Harry Potter is not mine, the original story is from Maritza chan and I have help editing it from ArwenFairTinuviel. I'm just making this for fun.


It was the end of the year and exam time again. In Gryffindor Tower Percy was at his limit with the NEWTs and even more over the edge than Hermione with the large number of subjects that she was taking. Both were irritable as they tried to find a quiet time for studying.

In the Potions exam Neville made a mess, while Harry was convinced that Professor Snape had given him a zero – his potion was not going at all well and the teacher still resented him after failing to expel him when he caught him with the map.

Their penultimate exam was Defense Against The Dark Arts, which consisted of an obstacle course. Harry, Charles and Richard made good performances, as did Neville who incredibly managed to overcome all of the obstacles, including the boggart Snape. Meanwhile Ron was tricked by a hinkypunk, and Hermione failed her encounter with a boggart McGonagall telling her that she had failed everything. Charles and Harry laughed over Hermione's failure all through lunch, but she, Ron and Neville were too worried about Hagrid and Buckbeak, as the appeal and execution were set for later that day, than to pay attention to the boys' teasing. Neville and Ron left her to take their Divination exam while she took her Muggle studies paper. When the boys reached the tower, Harry was already there and informed them that Professor Trelawney would see them one by one.

Charles was before Harry, and like the others he also declined to say what he had seen during the exam. "The Crystal Ball said I would have an accident if I told you," he said, "I just want to be careful."

Harry was next and soon came out with a worried face. "I think I saw something, but to be honest I do not know why I took this class," he said to Charles, who was still waiting there for him.

Lavender was next and left the tower later quite happy, and then it was Ron's turn. He saw nothing at all in the ball, and so he made something up.

Then the only one left was Neville. He did not see a thing when it was his turn so he improvised, claiming he saw a hippogriff that still had its head, was not covered in blood, and flew freely through the darkening sky. Professor Trelawney sent him away a little disappointed, but when Neville turned to go through the trap door he heard a loud voice that was not his teacher's usual voice, saying: "It will be tonight."

Neville turned and saw with fear that Trelawney seemed to be in a trance or having a seizure. Thus he heard the prophecy that spoke of Voldemort's return. Tonight was the night when his servant would be freed. After she had recovered from the trance, though, Trelawney denied prophesying such a thing, and Neville wondered if perhaps she had just made a true prophecy for once.

When he reached the Common Room, he could not enter as Harry, Charles and Richard were on their way out, heading for a celebration down in the kitchens, and Ron and Hermione were waiting for him outside the Portrait Hole with a note from Hagrid, saying that the appeal had been lost and Buckbeak's execution would be at sunset. Neville insisted that they went to see Hagrid but he did not dare use the invisibility spell following his mishap in Hogsmeade. Hermione suddenly brightened, asked Neville to tell her where the entrance to the tunnel to Hogsmeade was, and when he had answered she rushed out of the Common Room without a word of explanation.

Fifteen minutes later she returned to the Common Room, where Neville and Ron were still baffled by her behaviour. Then they saw that she had something under her cloak.

"It's Potter's Invisibility Cloak! I heard him say that he'd left it by mistake in the secret passageway and couldn't go back to fetch it because Snape was keeping an eye on him constantly!"

"I don't know what's gotten into you Hermione," Ron said, astonished. "First you hit Malfoy, then you left Divination, and now you're stealing from Potter!"

"I didn't steal it, I borrowed it," she said, somewhat flattered all the same.

They went to dinner with the rest of the students and Neville concealed the Invisibility Cloak beneath his robes. He was very nervous because Harry himself was sitting beside him, chatting animatedly with his friends. After they had eaten they did not return to the Common Room, but went to the Entrance Hall and waited until the last two sets of footsteps receded into the distance and ended behind the slamming of a door. Then they put the Cloak over themselves and went down to Hagrid's hut.

xXxXx

Charles, Harry and Richard were so full that they could have rolled their way to the Common Room. They had crammed their mouths with cakes in the kitchen and then eaten even more at dinner. They were so bloated that they decided not to go all the way up to the Common Room in one go, but to make a stop in an empty classroom that happened to overlook the courtyard. The sunset was beautiful and the night quickly began to cover the lawn with its grey mantle.

Each was lost in his own thoughts when Harry, in a state of intoxication induced by too much sugar in his blood, said aloud,

"Richard, I know the reason why you didn't want us to cause trouble and make life difficult for your dad." Richard looked at him blankly.

Harry continued courageously, hoping he was doing the right thing. "I've known it since earlier this year."

xXxXx

Hagrid let Neville, Ron and Hermione into his cabin after they had explained to him that they were hidden under an Invisibility Cloak. Hermione helped him serve the tea because he was shaking too much and spilling the pot. In doing so she found Scabbers in the milk jug. During the commotion Hagrid spotted Fudge and Dumbledore approaching through the window and ushered the three of them out of his back door, urging them to return to the castle when the coast was clear.

They were despondently walking back up the lawns when Ron had some trouble with his rat, which was squealing madly but not enough to drown out the sounds from Hagrid's hut. So it was that, halfway across the grounds, they heard the distinctive sound of an axe falling on something. They were totally horrified. Once Ron and Hermione had prevented Neville from throwing up after hearing Hagrid's howls of grief, they continued on their way back to the castle. But the rat was still giving causing problems and Neville could soon see why – Hermione's cat was stalking them.

Then several things happened very quickly. Scabbers escaped from Ron's bitten hands, Crookshanks pursued him, and Ron darted out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak. When Ron finally caught his rat, Neville and Hermione nearly crashed into him while running to catch up, the Cloak fluttering behind them like a banner.

Before they could do anything, not even breathe, a badger of enormous size appeared out of the gloom, charging towards them. The badger knocked Neville over, growling with his hair standing on end. Neville was terrified but tried to stand up. The badger knocked him down again and this time turned to Ron, biting his arm. Neville tried to stop the animal, but the badger was dragging Ron away like a rag doll. Before Neville could make a movement something hit him hard and he could hear that Hermione had suffered a similar blow. He lit his wand only to find that they were being attacked by the vicious Whomping Willow.

Beyond, Ron struggled with the badger that still was holding him by the arm and was dragging him into a hole between the roots of the willow tree. He was tiring and losing the battle, and his friend heard the horrible sound of his leg breaking as the badger succeeded in pulling him inside the hole, out of sight.

xXxXx

"What are you talking about, Harry?" asked Charles, suddenly alert. Richard seemed petrified.

Harry looked at him unsurely. "Well, Remus is – "

"Don't you dare!" Richard cut in furiously.

"Don't you trust me?" Charles said, offended.

"This is what resulted in us fighting all year long. Charles is our friend, he has a right to know," Harry said fairly to Richard.

"No!" Richard was adamant.

"You shouldn't be ashamed of it," Harry said softly.

"I'm not ashamed!"

"So why didn't you tell us before, then?"

Richard did not reply. They had been shouting and Charles was between Harry and Richard, trying to separate them.

"Either you tell him, or I will," Harry said stubbornly. It was time to stop hiding secrets from each other.

The boys were so focused on their argument that they did not hear the frantic cries of Hermione outside the castle.

xXxXx

They had to go help Ron. Hermione shouted desperately for help and as if in response, Crookshanks went to the base of the Whomping Willow and made it stop thrashing around.

"How did he do that?" she wondered, amazed.

"He friends with the badger," said Neville, going to the hole at the base of the tree with his wand in hand. "I've seen them together."

They followed Hermione's cat into the hole and through a tunnel under that seemed as long as the tunnel that led to Honeydukes. After what seemed to them like an eternity, they found themselves in a large space. They lit their wands and tried to see where they were. It was a dilapidated, dusty room, and they heard some creaking and footsteps on the floor above them. Then they realized.

They were in the Shrieking Shack.

xXxXx

"Okay…" Richard gave way, but no more words came out of his mouth.

"Remus is a werewolf," Harry said quickly, avoiding Richard's murderous look.

"What? But – how? Since when?" Charles asked incredulously.

"Since he was a child," Richard replied quietly.

"Why didn't someone tell us? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Harry doesn't talk about his parents while we're at school, and you don't reproach him," Richard complained. Harry blushed.

"But we know about his parents!" Charles carried on regardless.

"He did not want anyone else to know," Richard explained.

"Does my dad – "

"Of course he knows," said Richard dismissively.

"What other things is he hiding from us?" Charles speculated, disenchanted.

"It's not your fault. My dad doesn't want anyone at school to think he is sick or a freak. His condition is the reason why he has never had a job, and I think it's also partly why my mother divorced him."

"Do you think Snape knows?" Charles asked suddenly.

"I'm sure he knows," said Richard bitterly. "Remember that essay he set the day he took our class."

"Are you a werewolf too?" Harry asked interestedly.

"No. I'm not."

"So that's why your dad is absent so often… whenever the moon is full…" Charles said.

"Damn!" Richard cried out suddenly.

"What is it?"

"Tonight is a full moon!" he moaned and ran off with his friends at his heels.

xXxXx

Neville and Hermione found Ron lying on the floor in the room upstairs with Hermione's cat purring beside him. They asked him urgently where the badger was, but Ron only had time to blurt out that it was a trap before Arneb White took away their wands with an Expelliarmus. He looked like a corpse and was thoroughly haggard. He stared at Neville.

"I knew you would come for your friend. Frank would have done the same for me," he said, his voice hoarse from lack of use.

Neville was incensed. He wanted his wand back; he wanted to seek revenge on the man who was the reason his parents were dead. Hermione and Ron latched onto him, preventing him from doing something stupid, but Ron was pale and his leg was badly injured while his arm was bloody where the badger's teeth had penetrated it. White commanded Ron to lie down to prevent further damage to his leg, but Ron just told him that he would have to kill all three if he wanted to kill his friend.

When White said there would only be one death that night, Neville interrupted him – after all, he had killed all those innocent people years ago, why hold back now? He had even killed his parents. Suddenly filled with a great, unknown force, Neville broke free from the grasp of his friends and launched himself on White, pushing him to the floor. Hermione and Ron joined the scuffle, ending with White backed into a corner while all sported visible bruises.

Now Neville had his wand back. Since he had grown up among wizards, he was fully aware of how to cast the Killing Curse. And there he was, pointing his wand directly at White's chest, at the man who was now admitting that he had killed his parents but wanted to explain himself.

Neville did not want explanations.

Yet several minutes later he still could not cast the curse and there was the sound of someone else approaching them. Hermione began to yell that White was with them and Remus Lupin burst through the door, throwing Expelliarmus at the teenagers, accompanied by another handsome man with black hair and gray eyes.

xXxXx

Richard, followed by Harry and Charles, had run to Remus Lupin's office, but were delayed by Peeves and before turning the corner Richard stopped suddenly, causing the other two to collide with him.

"What the – ?" Harry began, rubbing his head where he had hit Richard's shoulder, when his friend turned and glared at him.

"Snape!" his hissed urgently.

The three boys watched as Snape left Lupin's office briskly, wearing a triumphant face. Then they knew that something bad was about to happen, and judging by the unusually great happiness on Snape's face, it was to be very bad.

xXxXx

"Where is he?" Lupin asked in a strained voice.

White's face bore no expression, but the man pointed at Ron.

"But then – ?" whispered Remus' companion. "Why hasn't he shown himself already? Unless..." Both men seemed to have had an epiphany at the same time, "Unless he was... Unless you'd changed without telling anyone else."

Lupin and the other had lowered their wands and Lupin was reaching out his hand to White. Neville could not believe what was happening. But it was Hermione who spoke first, revealing Lupin's secret – that he was a werewolf. When Ron tried to get away contemptuously, the other dark-haired man raised his wand at Ron.

"Apologize!"

"Do not get mad, Sirius. How long have you know?" Lupin asked Hermione.

"For a long time, since Professor Snape set us the essay."

"I've been telling you since the boys' first year that we should have got that slimeball sacked!" Sirius erupted, still looking at Ron.

Neville accused them both of helping White and Lupin tried to explain that was not the case. As an act of good faith he gave them their wands and both put their wands away, although Sirius showed much reticence and continued to stare at Ron. Lupin told them he had been looking at a map, surely the one Harry had used sneak into Hogsmeade, and he had seen them go to Hagrid's hut, no doubt using Harry's Invisibility Cloak – yes, he knew about the Cloak – and then four people had come out instead of three. Then he had seen Arneb White join the four of them by the Whomping Willow. Sirius Black had been visiting him in his office, and he had also witnessed the same. It could not have been a mistake.

Neville was denying that there was another person with them when Lupin asked where Ron's rat was.

"What? What has Scabbers to do with this?"

"Everything," Remus said. "Please, let me see him."

Ron had to make an effort to stop the terrified rat from escaping as it twisted this way and that in his hands. Remus Lupin stared down at the rat.

"What?" Ron said defensively, holding Scabbers close to him. "What does my rat have to do with anything?"

"That is not a rat," said Sirius slowly.

"What do you mean? He is clearly a rat!" Ron said indignantly.

"No, he is not. He is a wizard."

"An Animagus," White said from the side of the bed where he had collapsed, "called Peter Pettigrew."

xXxXx

The three boys remained in the shadows while making sure that Snape did not return. Richard was the first to run into his father's office, calling his name, but Remus Lupin was not there. Richard was concerned, and at the sight of the cup on his father's desk, filled with potion, he paled to the point where all his veins were visible.

Then Charles found the map on the desktop, still showing its contents. Snape was outside the castle near the Whomping Willow. The others gathered around and watched as he disappeared into a passageway under the tree.

"I'll get my Cloak," said Harry, darting off. But he returned empty-handed after several minutes. "I can't find it, someone has taken it!" he said desperately.

Richard could not wait any longer. Again Charles and Harry were forced to run to catch up with his pace as he ran down through the castle. It had been a long time now since Snape had left the castle.


Thanks for reading!