Holaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My my, it has been a long time Gail! In. Fucking. Deed. IM SORRY OK I HAVE POOR TIME MANAGEMENT DONT HATE MEEEEEE. OK so before I forget, THIS CHAPTER HAS NOT BEEN EDITED! Yall remember Shadowkat678, my lovely editor right? Well she's going through her senior year of HS rn (#TB4ME) and so she doesn't think she can help me anymore, she has many other things to attend to, has her own stories (WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL CHECK OUT) and basically her own life lol. Of course I was sad to part with her, you all saw/read how talented she is but I can't like force her to not stop helping me ya know? Which leads me to this: I AM SEARCHING FOR A NEW EDITOR BAE! Because I can't actually write decently. SO IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED, PM ME ASAP! It would be best if you guys have experience and actual work I could go check out (why does this feel like a job interview) but if not, all you guys would have to do is edit the following chapter and I'll get back to you! Thanks a lot in advance, I really mean it :)
Ok also, I want to thank all my reviewers and readers and PMers because even though I am a horrible writer, you guys still take the time to leave reviews and to send me nice encouraging messages, I love you all! So my remembrall is showing me I am forgetting something but like poor old Neville, I can't remember what I've forgotten. Oh well. On with that chaptahhhhhhh
-I CAN'T FIND THE BAR/LINE THINGY HOW ANNOYING-
There was a long pause before Ron spoke up.
"You're both mental."
"That's ridiculous!" Hermione whispered.
"Pettigrew's dead!" Harry said. "He," he pointed at Black. " He killed him twelve years ago, everyone saw him!"
"I certainly meant to," Black growled, "But that little git managed to wriggle out of my grip… to get the best of me… BUT NOT THIS TIME!"
Black suddenly threw himself on Ron, aiming for Scabbers.
"Sirius! NO!" Lupin cried as her tried to pull Black off Ron, "Wait, we've got to explain to them… They need to understand!"
"We can do that later!" Black snapped, trying to force Lupin's grip on him away. He was trying to reach over to grab Scabbers who was squealing like a pig, trashing around in Ron's grip.
"They need–They've got the right to know!" Lupin said, still trying to pull Black off. "You owe them that! You owe Harry an explanation! You owe Alice the truth! You owe it to your daughter!"
Black instantly stopped moving. His gazed slid to his daughter, who held it back for the first time. They didn't hold the same anger or fear they did when she first saw him, but plain curiosity, wariness and even pain. He looked back at the still squeaking rat in Ron's hand. He sighed.
"Go on then… But be quick Remus," He said, "Tell them but do it fast! I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…"
"Ron, Please keep a firm hold of Peter while–"
"HE IS NOT BLOODY PETER! HE IS MY RAT, SCABBERS!" Ron yelled.
"But there were witnesses… They saw him murder Pettigrew…" Said Hermione slowly.
"But they didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black urged. "They didn't see what really happened! "
"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter…" Said Lupin, "I believed it myself… But when I saw the map… And the map never lies, I knew it was him… Scabbers is Peter Ron…"
The four students exchanged look. This story was absolute non-sense… Black had clearly lost it a long time ago in Azkaban and for a second, Harry felt bad for that man… Being in the cold and the dark, away from the warmth of the population for twelve years… He would have turned mad as well… But then again, to kill thirteen muggles, a school friend and his wife, Black must've been mad long before his stay at Azkaban. But why was Lupin playing along? Why was he protecting that criminal when he swore being on their side?
"But… But Scabbers simply cannot be Pettigrew…" Hermione began, " We've–We've had a class on Animagi and Professor McGonagall clearly said that the Ministry keeps track of every wizard and witches with that ability… And, I've looked it up and there were only 7 Animagi registered this century… And Pettigrew wasn't one of them, I know it."
"Right again Hermione but there is something you don't know, that the Ministry doesn't know… There were three Animagi student at Hogwarts during my stay there."
Black growled under his breath. "Quicker… Quicker Remus!"
"Be patient Sirius," said Lupin, "Just one more–"
"I HAVE BEEN PATIENT! I'VE DONE MY WAITING! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!" Black's voice cracked at the end. "You… You have no idea Remus, what's it like there… It almost makes you empty… They only leave you your sorrow, and they take… Everything else. You don't know what it's like… To know that you are innocent, that you don't deserve this but not being able to voice it out, not being able to do anything else but to wait for the Dementors to come and break apart your soul, slowly taking it away from you, bit by bit…Painfully slowly. You don't know Remus… What's it like to know that your daughter is out there, but not knowing if she's safe, healthy, happy… I had her for a year, only a year and they took her from me… They ripped us apart and sent me away. I have not been able to hold my daughter for twelve years…To love and cherish her… All I've had was the cold, the dark and my broken self… You don't know how it's like… So make this quick, because I am done waiting to get what is rightfully mine…"
There was a long silence; no one said a thing, letting Black's word sink in…
"Alright…" Remus sighed, "But i will need your help, because I only know the beginning
There was a loud creak and everyone turned to face the bedroom door, which had opened on it own. Lupin strode towards the landing and looked both sides of the hallway.
"No one else is here…" He said.
"Of course not! It's not people, it's ghosts! Evil ghosts!" Ron cried out.
"No there are none of those here.." Lupin trailed off still looking down the hall. "The Shrieking shack was never haunted, the screams and howl people used to hear were not made by ghosts, they were made by me."
"This is actually were it all started…" Lupin began, "Because I became a werewolf, none of this would've happened if I hadn't been there…" Black tried to retort but was silenced by a look form Lupin.
"I was very young when I was bitten… Back then, there was no cure, no potions…still my parents tried everything they could, to the point of reducing us to poverty… The potion Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery, All I need is to take it in the week preceding the full moon and while I still have to transform, I can keep my human mind and curl up in my office, as a harmless wolf waiting for the full moon to fade away… Before the potion was discovered, I became a monster, a beast each month… I had accepted that never I would be able to go to Hogwarts, that parents would oppose me going there… Fearing that the beast I was would harm their children… But one day I got a visit from Dumbledore, he had become Headmaster at that time, and he said there was no reason I shouldn't come to Hogwarts… He said that we would take the necessary precautions and that as long as I was careful, I would be welcomed to school… The Whomping Willow was not planted for aesthetic reasons; it was planted because I was coming to Hogwarts. The tree was hiding a secret passage, a tunnel specially built for me that would lead me to this house. Once a month, I would spend the full moon here where no student could come across me while I was dangerous and where no villager would dare to come during the night. My transformations were horrible, it is extremely painful to turn into a werewolf…not to mention that I had to be separated from humans at all costs, but a werewolf is a predator, it needs to hunt, to bite, to kill… So the only way I could ease my pain was by scratching and biting myself… That caused the howls the villagers heard during the night. Dumbledore himself started the rumour that evil and violent spirits had taken refuge here, to keep anyone away from this place… And even now, no one dares to come here… But something that I never had dared to imagine happened; I had friends for the first time in my life, three great friends. Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and your father Harry, James Potter. Disappearing for a night each month didn't go unnoticed now that I had people whom actually cared about me so I had to make up stories… I told them my mother was ill and that I was permitted to go see her each month. You have to understand that I was terrified they would find out my secret, that they would hate the monster I was…But they were smart and eventually worked out the truth, just like you Hermione. Thing is, they didn't desert me, they actually found out a way to make my transformations not only less painful but also the best years of my life… They became Animagi. It took them three whole years to work on it, it usually takes a whole lot more but your fathers were the cleverest students in school…And they were extremely lucky to be because Merlin knows how wrong Animagi transformations often go… That's why the Ministry keeps close tabs on who is attempting it. In our fifth year, they were all able to turn into their animal at will."
"But how did that help you? You were not just a wolf, werewolves are a lot more different than normal animals, I've read it in—" She cut off short as Lupin raised his hand.
"A werewolf is only a danger to humans, it does not care for animal flesh. We were indeed different, my instincts were originally a lot more violent but their company soothed me… Peter changed into a rat, being the smallest of us he could slip between the branches of the Whomping Willow and touch it's root to freeze it, they would pass through the tunnel and join me here. Like I said, they soothed me, my body was a werewolf's but my mind was less under their influence…"
Sirius was fidgeting more and more, anxiously looking at his daughter, then at Scabbers and then back at his daughter.
"We were reckless, like many other teenagers. Now that we could all transform, we had liberty…soon, we began to leave the shack to walk around in the woods, roam the school grounds and the village at night… Sirius would turn into the gigantic dog you all saw earlier and James into a large stag… Their sizes had been chosen specifically so they could keep me on check. That way, we came to know about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade more than any other students…and it is mostly how we cam the create the Marauder's Map. We all used our nicknames for it, Padfoot for Sirius, Wormtail for Peter, Prongs for James and Moony for me"
Hermione was not able to silent her gasp.
"But that was still very dangerous, running around with a werewolf! What if you had come across somebody and bit them?"
"That still haunts me today… They were a few close calls, which we laughed about afterwards… We were reckless and got carried away with our cleverness…I did sometimes feel guilty about it, betraying the trust Dumbledore had put in me…He had accepted me at Hogwarts despite me being a potential danger to everybody… But the fun I had on every of our little trips was enough for me to cast that guilt away…I never told Dumbledore that my friend has become Animagi but since Sirius' escape, I battled with myself long and hard to tell Dumbledore of his ability…But because I was too much of a coward, I never did… I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I had broken his trust long ago… Dumbledore's trust is something I treasured a lot, he gave me a job when I had been rejected all my life, unable to find a paid job because of my condition…"
"But my grandparents—" Alice began, suddenly seeming offended.
"Your grandparents welcomed me in their home Alice, and I am forever grateful that they did…" Said Lupin looking at her softly. "I've watched you grow, helped you grow and it was a delight, don't get me wrong… But as selfish as it sounds, I wanted to be recognized for the abilities I had, I wanted to have a job because people wanted, needed me to do it, not because people pitied me…"
"I was full of pride and never told Dumbledore…" He continued, " I convinced myself that Sirius had achieved this all with he dark magic he had learned from Voldemort, that is Animagi abilities had nothing to do with him getting into the school…Snape was right all along after all."
"Snape?" Sirius asked harshly, looking away from Alice "What's that old greasy git got anything to do with it?"
"He is here Sirius," Lupin sighed. " He is the Potion master." He looked at Alice, Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"Professor Snape went to school with us, he was in the same year as us. He was extremely against the idea of me being given the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, also very against Alice enrolling this year… Not that you have given it easy to him either…" He gave her a pointed look and Alice batted her lashes innocently. "Anyway, he had many reasons… One being that we had played a nasty trick on him… a trick that involved me and had nearly killed him."
"And he completely deserved it!" Black sneered. "He was always lurking around us, trying to find out what we were up too… Not to mention what he said to Victoria…That was the last straw… he couldn't not have known that he'd have to pay for that!"
"Severus was very curious of where I went every month." Lupin said. " We were in the same year and we… We didn't like each other that much. He especially disliked James… Jealous of his talent on the Quidditch field I think… And for— for some reason, when your mother turned up that school Alice, he developed a grudge against her… Probably for associating with James— I don't quite remember… Anyway Snape had seen me with Madam Pomfrey on the grounds one evening and Sirius… thought it would be amusing—a good payback to tell him how he could freeze the tree, to reach for the root with a large stick… Of course Snape tried it… and almost got to the Shack. Your father heard what Sirius had done and went after Snape and pulled him back… Snape had already caught a glimpse at me and was forbidden by Dumbledore to ever speak to anyone about it…but the damage was done, he knew what I was…"
"And so that's why Snape doesn't like you…" Harry said, "He thought you were in on the plan?"
"That's right." said a cold voice behind Lupin.
Severus Snape came out of the invisibility cloak. his wand pointed at Lupin. Everyone jumped, Hermione screamed.
"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow… Very useful Potter…" Snape sneered, tossing the cloak aside, his wand still pointed at Lupin.
"Crap!" Alice suddenly shouted. "My detention!"
Snape looked smug. "Exactly Miss Black, you were running late, as you always are so I went to fetch you myself…" He turned to Black. "Your mutt has the same lack of respect for any kind of rules, it's uncanny…" Black stood a little taller and a shred of pride flickered in his eyes. "I figured she would be with you Lupin, if not with Potter, as it would be stupid to assume she would be doing something productive for once. Coincidently, you forgot to take your potion tonight so I took a goblet of it with me… Lucky for me, I found a certain map, showing that Miss Black wasn't just not in the castle like it is expected of her, but here with you lot," He pointed at Harry, Ron and Hermione and then turned to Lupin. "With you running in the passage to meet them."
"Severus—" Lupin began but Snape cut him off.
"I've told Dumbledore numerous times that you would be helping your old friend Black into the castle… And now I've got the proof, you even chose your old hideout…"
"Severus, you've got it all wrong," Lupin said urgently. You need to hear the whole story… Sirius is not here to kill Harry."
Suddenly, cords flew out of Snape's wand and tied themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists and ankles. He fell to the ground and Black took a step towards him but Snape pointed his wand right between his eyes.
"Give me one reason…One or I swear I will…" Snape said slowly.
Everyone remained silent, battling themselves about if their input would have any weight.
"Oh… Vengeance is very sweet…How I hoped to be the one to catch you…Two more for Azkaban tonight… I am quite curious of what will be Dumbledore's reaction to this, he was so convinced of your innocence Lupin…" His eyes glinted fanatically glanced at Alice and then back at Black. "Might even manage to ship this one off too… Your brat's sudden appearance after you broke out of Azkaban is nothing but suspicious Black… One might even wonder if she had been in on this plan all along… I wonder if the Dementors have ever tasted such a young soul… I daresay they'll be even more pleased finish her off than they'll be kissing you Black…"
Black suddenly placed himself between Snape and Alice, his skinny arms spread out, acting out as a human shield. "How dare you speak this way about my daughter—If you even dare to touch her, I will kill you." He thundered.
"What a disappointment it must be Potter," Snape taunted. "Your special friend being out for your blood? I saw how you two were… She is just like her mother, able to get anyone to do anything she commands with a snap of her fingers. She might have a pretty face to look at but she is really just a lying, controlling, evil little bi—"
BANG! Snape flew backwards and slammed into the wall, slid down it to the wall, a trickle of blood oozing from his head. He was unconscious. Harry looked around, expecting to see everyone else's wand raised up but only his was.
"I— I didn't—I got mad— I couldn't—"He stammered.
"You shouldn't have done that…" Said Black slowly. "I could've taken him down myself…"
"You attacked a teacher Harry!" Cried out Hermione, "Oh what are we going to do? We are going to be in so much trouble!"
Harry tried to avoid everyone's gaze as Hermione paced around but Alice took his hand in hers. She looked at him warily.
"Are you okay?" She asked quietly. Harry held her stare he squeezed her hand and nodded. Black casted him a look and he suddenly felt highly uncomfortable. He bent down to Lupin and untied him.
"Thank you, Harry." He said.
"I'm still not saying I believe you." He responded.
"Then we need to give you proof," Lupin said. "Ron, give me Peter—the rat, please Ron."
"No—no I won't!" Ron protested weakly, clutching Scabbers as tightly as he could. "You're mental you know that? Believing he'd escape Azkaban just to get to Scabbers? And how can you be so sure he's Scabbers? Say—Say he's right about Pettigrew being able to change into a rat; there are still a million rats out there… How could he have known Scabbers was here?"
"That is a good point," Lupin said. He turned to face Black. "How could you know where he was?"
Black rubbed his face with his hand and fished out a crumpled paper out of his pocket. It was the photograph of the Weasleys that had appeared in the Daily Prophet, reporting of their trip in Egypt after Mr. Weasley had won the lottery. Scabbers was proudly perched on Ron's shoulder.
"I got this when Fudge visited me in Azkaban—he's supposed to see every prisoner once a year— I asked for his paper, told him I wanted to know what were the last Quidditch news and saw this. I recognized that rat at once; I had spent to many years running about with him I just knew it was him. And then I saw the caption, saying the Weasley children were headed back to Hogwarts… Back to were Harry was…" He paused and turned to Alice. "I didn't know you were there, I knew Harry would, that he'd be under Dumbledore's protection for sure, but I had no idea about where you'd be…I swear it." Alice held his stare, her eyes hiding any trace of emotion.
"Anyway, I recognized him instantly, the picture wasn't clear but there was one detail that confirmed my suspicions, no other rat could've had it the same, it would have been an impossible coincidence…one of his toes was missing."
Lupin marched down to Ron and observed Scabbers.
"Merlin…It is! One of his toe is missing!" he gasped.
"So? Rats get hurt all the time! He could have lost it in a fight with another rat! Blimey he could even have been born without it!" Ron argued back.
"But don't you remember Ron?" Lupin asked. "Didn't you ever hear that all they found left of Peter was his finger?"
"Just before he transformed, he cut it off," Interrupted Black. "I had him cornered and his only choice was to run… But the little bastard really wanted to frame me… He started screaming that I had betrayed everyone, James, Lily and Victoria… He then cut off his finger, so that everyone would think he was dead, and set a blasting spell on the whole street…Killing everyone around him…Before I could make out anything through the smoke, he had already changed into a rat and disappeared in the sewers."
"That's rubbish! It's complete rubbish I tell you!" Ron said, looking around. " Scabbers has been in our family for—
"Twelve years am I right?" cut Black. "A bit long for a common rat, don't you think? No matter how good you took care of him, rats don't usually last that long…But Scabbers has changed hasn't he? He's been looking sick for a while hasn't he?"
"It's that bloody cat! Always lurking around like a mad beast!" Ron said glancing back at Crookshanks. Harry frowned, now that he really thought about it, Scabbers had been looking sick way before Hermione adopted Crookshanks… If he remembered correctly, Scabbers had started too look worn out since Ron had come back from Egypt… Around the time Black had escaped.
"He isn't mad," Black said softly. "He's the most intelligent cat I have met so far…He knew right away that i was no ordinary dog… He didn't trust me at first but when I managed to tell him about your rat, he's been helping ever since…"
"What…What do you mean?" Hermione squeaked.
"He tried to bring Peter back to me numerous times… When it didn't work, he stole the password list… But Peter had already fled, the cat told me he had bit himself, leaving blood on the sheets…faking his death once more." Black explained.
"But why would he do it?" Harry suddenly said. "Because he knew what you'd do to him! He knew you were out for his blood just like you were for my parent's! For mine, for your wife's and for Alice's!"
Lupin, Alice and Black all shifted on their feet, their expression suddenly sour.
"Now," began Lupin. " Harry—"
"You've come to finish him off then!" Harry interrupted.
"Yes. Yes I have." Black said quietly.
"Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted.
"And let him speak that way about her?" Black's voice was weirdly humorous as he pointed at his daughter. "Let him sell her to the Dementors? If you are like your father, and just from this one encounter I can tell you are every single bit like him. you wouldn't have let him get away with it either way…"
"Harry," Lupin pleaded. " Can't you see? All this time we all thought Sirius had sold your parents to Voldemort and that Peter had tracked him down to bring him to justice— but it was the complete opposite! Peter was the traitor all along—"
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! Harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET KEEPER! HE SAID IT BEFORE, HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"
"And I as good as did Harry…" Black croaked. "I convinced them to change their secret keeper for Peter, that it'd be less obvious… I was so scared…I had a family too! A real family, my own family… I had a wife and a daughter to protect and couldn't risk them! But I should've not backed down… I could have found a solution that would ensure both of their security… I visited you on the night of their death… With Alice too… You were about to go into hiding and I wanted to bring her to see you one last time… Nobody knew how long you would have to hide… When I came back home…" Black cut off, his breaths uneven now. "When we came back, she was dead—my Victoria was dead! And I realised then what Peter had done… I had asked him to come check on her for a bit, so that she wouldn't be all alone… I realised he had killed her… And it was all my fault! My fault for going out and leaving her alone, for backing down on the secret keeper arrangement…" His voice broke.
"That's enough…" Lupin said, his voice chilly. "The only way we can really prove anything it by forcing Peter to show himself…" He looked at Ron pointedly. "We will not harm him… And if it turned out we were wrong, you will get your rat back in one piece, I swear."
Ron hesitated but then slowly held out Scabbers. Lupin took a hold of the squeaking rat and turn to Black.
"Ready?" He asked. Black took Snape's wand out of it's owner's grip and nodded, his eyes burning with apprehension.
"One the count of three." Lupin said. "ONE—TWO—THREE!
-STILL CAN'T FIND THE BAR/LINE THINGY UGGGGGHHHHH-
Ok can we all just talk about HOW CUTE SOME BITS WERE? No but seriously, I CRIED writing Sirius' lil speech about missing his daughter LITERALLY CRIED. Idk I found it cute. Also Harry is becoming so though hexing teachers like yo dont say nothing about ma gurl or I'll get ya! Ok but a big sorry to all Snape fans out there I KNOW I PORTRAYED HIM AS A BIGGER ASS THAN HE USUALLY IS but that's for the sake of the fic so no h8. All the sketchy parts where Victoria (Alice's mother) is mentioned will eventually be explained... In like two HP years, aka ten writing years for me. I'm not sure if i am kidding or not here .-. Honestly I'll feel bad/hypocritical/fake af if I, again, say that next update will come sooner... Because it probs won't. I also feel like I'm just pissing yall off with my excuses about college and everything so I think I'll just stop with those already. But, as always I shall try, school ends in like 2 months for me and then i'll have all the time in the world to write. I hope.
AGAIN, I AM LOOKING FOR A NEW BAEDITOR, HOLA AT ME IF U INTERESTED!
Please review, it's quite cocky of me to ask this but if we could reach 400 reviews I would like cry and dance and you guys wouldn't see me but I swear it would be a rad sight. ILU ALL!
Gailygail