yanking the man back.

"Sirius, NO!" Lupin said, gripping onto Black's arm to hold him back, "WAIT! You can't do it just like that—they need to understand—we've got to explain—"

"We can explain afterwards!" Black snapped, trying to pull away and reach out towards Bryt and Ron at the same time. Bryt was keeping herself firmly perched in front of her friend. No matter how much she hated Scabbers, the rat was still Ron's pet and she wasn't about to let Black do anything to it. Not when Ron was so attached to the thing.

"They've—got—a—right—to—know—everything!" Lupin managed between short breaths as he struggled to hold Black back, "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 Bryt still didn't move from in front of Ron, especially when she noticed Black was still staring at them as if waiting for a chance to try and make a grab for Scabbers again.

"All right, then," Black said, "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," Ron said and Bryt finally looked away from Black, looking back at her friend, "I've had enough of this. I'm off."

Ron started to get up and Bryt moved quickly to help him to his feet. They both froze, however, when Lupin raised his wand, pointing it at the squirming rat in Ron's hands.

"You're going to hear me out, Ron," Lupin said in a calm voice, as if they were back in the classroom and he had caught Ron not paying attention to his lecture, "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."

"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron screamed, already pushing his rat into his pocket. It didn't seem to want in the pocket though, and Ron lost his balance in the struggle. Bryt quickly caught hold of her friend and, with Harry's help, got Ron to sit down on the bed. Bryt sat next to him, half to keep an eye on him to pull him down if he tried to stand up again and half in hopes to settle down the pounding headache forming that was making her nauseous.

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," Harry said and Bryt looked up to see him staring at Lupin, "A whole street full of them..."

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black said and Bryt gave him a confused look.

"There was a...a whole street full," Bryt said weakly though her deep breaths, trying not to move her jaw too much, "How...can they all...all be wrong?"

"I believed Sirius killed Peter myself," Lupin said, "Until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's Map never lies...Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

"You're crazy," Bryt said, watching the two closely. She could understand Black being insane. After all, he spent twelve years around dementors. She never considered Lupin to have a few loose screws, though. Of course, she also never expected him to be friendly towards a mass murderer.

"But Professor Lupin..." Hermione spoke up, her voice shaking even though she was obviously trying to sound calm, "Scabbers can't be Pettigrew...It just can't be true, you know it can't..."

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin asked in the same classroom-clam voice. With Lupin talking like that, Bryt was beginning to believe that Lupin really was insane after all.

"Because..." Hermione started, straightening herself slightly, "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 up Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have only been seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list—"

'You go way too overboard with homework, Hermione,' Bryt thought, staring at her friend as Lupin gave a laugh.

"Right again, Hermione!" Lupin said, "But the Ministry never knew that there used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."

"If you're gong to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," Black said, staring at Scabbers. Bryt glared at him, gripping the legs of her pants tightly in her hands, "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"All right...but you'll need to help me, Sirius. I only know how it began..."

The door suddenly opened with a loud creak that made Bryt jump. Bryt's heart started pounding as she stared at the door, gripping her hands tighter, and thinking about all the stories on how the Shrieking Shack was the most haunted building around.

"No one there..." Lupin said after looking out into the hall before closing the door.

"This place is haunted!" Ron voiced what was going through Bryt's mind.

"It's not," Lupin replied, "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted...The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."

Bryt blinked, staring at their teacher. She was just about to ask what he was talking about when he continued.

"That's where all this starts," he said, "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..."

Ron opened his mouth, but Bryt elbowed him in the side, staring at Lupin. Despite losing her trust in him, she was curious to hear what he had to say.

"I was a very small boy when I received my bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days, there was no cure. You were correct earlier, Bryt. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is indeed the Wolfsbane Potion. As long as I take it in the week preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform...I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again."

Bryt gave a small nod as she watched Lupin. She already knew what the potion did, after all. Still, she thought about how Lupin's life must have been as a child...losing control of himself every month because of something that hadn't been his fault at all. Bryt couldn't imagine what that had to be like.

"Before the potion was discovered, however," Lupin continued, "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."

Again, Bryt felt a jolt of pity for Lupin. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like if she were told, after learning she was a witch and finding out so much about the magical world, that she wouldn't be able to be a part of it.

"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 paused with a sigh, looking over 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...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 planted at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous."

'Dumbledore definitely goes through a lot for the students,' Bryt thought, not taking her eyes off her teacher.

"My transformations in those days were—were terrible," Lupin went on, "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 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..."

'Of course not,' Bryt thought, 'No sane person would want to go into a house that's supposed to be full of violent ghosts.'

"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 two—" Lupin looked from Hermione to Bryt at this, "—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."

Bryt glanced at Black nearby at that. She was finding it hard to believe that he had once cared about someone enough to go through so much trouble to help them. Still, Black was an Animagus, so there had to be some truth to the story.

"My dad too?" Harry asked.

"Yes, indeed," Lupin answered, "It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong—one reason the Ministry keeps close watch on those attempting to do it. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"But how did that help you?" Hermione asked, and Bryt was wondering the same thing. How could being able to turn into animal make Lupin's time as a werewolf bearable?

"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals," Lupin said, "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," Black cut in. Bryt glared at the man, gripping her hands tighter again.

"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there..." Lupin said, "Well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon, we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the village at night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were table 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."

Bryt's eyes widened as she started at Lupin.

"You went out?" she asked, wondering how anyone could think letting a transformed werewolf wander the streets could be safe, no matter how many precautions they took.

"What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?" Hermione asked, obviously thinking on the same lines as Bryt.

"A thought that still haunts me," Lupin said quietly, "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..."

"You knew Black was...was an Animagus," Bryt said slowly, watching Lupin, "And never...told anyone."

'And you claim you believed he was guilty before now,' Bryt thought, but didn't say it out loud. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to. There was something about the distraught look on Lupin's face that made her hold back.

Lupin nodded, looking at Bryt as his expression hardened slightly.

"All this year, I've been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius is 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."

Bryt swallowed, watching Lupin. She could tell by the look on his face that he was regretting his choices. She couldn't imagine how he had been dealing with himself all year, trying to convince himself that ignoring something so vital for catching Black was acceptable...

"Snape?" Black asked so harshly that Bryt jumped, "What's Snape got to do with it?"

Bryt blinked at him, confused. After all, Lupin had brought up Snape earlier. Why was he just now asking about him, as if this was the first time Snape's name had been mentioned?

"He's here, Sirius," Lupin said, "He's teaching here as well."

Lupin paused, looking around between Bryt and Ron on the bed, to Harry and Hermione nearby.

"Professor Snape was at school with us," Lupin said, "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—"

"It served him right," Black cut in, "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 said, looking between Bryt, Ron, Harry, and Hermione, "We were in the same year, you know, and we—er—didn't like each other very much."

'Who does like Snape?' Bryt thought sourly.

"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 the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was..."

Bryt glared at Black as Lupin trailed off. Of course, she hated Snape as much as any other student at school, but even she didn't think he deserved having to face a transformed werewolf, especially not as a schoolboy prank.

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Harry said and Bryt looked over at him, "Because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"That's right," came a cold, familiar voice that made Bryt jump again as she looked up to the door just in time to see none other than Snape standing there, Harry's Invisibility Cloak gripped in one hand and his wand in the other, aimed at Lupin.

-----

A/N: After today, I'm changing updates to Fridays only. I tend to get too distracted over the weekends to get chapters ready to go up on Mondays. Still, there might be times where I get several chapters ahead and I'll post an extra chapter randomly on some weeks, but I should always have at least one update a week on Fridays.