I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT. I ONLY OWN DEVYN AND HER PARENTS.
Chapter 29
Devyn could hardly believe what was going on here. If she hadn't been seeing it with her own two eyes, she wouldn't have believed it. She was standing in the Shrieking Shack, with her friends, boyfriend, godfather, after practically crawling through a secret passageway underneath a murderous tree while in her Animagus form, and now they were all standing there watching Snape glare at the Azkaban fugitive Sirius Black.
My life is so weird, Devyn thought dryly. She glanced at Neville, who was still crouching next to Ron, although he moved away from his side when he caught Devyn's eye. He crept quietly towards Devyn, never taking his eyes off Snape, and took Devyn's hand in his, interlocking their fingers.
She squeezed his hand slightly and he did the same in return. It was one of their many ways of silent communication. In her free hand, Devyn had her wand. She would be ready to curse Snape if she had to; she was not about to let him take Black away, not when they were getting so close to the truth.
"Oh, vengeance is sweet," Snape snarled. "How I hoped I'd be the one to catch you."
Black rolled his eyes and starting walking towards Snape very slowly, as the Potions Master still had his wand pointed at Black's face.
"Severus," Moony said, warningly. He, too, moved towards Snape, but he found himself on the end of Snape's wand and he put his hands up in surrender. Moony moved to stand next to Black as Snape said, "I told Dumbledore you were helping an old friend into the castle, and now look, here's the proof!"
Black rolled his eyes again and said, in the most sarcastic tone he could muster, "Brilliant, Snape. Once again you put your keen and penetrating mind to task, and as usual, come to the wrong conclusion. Now if you'll excuse us, Remus and I have some unfinished business to attend to."
Devyn tried very hard not to laugh, but it was a difficult task; one that she only barely succeeded at.
Snape moved quickly and, in an instant, had his wand tip pressing into Black's throat, right at his jugular artery. Devyn gripped her wand tighter and prepared to throw whatever jinx or curse that happened to pop into her mind if Snape even started the first syllable of a curse.
"Give me a reason, I beg you," Snape said quietly.
"Severus, don't be a fool," Moony said, sounding desperate. He, of course, had known Snape much longer than anyone else here, so perhaps he had a better measure of his character, but he seemed genuinely worried that Snape might actually kill Black.
He'd better not if he wants to avoid having a concussion, Devyn thought.
"He can't help it, its habit by now," Black commented idly. It was like he wasn't even concerned with the fact that he was at Snape's mercy.
"Sirius, be quiet!" Moony snapped.
"Be quiet yourself, Remus!" Black barked at him. Moony waved his hand towards Sirius and moved away, looking like he was giving up. The annoyed look on her godfather's face told her that this had been a very common occurrence between Sirius and Snape, so he wasn't too concerned about it.
"Listen to you two, quarreling like an old married couple," Snape sneered. Black's attention was back on Snape and he growled, "Why don't you run along and play with your chemistry set?"
Snape's face went void of any emotion and he said, very quietly, but loud enough that everyone could still hear him, "I could do it, you know. But why deny the Dementors? They're so longing to see you."
Devyn's heart dropped. She hadn't thought of that. Snape didn't need to kill Sirius – when had he become 'Sirius' to her, and not 'Black', she wondered – in fact, there was a fate much worse than death that Snape could subject Sirius to.
For the first time, an expression of real terror manifested on Sirius' face and Snape smirked triumphantly. "Do I detect a flicker of fear? Oh yes…a Dementor's kiss…one can only imagine what that must be like to endure…it's said to be almost unbearable to witness, but I'll do my best."
"Severus, please -" Moony began, but Snape interrupted him.
"After you!" Snape snarled. He looked at Devyn, Harry, and others and jerked his head toward the door. Harry raised Hermione's wand – he must have taken it from her pocket when she was distracted – and pointed it at Black, who cowered in fearful anticipation.
Would Harry honestly curse Sirius? Devyn wasn't sure, but she could be wrong…Devyn had only one instinct in that moment; protect Sirius. And the only way she could do that was to attack a teacher, then so be it.
But before she could even raise her wand, Harry switched targets and pointed Hermione's wand at Snape and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Snape was blasted back, into the dusty, rickety old bed, which collapsed under the sudden additional weight.
"Harry, what did you just do?" Ron said, trying to sound shocked, but failing rather spectacularly. He had known exactly what Harry was going to do.
"You attacked a teacher!" Hermione said. She actually did sound shocked, which she probably was. Neville looked both surprised and very impressed, and Devyn was just flat out ecstatic. She didn't necessarily hate Snape, but she didn't like him either, and he had been acting like a total prat right then. There was no other way they were going to get to the bottom of this mess, if Snape was involved.
"Tell me about Peter Pettigrew!" Harry said, pointing the wand at Sirius again.
"He was at school with us, we thought he was our friend!" Moony replied, his voice fraught with desperation. Harry pointed the wand at Moony and then back at Sirius.
"No, Pettigrew's dead! He killed him!"
"No, he didn't!" Moony shouted, moving in front of Harry, attempting to protect Sirius from any damage Harry might do with Hermione's wand. "I thought so, too, until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the Map!" The wand in Harry's hand kept going back and forth between Sirius and Moony, but Devyn thought it was quite unnecessary. Neither Sirius nor Moony would ever attack any of them.
"The Map was lying then," Harry said, sounding unconcerned and unconvinced. However, Sirius had an answer for that.
"The Map never lies!" Sirius snapped, sounding extremely impatient. "Pettigrew's alive." He raised a bony finger and pointed at Ron. "And he's right there!"
Ron's face went from gray to ghostly white in a matter of seconds. "Me! He's mental!"
Sirius made a frustrated face and said, "Not you! Your rat!"
Ron's hands shifted around Scabbers' body and he said, sounding nervous and confused, "Scabbers? But he's been in my family for -"
"Twelve years!" Sirius exclaimed. "Curiously long life for a common garden rat. He's missing a toe, isn't he?"
"So what?" Ron asked, looking more confused than ever. Devyn would have been befuddled as well, if she hadn't already known about Pettigrew's 'remains'.
Harry and Devyn both said in unison, "All they could find of Pettigrew was -"
"His finger!" Sirius cried out, looking exasperated at their lack of knowledge and relieved that at least someone could follow his thinking. He allowed his eyes to linger on Devyn for only a second, and then he went back to hovering over Ron and Scabbers.
"The dirty coward cut it off so everyone'd think he was dead! And then he transformed," Sirius said. "Into a rat."
"Show me," Harry commanded. Sirius hesitated for only a second before he bent down and wrested Scabbers from Ron's hands. "Give it to him, Ron!" Harry shouted.
Sirius finally pried the screeching rat away from Ron's hands and held him by the scruff of his neck. With Ron protesting miserably the entire way, Sirius put him down on the ancient piano and the rat started scampering away. Both Moony and Sirius moved quickly, frantically trying to cast a spell on the rat.
Sirius finally managed to hit him with the invisible spell just as the rat reached a small hole in the wall. Instead of a rat disappearing through the hole, a short, chubby man went crashing through the wall instead. Moony and Sirius went over and hauled him up off the ground and in front their pointed wands by the waistband of his pants.
His hair was grey and he was bald in places, just like Scabbers' fur had been grey and patching in places. His watery eyes and pointed nose were reminiscent of the rat he had been disguising himself as for twelve years and he looked about ready to soil himself when he realized where he was and who he was surrounded by.
His hands were in front of his face but he eventually stopped snuffling like a rat would have done and started acting more like a human. As he lowered his hands, Devyn noticed that the forefinger of one of his hands was missing.
It was without a doubt Peter Pettigrew.
"R-Remus? S-Sirius?" Pettigrew said. "My old friends!" He held out his arms like he was going to embrace them and then tried making a break for the door. It was a stupid idea because both Sirius and Moony were taller and stronger than Pettigrew and between the two of them, they easily held him back. They threw him off and back in front of their wands, where Pettigrew stood, looking around for another escape route.
That was when he spotted Harry.
"Harry!" Pettigrew exclaimed, moving towards her friend. Devyn growled but it made no difference; Pettigrew kept creeping towards Harry. "Look at you! You look so much like your father! Like James…we were the best of friends!"
Sirius charged towards Pettigrew just as he was about to touch Harry and growled, sounding very much like the bear-sized dog he could become, "How dare you speak to Harry?! How dare you talk about James in front of him?!"
Pettigrew snarled in frustration and then spotted Devyn.
"Devyn! My god, look at you! You've grown so much!"
He made to move towards her but Devyn – her voice deadly low and very dangerous – said, "If you come within two feet of me, I will knock your teeth down your throat, are we clear?"
Pettigrew stopped in his tracks and Sirius, letting out a harsh bark of laughter, chased him back towards the piano, where he and Moony cornered the shorter man. Her godfather and Sirius, who had picked up Harry's wand and given Moony back his own, had their wands pointed, unwaveringly, at Pettigrew.
"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort, didn't you?!" Moony accused him. Pettigrew whimpered and cried, "I didn't mean to!"
"That's a load of shite if I ever heard it!" Devyn shouted. Sirius snorted harshly and Moony shot her a disapproving look but she shrugged and he turned back to Pettigrew, who had ignored her and said, shaking like a leaf, "The Dark Lord! You have no idea the weapons he possesses! Ask yourself, Sirius! What would you have done? What would you have done?"
"I WOULD HAVE DIED!" Sirius roared. "I WOULD HAVE DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY MY FRIENDS!"
Pettigrew tried to escape again, this time going under the piano and running for the door, which Harry quickly stepped in front of. Pettigrew latched onto Harry's shoulders and whispered, "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed. Your dad…your dad would have spared me…he would have shown me mercy!"
Pettigrew shrieked as Devyn stomped over to him, grabbed him by his collar and practically threw him across the room, her eyes glowing like a beacon in the night. She was furious and Pettigrew should have counted himself lucky that he still had his throat intact.
"You stay the hell away from Harry!" she snarled as he got shakily to his feet, once again the target of both Sirius' and Moony's wands. Sirius glanced at her, clearly impressed with her strength, but quickly turned his attention back to Pettigrew.
"You should've realized, Peter," Sirius shouted. "That if Voldemort didn't kill you, then we would, together!"
"NO!"
Silence fell upon the room as everyone realized what Harry had just said. Moony sighed, looked at Harry, and said, his wand continuing to point at Pettigrew, "Harry…this man is -"
"I know what he is!" Harry snapped, walking towards Sirius, Moony, and Pettigrew. "But we'll take him to the castle."
Pettigrew fell to his knees, saying, "Bless you, boy, bless you!"
"Get off!" Harry said, acid coating his words. "I said we'd take you to the castle. After that, the Dementors can have you."
Absolute terror and fear warped Pettigrew's features and he almost started crying at the prospect of being handed over to the Dementors.
Surprisingly, Devyn found herself pitying Pettigrew. He was pathetic. He had done one of the most horrendous things he could have done, and when he was faced with the people that his actions directly affected, he couldn't do anything but whimper and cry.
He was a waste of a human being. And he wasn't much of a rat either. If anyone deserved the Dementors, it was Pettigrew. Moony muttered a spell and ropes burst out of his wand and wrapped themselves around Pettigrew's wrists, binding them together.
Devyn slowly made her way over to Moony, who wrapped her in a tight hug when she within arm's length. She grinned up at him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"So…" Sirius said, a small smile lighting up his features. "You seriously didn't know that she was an Animagus?"
"Nope," Moony replied. "How did you know, exactly?"
"Oh, we met one night on the grounds. She was just sitting there, staring up at the moon and the stars and I was intrigued. It's not every day that you see a white wolf roaming around, you know. So I went over to her and we started talking."
"No, Sirius, you started talking, I was trying to tell you to shove off," Devyn interjected.
"That's beside the point," Sirius commented, smirking at her. "Anyway, I asked her what her name was, and she said she'd tell me if I told her mine. So I said she could call me Padfoot – I was in my Animagus form at the time – and somehow she recognized me. How did you know who I was?" he added, looking at her.
"Oh, well…McGonagall told me what your nicknames were. She was telling me about my parents, and Moony, here, and she mentioned you and James in passing and told me that you all had nicknames for each other."
"Oh," Sirius said. "Didn't know Minnie paid so much attention to us."
"Minnie?" Devyn asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Oh, that was my and James' nickname for McGonagall. She hated it when we called her that," Sirius explained. He looked confused as to why anyone would hate being called a nickname by him and James.
"I can't imagine why," Devyn said dryly. Moony chuckled and Sirius grinned at her.
"Merlin, you look like Victoria. You've got your dad's eyes though," Sirius said. "How is it that you're alive, though? Don't get me wrong; I'm thrilled you're not dead…I was devastated when I thought you'd been killed…but how are you alive?"
Devyn bit her lip and said, "You sure you want to know?"
Sirius nodded and she said, "I was with James, Lily, and Harry that night."
"What?" Sirius gaped. Moony nodded and said, "That was my reaction too."
"Yeah…see when Dumbledore found out what happened to my parents, he and McGonagall came to James and Lily's house and took me into the Muggle world – a Muggle orphanage – to protect me. They swore James and Lily to secrecy, but that was absolutely pointless because five months later…"
"They were gone," Sirius finished. "But that's rubbish! Remus was named your godfather! Michael and Victoria wanted him to take care of you if anything ever happened to them!"
Moony nodded and said, "Yeah, but that doesn't matter now."
"What?!" Sirius yelped. "How can that not matter to you?!"
Moony held up a hand to silence Sirius and he said, "Because, I've adopted Devyn. Legally, she's mine, and no one is going to take her away from me."
Just then, Neville cleared his throat and said nervously, "D-Devyn? Umm…I…"
Devyn smiled brightly at Neville and left her godfather's embrace to pull Neville over into their little group. She took his hand in hers and held it tightly as she introduced him.
"Sirius, I'd like you to meet Neville Longbottom –"
"Longbottom, huh?" Sirius said. Neville squared his shoulders and stood proudly as he nodded.
"My best friend and boyfriend," Devyn finished, smiling widely.
Sirius opened his mouth to say something, closed it, and then looked at Devyn very slowly. "Your boyfriend? But you're only fourteen years old! Remus, you're letting her date?!"
Remus smiled calmly and said, "I trust Neville. And besides, Devyn knows what she's doing. I trust her."
Sirius narrowed his eyes at Neville, who refused to crumble under his glare, before shaking Neville's hand and saying, "Nice to meet you, Neville. I know…I mean, I knew…your parents…before…they were really good people. Liked them a lot. Brave, honest people…"
Neville smiled wistfully and said, "I know. I'm quite proud to be their son."
"As well you should be," Sirius said, nodding his head. "Well, anyway…we should probably get out of here. We need to hand this useless cretin over to the Dementors."
Moony nodded and said, "Yes…let's go. I always hated this place. It's where I would come for my transformations…"
"So…you really are a werewolf, Professor Lupin?" Neville asked quietly. Moony looked at him and nodded slowly.
"Yes, Neville, I'm afraid I am."
Neville nodded and was silent for a moment before suddenly saying, "Well, that certainly explains the 'business trips' you go on every month in the summer."
Sirius turned his head and stared at Moony. "Really, Remus? Business trips? That's the best excuse you could come up with?"
Moony only shrugged and looked back at Neville. "So…you're not…afraid of me?"
"No, why would I be? You're still you. You're still the best teacher I've ever had. This doesn't change my view of you, if that's what you were wondering. I don't care what you are. You're still Professor Lupin – except now, I know something about you I didn't know before. Something that, quite frankly, clears up a few things."
Moony looked stumped but Devyn patted him on the shoulder before saying, "You see, Moony? Not everyone cares about your condition. We all love you, regardless. We don't care."
Moony smiled and then Harry stuck his head into the room. They hadn't even noticed that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had left the room.
"Are we going, or not?" he asked.
Moony nodded and said, "Quite right. Let's go." Moony hauled Pettigrew to his feet and shoved him towards the door.
"You try anything, Peter, and I will kill you."
Pettigrew nodded and started walking. Sirius, Moony, Devyn, and Neville followed them out into the hallway and down the stairs.
It had been a very strange night, Devyn mused. And something told her it wasn't over yet.
