Chapter 20
DEAD MAN TALKING
Even though Harry asked me to come to the next Patronus lesson, I decided not to. My futile attempt to cast a spell that totally disagreed with me had reminded me of my limits. Besides, even the thought of facing a Dementor again and seeing another vision of Death gave me shudders.
Instead I went to the library and began to seek obscure knowledge about beliefs and myths in various cultures of the wizarding world. Whatever knowledge remained of Atlantis, translated hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt, archives of the Chinese emperors, the rare published texts about the Veil of Death located in the Department of Mysteries… any one of them might have the key to the mystery of Voldemort's travels that might possibly have something to do with Death.
As the pile of books I had leafed through became higher and higher, I began to lose inspiration. Then I remembered one of the lessons of Salazar Slytherin. Not every mystery has a cunning plot behind it. Death as the last enemy whom Voldemort had supposedly wanted to eat and Dumbledore knowingly letting the Muggles ruin the world was a compelling explanation that made sense, but it did not prove anything. Unlike fiction, reality did not need to make sense or to be narratively satisfying. Perhaps Voldemort was, after all, just a lunatic twisted by his Horcrux rituals and Dumbledore an oblivious slob who shirked from the responsibilities the status of the most powerful wizard in the world gave him.
However, I decided to ask my old friend Theodore Nott the Elder about what he knew of Voldemort's studies with the arcane arts. As Voldemort had considered servants necessary for his quest and worthy of the title of Death Eaters, they had to have some insight to their master's grand plan. And who would Voldemort have trusted the most if not Nott, the most promising of our school time associates?
As weeks passed, Harry's practice with the Patronus bore fruit. In February he showed me the white mist he was able to conjure. It did not look very strong, but I was not in the position to scoff at his performance. Perhaps one day he would be able to produce a corporeal form, and as my right-hand man use his skill to protect me from Dementors.
Every now and then I wished I had at least some aptitude to the magical disciplines that Dark wizards did not embrace. Every time I looked out of a window to the gates, I imagined seeing a faint spectre of Death looming over where the Dementors were. When alone in my dormitory, I often fingered my diary aimlessly. It should have been my insurance against death, but ever since I had escaped from my self-imposed imprisonment I had been vulnerable. My thoughts drifted to the Horcrux Diadem waiting in Gringotts, and the urge to bind it to me itched and burned in my mind. I had also made plans of seeking out the other Horcruxes Voldemort had created and hidden, and I had decided to finally visit my ancestral lands in Yorkshire at Easter.
The fighting lessons had become much livelier after Fred and George had become frequent participants. Encouraged by me, they used their creativity and talent for trouble-making for a good purpose, and our battle simulations turned into realistically fast-paced chaos full of distractions. Even I felt that I was becoming more battle-hardened. The progress was noticeable also in my Kwikspell lessons I attended every weekend.
As March approached, Harry and the twins had to spend more and more time at Quidditch practices, but I continued with Ginny, Hermione, and Ron. When the time for the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw match came, I did not bother to waste my time watching it. When I received the news of the outcome, I was not surprised: catching the Snitch had determined the winner and everything the other players had done had been redundant. As usual.
The Gryffindors threw a victory party in their common room. I retired to my dormitory without the faintest idea of what was happening in the dark hallways of Hogwarts.
Most of my fellow Slytherins slept longer than I did, and I was among the first to arrive at the Great Hall for breakfast. To my surprise, almost every Gryffindor was present, looking very tired and whispering to one another in clear agitation. Usually Gryffindor was the last House to arrive, because they lived further away than Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, and most of them lacked the diligence that made Ravenclaws wake up early.
I had barely sat down when my name was called, and an absolutely thrilled Ron came running to me with Harry, Hermione, and Ginny on his heels.
"Haven't you heard? Sirius Black tried to kill me last night!"
"Is this just…"
"It was not a nightmare! Black slashed my curtains with a knife, there was total chaos, Harry used some of the spells you taught us, and Black retreated! He got in with the passwords that Neville had written down!"
I stared at him and then looked at Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, who were nodding in confirmation. It was ludicrous, but nothing short of mortal danger could bring the entire House of Gryffindor to breakfast so early.
"Merlin's beard," I snarled and took the Marauder's Map from my pocket. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"We already tried that," Harry said. "Unfortunately we didn't think about it before it was too late. We searched our Maps, but we couldn't find where Black had gone."
"How long did it take you?" I asked angrily, deciding to teach them strict emergency protocols on our very next meeting and keep drilling them until they followed them subconsciously.
"Almost an hour. We were quite put out."
"The Forbidden Forest, he's most likely hiding there," I mumbled to myself. "Or he could've come through one of the passageways from Hogsmeade." My eyes focused on the one that began from the middle of the grounds, the one I had not been aware of during my first time at Hogwarts. "Or then…" There was also the Room of Requirement which was not shown on the Map.
The Great Hall had begun to fill up, and soon Dumbledore announced the news to the school and assured us that the danger was over and that the castle was more secure than ever. (I snorted. He had said the same after Hallowe'en.) He looked as tired as the Gryffindors, and much grimmer than usual. Snape's frustration was visible through his emotionless mask. And Lupin… was it guilt I could see in his eyes?
Do you think it is a mere coincidence that Black managed to enter Hogwarts just two months after you appointed his good –
This called for an investigation.
The investigation had to wait. My thrice-damned prefect duties increased tenfold when Percy declared over-enthusiastically that we had to do our part for the safety of the school. (He had clearly ignored Dumbledore's reassurances, but, in all honesty, I could not blame him. He did not have a Marauder's Map which would have proven his concerns unfounded.) And so I had to spend most of Sunday escorting younger students and patrolling the hallways with another prefect. (Company meant that I could not survey the Map without taking the risk of Dumbledore learning about it, and it would have reduced my odds of finding Black to practically zero if he had still been inside the castle.) At least I could do something useful: I cast a subtle spell on the doors of every secret passage that led outside and of the Room of Requirement. That way I would at least know if they were opened.
Slytherins had suddenly become very anxious to learn combat spells, and the Slytherin Duelling Club turned into a mass lesson for over a hundred people. As the position of student leader demanded, I helped them master some generally useful curses. It was almost curfew when I decided that I had done my part, and so I asked Ethan Jugson to take leadership, and finally left to gather information.
In the library there was a section where official Hogwarts documents were archived. I took a pile of them from the seventies to my favourite table and checked the Map as I had done whenever I had had the opportunity that day.
Irma Pince was in the staff room; since the library was officially closed, she would not disturb me. Argus Filch was in a hallway on the first floor, probably studying a minor crack on a wall. Rubeus Hagrid and his dog were searching the grounds for footprints in the mud, and Severus Snape was also there doing his own investigations. Remus Lupin was in his room, not taking part in the search in any way.
Most of the students were safely in their common rooms; just a few daring ones were still out on their own. Percival Weasley had not given up for the day, and he was dragging two Gryffindor prefects along with him. Cedric Diggory had escorted a group of fearful first-years to a bathroom. Peter Pettigrew was walking alone on the fourth floor. Sirius Black was not at Hogwarts anymore, and everyone was overreacting. As if he would try another assault while everyone was vigilant.
It did not take me long to find in the documents the cause of Snape's concerns. Sirius Black had started his education at Hogwarts in 1971, the same year as Snape, and he had been Sorted to Gryffindor. Remus Lupin had been his dorm mate for seven years. Yes, that was a very good reason to be suspicious of the Defence Professor's involvement with Black's successes in entering Hogwarts.
I continued to study the documents. It turned out that Black and Lupin had taken the same elective subjects at the start of their third year, and they had chosen the same subjects for their NEWTs. That seemed like something good friends would do.
The pieces of information I gathered from the documents formed an outline of their school years. Along with Lupin, Black had formed a small gang with James Potter, whom he had later betrayed to Voldemort, and Peter Pettigrew, whom he had blasted to pieces before being incarcerated.
Peter Pettigrew? I had a strange feeling that the name was familiar to me from some other context…
I snatched the Marauder's Map with such a hurry that I almost got a paper cut in my finger. There he was: Peter Pettigrew, still wandering the hallways after curfew.
I rushed out of the library, leaving the documents on the table, and drew out my wand. Looking for directions from the Map, I quickly entered the hallway where the dead man was supposed to be, and pointed the beam of light from my wand to the far end.
There was no one there.
"Homenum Revelio," I whispered, and the spell came back positive. Pettigrew was there, but invisible. I glanced at the Map. The ink dot was standing still.
I stood for a moment, then turned around and left the hallway, pretending to have lost interest. Once out of the invisible dead man's sight, I cast the Disillusionment Charm on myself, the Silencing Charm on my shoes, and the Supersensory Charm on my senses. Armed with them, I returned to the hallway where Pettigrew was.
I heard a faint rustle. It was dark, and I could no longer illuminate the hallway, but my eyesight was much better with the Supersensory Charm on.
The rustle moved behind me. I turned as fast as I could and saw the movement of a small rodent. Realization hit me. Pettigrew is an Animagus!
Discarding all subtlety, I threw a Stunning Charm at the rodent, but it missed, and the tiny creature sprinted away, crying shrilly as it went. I raced after it, hurtling charms as fast as I could. As they all missed, I resorted to area-effect curses. Soon Pettigrew ran out of luck, and one of the blasts flung him against the wall.
"Impedimenta!"
The jinx rendered him immobile. Fearing that the noise was about to bring someone any minute, I grabbed the Animagus and ran away, heading to the Room of Requirement. After pacing in front of the wall impatiently I wrenched the door open and saw the prison I had envisioned. I locked Pettigrew in a cage and forced him to reveal his true form.
He was a filthy, puny man who appeared to have lost much weight. Even his human form had some rat-like features, reminiscent of how the Ministry witch at the Malfoy Yule Ball had looked like a toad. But what was much more interesting was the weak magical resonance I could feel around him. A diagnostic charm revealed the truth: he was surrounded by the Cat Repelling Charm of my own making, and I had only cast it once.
"Mr Scabbers, I presume?" I said. "Or is it Pettigrew now that you're back in a human form? Would you care to explain how you've managed to evade death?"
"I-I-I," Pettigrew stammered with his eyes darting back and forth. "You… I… dunno…"
I stared into his eyes, invading his mind with Legilimency. Pettigrew yelped and made an attempt to resist me. He had once been quite an accomplished Occlumens, but his protections were rusty. I could have torn them to pieces, but I decided against it. The small glimpse I had seen of his mind had revealed cracks and distortions. It was never wise to venture into a mind even slightly insane; there were stories of Legilimens who never found their way back.
"I can summon my house-elf and ask him to bring me Veritaserum," I offered with a wicked smile. "I've brewed it myself, but I've never had anyone to test if it works properly."
"No!" Pettigrew cried. "I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!"
"How are you still alive?"
"I was never dead! I survived Sirius's attempt to kill me. I just wanted to live in peace, and I realized it was far easier as a rat. Please, let me go! Have mercy on a poor man who never…"
"Stop whining! You're not going anywhere before I've got answers to all my questions." I jabbed my wand threateningly towards him.
"But… but… a-all right, ask away then…"
"Let me tell you what I do know," I said. "I know you were a school time friend of Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin. You became a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Black was the Secret Keeper of the Potters, but he betrayed them to Voldemort. He then confronted you and, as far as everyone knew, killed you. He was sent to Azkaban, but he broke free last summer. Now tell me: how are you here as a rat?"
"Well, as you know, I'm an Animagus, and I've just…"
"Start from the beginning! I want to hear this in order!"
"Yes, I was Sirius's friend. We and James too became Animagi when we were at school…"
"And Lupin?"
"Oh, he didn't. He's a werewolf, and we actually decided to become Animagi to keep him company during full moons…"
No matter how many times I had thought I had witnessed the full extent of Dumbledore's madness, even more absurd evidence popped up. A werewolf as the Defence Professor? Even though it was hard to believe even from Dumbledore, I did not question it. Suddenly Lupin's uncommonly regular sick leaves made sense.
"… as a rat Animagus I was ideal to work as a spy," Pettigrew continued his story. "I learned someone was passing on information from the Order to the Death Eaters. I suspected it was Snape. Then I heard that James and Lily had decided to hide under the Fidelius Charm, and that Sirius was their Secret Keeper. I was spying when I heard some Death Eaters speaking about You-Know-Who learning where James and Lily lived. I tried to warn them, but it was too late!"
"What do you know about Snape's allegiance?"
"Well, Dumbledore presented him to us as a double agent. Obviously he gave some information to You-Know-Who, but I don't know how much he did it without consent from Dumbledore. The man is a Dark wizard if there ever was one! All his school friends became Death Eaters."
"That's about what I thought. Continue your story."
"After Sirius had betrayed James and Lily he hunted me down!" Pettigrew squealed. "He confronted me in broad daylight in the middle of a Muggle city and threw the most powerful Blasting Curse I've ever seen. I barely managed to turn into my Animagus form and run to the relative safety of the sewers. I couldn't evade the blast entirely, and I lost one of my fingers. Luckily, the Aurors arrived in seconds and arrested Sirius."
"But why've you been hiding all these years? Why did you go on living as a rat even after the danger was over?"
"It's not over! At first I dared to hope. I spent several days in the sewers, heartbroken and distraught. Sirius was sent to Azkaban, and then I began to think the nightmare was over. I was just going to inform the Ministry that I had survived when I heard about the Death Eaters attacking the Longbottoms. That was when I realized I would never be safe. You-Know-Who was gone and most of his Death Eaters had been imprisoned, but there are still many of them on the loose. Malfoy and his goons, the Notts, Avery, Macnair, Jugson, the Carrow siblings, Snape… they know I was a spy for the Order. If they knew I'm alive, they'd try to kill me so that I could never reveal any new information about their atrocities."
"So you found your way to the Weasleys. Is there any particular reason why you chose them?"
"Well, um, how to put this? Their home is not a manor, clean and dignified, which makes it a much better place for a rat."
I snorted with laughter.
"It was easy to blend in and become a member of the family as a harmless, tame rat. Most of the time I've been here, as you know, as Bill's pet, then Percy's, and now Ron's. That way I've been able to keep an eye on Snape."
"Well, what have you learned?"
"Not much. Dumbledore appears to trust him although I can't imagine why. That's one good reason not to trust Dumbledore's judgment. He's naive, you know. His actions during the war… well, sometimes I wondered if he wanted more people to die. He didn't do much at all to end the war, even though he'd been able to defeat Grindelwald. We, members of the Order of the Phoenix, we whispered among ourselves wondering how defeating You-Know-Who could've been so much more difficult that he didn't even try it."
Pettigrew grimaced and shook his head in totally justified indignation.
"The old goat hasn't cared about the Greater Good ever since Grindelwald used the phrase to justify his conquest," I hissed. "He believes that not committing the murder of a serial killer makes him virtuous regardless of how many people die because of it."
"Yes, yes!" Pettigrew exclaimed. "I see you are an intelligent young man. Please, let me go."
"Hogwarts is not as safe as it used to be. Sirius Black has already managed to assault Gryffindor Tower."
"Yes, I know. I was there when he attacked yesterday. I quickly turned into my human form when he slashed with his knife, borrowed Ron's wand and began to fire Stunners. Ron screamed so loud that the entire House woke up, but Sirius just continued his attack. He approached me… uh, no… now that I think about it, he obviously tried to get to Harry; his bed was behind me after all. Anyway, I panicked and turned back into a rat and fled the dormitory. The boys had also begun to fire Stunners, and Sirius realized that he had to escape as fast as possible. I saved Harry's life last night."
"And for that I am grateful," I said. "Believe me, I trust you. Your story makes perfect sense."
Pettigrew's eyes widened and he let out a whimper of relieved laughter. What, had he expected me not to believe him?
"I offer you a sanctuary," I continued while opening the cage. "I live in Diagon Alley, and I invite you to stay there at least while I'm here. There's no one else there except my house-elf who can take care of your needs. In the summer we can plan other arrangements for you."
"Oh, well… that's nice of you," Pettigrew said. "I can't say I'm feeling safe at Hogwarts anymore. Uh… Sirius probably wants to kill me just as much as he wants to kill Harry."
"Do you have any idea of how he might've entered without the Dementors noticing?"
"The Shrieking Shack," he said at once. "That's where we met with Remus in our Animagus forms. There's a secret passage that leads to the school grounds. The Whomping Willow is planted on top of the other end."
"I see. The Shrieking Shack was built after – I mean, I know it was not there in the forties. Is the secret passage new as well?"
"Yes, Dumbledore had them both built specifically for Remus to be alone during his transformations."
"Dumbledore knows about the passage?" I almost shouted. "But he hasn't advised the Ministry to place Dementors around the Shrieking Shack?"
"Dumbledore also knows that Sirius knows about the passage," Pettigrew stated. "Sirius told Snape to go through it when Remus was transformed. Sirius was almost expelled because of it."
I rubbed my forehead in frustration, exasperation, disbelief, and many other emotions capable of causing a headache. It was as if Dumbledore had intentionally left a route open for Black to enter Hogwarts grounds undetected.
"Oh, by the way, can I ask something in turn?" Pettigrew said. "As a rat I've been hearing many conversations that weren't meant for my ears, and I happen to know much about you, Tom Valedro. There's one thing I've been wondering. At the end of last Hogwarts year, Ron and Harry talked much about a certain Tom Riddle until sometime during the summer they suddenly…"
"Stupefy."
Pettigrew collapsed on the floor. I sighed. It had been a long day, and I still had to go through yet another session of Obliviations and False Memory Charms. It was even more strenuous than the ones with Harry and the others, because I did not dare to use Legilimency to make it easier to find all the relevant memories.
Published on the 30th of January, 2020.