The Magic of Family
Chapter Eigtheen: Puzzle Pieces Found
After Black's accusation of Scabbers being an animagus named Peter Pettigrew, you could have heard a pin drop. Even the Shrieking Shack itself seemed to be holding its breath, other than an oddly muffled creak from beyond the door.
The calm was broken as Ron clutched Scabbers even tigther to his chest and started yelling how Black was deranged and Lupin was a traitorous lunatic. Lupin was attempting to reason with Ron while Hermione was spouting facts about Animagi and all being registered at the Ministry. Black was oddly quiet, but his crazed stare was fixed on the wildly struggling rat and what little muscles he still retained were tensed and ready for the opportunity to attack.
With a wild twist that would have broken the spine of anything other than a rat or a cat, Scabbers managed to break free of Ron's hold and begin a mad dash toward an escape. Ron leapt after his pet, completely forgetting about his broken leg until it refused to bear his weight. Harry was unsure if Hermione had attempted to catch Scabbers or Ron, either way they ended up sprawled on the ground with simultaneous yells, completely missing Scabbers in the process.
Sirius had launched himself after the fleeing rodent with a howl more appropriate for his animagus form than his current human one, knife hand leading his charge. Lupin snagged the back of Sirius' tattered prison shirt, shouting something about, "Not this way!"
If the door had not been thrown open hard enough for it to rebound off of the wall and rain dust down on everyone, then Harry was fairly certain that no one would have noticed it opening to reveal Professor Snape standing in the doorway, wand drawn and aimed at the two standing adults, a fearsome scowl on his face.
Harry had just enough time to roll his eyes and share an exasperated look with Sephiroth, before stepping out from under the cloak, and in one smooth motion, summoning Kotegiri and throwing it forward to land right before Scabbers' fleeing form. While not a true throwing weapon, Harry had practiced this move enough times that he had no problem making the throw and ensuring he did not hit the animal. Crookshanks, who had given chase along with everyone else, took advantage of Scabbers' moment of shock to tackle him and pin him to the floor with one heavy paw.
The flash of Kotegiri traveling through the air and the sudden appearance of two more people in the room caught everyone's attention, and Sephiroth's quick application of a silencing charm meant everyone was left unable to yell as Harry calmly approached Crookshanks and lifted the still wildly struggling, but now wheezing, Scabbers into the air by his tail.
Harry's sneer of disgust could have rivaled Snape's as he turned toward the momentarily stunned group, Scabbers held out at arm length to keep him from getting any purchase, or having a place to bite.
"For a bunch of adult wizards, and the supposed brigthest witch of our generation, you are all acting like a bunch of idiots." Harry's green eyes locked briefly with each person present until they landed on a rapidly purpling Snape-who was now devoid of his wand, Harry could only assume it was Sephiroth's doing since he had not seen it happen, "I'm sure there is an easy enough way to prove if Scabbers is indeed Peter Pettigrew."
Harry rolled his eyes, as everyone instantly began yelling again, or attempted to, they seemed to have forgotten the silencing spell on them. He huffed through his nose as he used his left hand to point his wand at Ron and Hermione.
"Perfectus Totalus." he intoned with an almost lazy flick of his wrist, watching as both teenagers snapped straight as a board, Hermione falling back on top of Ron from where she had attempted to stand.
He caught it out of the corner of his eye as Sephiroth waved his wand and Snape was wrapped head to toe in tightly binding ropes, his fiery dark eyes the only thing left visible. Equally intense green eyes turned from their individual tasks to lock on Lupin and Black. Lupin's yellow/gold eyes were widened in shock, but Black's stormy grey were fixated on where Harry had Scabbers suspended in the air.
"Now," began Harry, ignoring the oddly peaceful Black in order to focus on his unbound professor, "is there or is there not a way to reveal an animagus." He scoffed as Lupin once again began trying to talk, just based off of his gestures and the amount that he was trying to say, Harry could tell that he was not simply answering the question.
"Professor," Sephiroth took over, lightly tapping the kneeling Professor with his foot, "we are in the presence of one, possibly two, wanted criminals; a Professor who is likely to give us detention for the rest of our Hogwarts career, and one of your students is injured, possibly gravely so. We do not have time for you to be nattering on about inconsequential things. A simple nod yes or no will suffice for an answer."
Lupin took a moment to look around before giving a very cautious nod.
"Good, then Sephiroth will un-silence you and you will cast the proper spell." Harry replaced his wand with Kotegiri and leveled the gleaming blade at first Lupin then Black, "however, that is the only thing you will do, attempt anything else and you will be silenced and bound just like Snape. And you will not make any moves at all, Black, or the dementors will not get a chance with you."
Lupin's eyes continuously grew wider as Harry completed his speech, but Black simply switched his insane gaze from Scabbers to Harry and allowed a smirk to grace his features before nodding in assent to Harry's demands.
Sephiroth leveled his wand at Lupin and kept it trained on the Professor as he pointed his own wand at Scabbers, who had apparently given up hope of escaping Harry's grasp and instead dangled almost lifelessly from his grip.
"Revelio." Lupin twirled his wand in a small circle before slashing it quickly down and to the side. As his spell finished, Scabbers' tail began to shrink back into his body and sounds of distress began to rise from the convulsing rodent as it dropped to the floor and began to spasm. Fur receded as the body became thicker and larger, arms and legs clad in faded pants and a grimy shirt became visible. Harry felt the sneer once again curling his lips as the beady wet eyes turned upward to his face and pleas for mercy began to spill from still rodent-like features. Before Black's patience could be tested, Harry reversed his grip on Kotegiriand rapped the rat-turned-man on the temple hard enough to instantly form a goose-egg and knock him out cold.
Harry was beginning to think that shock was going to become Lupin's default expression as he looked upon Harry, but the switch to disgust and betrayal when looking at the man, Peter Pettigrew if Black was to be believed, was not faked as far as Harry could tell.
Sephiroth edged past Harry to nudge the unconscious Peter with his toe before once more waving his wand in a circle and casting the same binding spell on Peter that he had previously cast on Snape. They shared a long look before Harry nodded and stepped back, allowing Sephiroth to take the lead now that things were beginning to make more sense.
"This is how we will do things. Sna...Professor Snape, if you would be so kind as to levitate possibly-Peter here back to the castle, then Professor Lupin can levitate Ronald to keep him from further injuring his leg. Hermione can go first to light the tunnel and we shall go last keeping an eye on Mr. Black who shall walk behind Lupin." stated Sephiroth as he slowly began unbinding Snape while removing the silencing charm on the room.
"And why...Mr. Crescent-Fair...do you believe I shall do that." hissed Snape as his mouth was uncovered.
"Because," drawled back Sephiroth in his driest tone, "if your interactions this year are any indication then you hate Professor Lupin, and your glare and threats upon entering this room were directed strongly to Mr. Black. Mr. Black and Professor Lupin were friends in school based upon their own admission, and you do not go to the trouble of attempted murder of a third party if you do not have a strong reason for it, such as the betrayal of a friend; therefore by extension your animosity will be extended to Mr. Pettigrew. So whoever ends up with the dementor's kiss by the end of the night should please you, yes?"
Harry used the distraction of removing the full body bind from Hermione and Ron to cover up his laugther as he watched Sephiroth expertly handle the prickly Head of Slytherin House. With a sneer, Snape retrieved his wand that Sephiroth was holding out to him and used it to none-to-gently levitate the bound Pettigrew into the air.
Without the silencing charm on him, and with Pettigrew back in human form and 'captured,' Sirius Black was now jumping around the room like a hyper puppy, carefully helping to pull Ron to his feet so that Lupin could help onto the conjured stretcher and talking a mile a minute to Harry about how much like his father he was and how it was no surprise he was a Gryffindor with all that courage. Harry had to snort as he carefully folded the Cloak and put it away in his pocket, if he was the consummate Gryffindor that Sirius was accusing him of being, then they would all still be standing around listening to everyone tell their story instead of leaving this place and finding someone to listen who could actually change things.
A shell shocked Hermione led the group through the tunnel, her lit wand allowing them to see enough not to stumble or trip too badly. Snape and his captive followed along, Pettigrew's bound body often bouncing off the walls or ceiling as Snape prodded him along with his wand. In contrast, Lupin was much gentler as he carefully guided Ron's conjured stretcher through the cramped space. Sirius was a ball of energy, bouncing back and forth from bugging Lupin to pestering Harry.
Before he had met Sephiroth and his family, the man's continuous offers of a home and the tales of the pranks they would pull and the adventures they could have might have been appealing. But when comparing Zack's hyper-activity to Sirius' it was easy to see the madness barely covered by his exuberance. Even if they managed to clear Sirius' name in the next few hours, Harry doubted the man would be sane enough to truly 'raise' him and look after him.
But, he mused as he watched Sirius bound back up to pester Lupin, maybe if he does gain custody of me we can live by Sephiroth and the others.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they climbed from the dismal tunnel and into the fresh night air, pearl-like beams lighting everything in pale, shifting shades as the full moon peaked over the swaying tree tops.
A.N.-Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, but the week before last we were called back into work. I'm a school teacher and it was depressing to shut down my classroom without my kids there to make the clean up both a hassell and fun as they run around wanting to do things to help. So last week I was too emotionally and physically drained to work on any of my stories. Then last week I manged to sunburn 90% of my body, have a severe allergic reaction to the emergency burn cream (joy to my weird biology), and spend days in agony burning from the outside in. After that I had to deal with a different recurring health problem, but now I'm back and quite happy to keep working on this.
Reviews:
buterflypus- Hello, munchkin.
APridefulSin-A little of the chaos has been unleashed, not as much as is probably deserved, but a little.
Scififan33-I have an idea for continuing the story in both relationship plot lines, so I'm kinda leaving their interactions open for interpretation until I decide which I actually want. I hope this is a good beginning of the reaction for taking the cloak.
Enjali-I've always wondered if the Cloak has a masking element to it that blocks scents because I don't remember an instance of them being caught under it for something other a leg or something sticking out or being heard. It's weird. I feel Harry is saving up the yelling for when he's alone without the adults, because he still doesn't quite trust them.
Juxshoa-Glad you liked the last chapter! I have plans for Pettigrew, he'll get what's coming to him.
Guest-Glad you're enjoying the story and the character progression. There will definitely be more family interaction later on in the sequels.
Kerrowe-Yes, it's going to be very AU with the inclusion of parts of the FF7 cast. I'm not sure I understand your comment on Chapter 4, but I'm guessing it's in reference to something Ron or Hermione did.