A/N: Hurrah for Nico actually getting screen time (or page time) in Tower of Nero!

Now, back to Nico and Sirius...


"Did you want me to go running back to the castle, screaming about Sirius Black?" Nico asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Sirius said quickly, raising Nico's wand again.

"Then I won't," Nico said calmly.

Sirius lowered the wand, giving Nico a wary look. "How long have you known?"

"Hermione and I suspected the rat was a human in disguise, but we couldn't be sure. And we had no idea about Pettigrew."

"No…I mean…how long did you know the dog was me?"

"I didn't."

Sirius seemed to be momentarily at a loss for words. "Your dog just unexpectedly attacked you and turned into a wanted fugitive, and you're standing there acting like this is a perfectly normal day to you?"

Nico shrugged. "Well no, I wouldn't really call this a normal day, but I've had weirder ones. Besides, you weren't trying to hurt me, just pin me. I've dealt with enough people who do want to kill me that I know the difference." He transformed his sword back into the ring. "But I also have years' worth of battle reflexes, so don't ambush me like that. You're lucky I didn't take your head off."

"Battle reflexes?!" Sirius exclaimed in disbelief. "You're what, thirteen?"

"Fourteen. And I think whatever made you decide to reveal yourself to me is probably the more pressing matter right now?"

"Right," Sirius said uncertainly. "I guess I shouldn't even ask about the sword…"

"Let's just say I'm used to being ambushed," Nico replied. "Anyway, you don't need to convince me that Pettigrew framed you for everything. So what was it that made you decide to reveal yourself today?"

Sirius took a deep breath. "I've tracked his scent to Hagrid's hut. I need you to get him out and bring him to me."


After Nico left, Neville suddenly noticed something. Ron and Hermione were within two meters of each other, and neither had mentioned Scabbers nor said a single unkind word to the other. Neville decided that this situation should be encouraged. "Hey, how about we all head down to Hagrid's to celebrate Buckbeak getting off and the exams being over?"

"Oh," Hermione said uncertainly. "I don't know…"

"C'mon, Hermione, loosen up a bit and enjoy the weather," Neville cajoled. He shot a glare at Ron, silently daring the latter to object.

"All right," Hermione relented. "Just let me put my book bag in Gryffindor Tower?"

"Sure," Neville agreed. Hermione swung her bag onto her shoulder and left the Great Hall.

Ron shot an annoyed look at Neville. "Why'd you have to invite her?"

"She's my friend," Neville said firmly. "And I'd thought she was yours, before your rat went missing. She gave you an apology even though she didn't think she owed you one; can't you just accept it already?"

"What about whatever happened at the Shrieking Shack?" Ron said suspiciously.

Neville rolled his eyes. "She's Muggle-born; you really think she's gonna help anyone who supports You-Know-Who? She and Nico were probably just seeing the sights. You know Nico; creepy haunted houses are exactly the sort of place he'd poke around."

Ron scowled, then sighed. "Fine."


Nico emerged from the trees, Sirius in dog form at his heels. Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione were just walking away from Hagrid's hut. Harry suddenly stopped short, staring at Sirius, the color draining from his face. "Do…do you guys see that?" he asked nervously.

Ron and Neville followed his gaze, and they also paled. "The Grim," Ron breathed, sounding frightened.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No he's not, he's just Nico's dog. Well, not exactly Nico's, but Nico has been feeding him all year."

"You've been feeding a Grim?" Neville said, frowning.

"He's not a Grim," Nico insisted. He gave Ron a wary look. "So, you all were just talking to Hagrid?"

Hermione shook her head. "He's not there. We think he went down to—hey!" She broke off as Sirius suddenly charged at the door, narrowly missing Neville and breaking the door open. He bounded inside and started sniffing around.

"What the bloody hell…" Ron muttered.

Nico hesitated, then made up his mind. "There's something you and Harry both need to know. Come on."

Inside, Sirius seemed to have zeroed in on Pettigrew's scent. He had his front paws on Hagrid's kitchen counter and was sniffing the cupboard. Suddenly, the cupboard opened slightly and Scabbers leaped out, springing off of Sirius's head and racing for the door. Sirius lunged, but Nico caught the rat first. "You're not going anywhere," he growled.

"What—is that—Scabbers?!" Ron exclaimed, reaching out for the rat.

"Not so fast," Nico said hurriedly, pulling Scabbers away. "By the time we've explained everything, you're not going to want him any more."

Harry frowned. "We?"

Behind Harry, the dog shifted back to human form. "Expelliarmus!" Everyone's wands flew out of their hands, and Sirius deftly caught them all. Hermione screamed, while Harry, Ron and Neville all stumbled backwards in shock. "Excellent," Sirius said, grinning. "I'd hoped to be seeing you, Harry…"

Ron took a step in front of Harry. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill me too!"

"He's not here to kill Harry!" Nico cut in, shooting an annoyed look at Sirius. Honestly, did the man not know how to greet people without ambushing them?

Ron rounded on Nico, still keeping himself between Harry and Sirius. "I knew it! You were helping Black!"

"I had no idea the dog was a wizard until tonight. The rat, on the other hand…"

Ron lunged at Nico, trying once again to take Scabbers from him. Harry took advantage of the distraction to charge at Sirius, knocking him to the ground. They wrestled on the floor, both reaching for the wands. Nico dodged Ron and thrust Scabbers at Hermione. "Whatever you do, do not let him get away!" He then tried to pull Harry off of Sirius, only for Neville to push Nico away.

"I thought you were all right," Neville said angrily. "Even with all the…"

"Not now!" Nico hissed, shoving Neville aside just as Sirius dropped the wands. Nico snatched them all up, but Neville made a grab for them and the two boys ended up embroiled in a minor tug-of-war. Nico managed to hang on to one wand, Neville got a hold of two more, and the last two tumbled to the floor. Nico quickly twisted Neville's wand arm behind his back and pinned him against the wall.

"So is this how it ends?" Neville asked bitterly. "Murdered by someone I thought was my friend, just like Harry's parents?"

"I'm not going to kill you, Neville," Nico snapped, irritated. "I just want you to listen."

"To what, your spiel about how great You-Know-Who is? No thanks. I'd rather die." Neville managed to maneuver a wand into his other hand and lobbed it at Harry. "Harry, catch!"

Harry caught the wand and pointed it at Sirius, who was now slumped against the wall with a bloody nose. Ron and Hermione finally stopped tussling over Scabbers to watch the drama unfold. "Are you going to kill me, Harry?" Sirius whispered.

"You killed my parents," Harry responded. His voice shook slightly, but his wand hand was steady.

"I don't deny it," Sirius said quietly. "But if only you knew the whole story."

"The whole story?" Harry repeated furiously. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know."

"No, he didn't," Nico cut in. "Listen to him, Harry."

"Shut up," Harry hissed, not taking his eyes off of Sirius. Nico looked around, trying to think of some way to help, but he couldn't do anything without releasing Neville. The moments stretched out as Harry stared at his captive. The only sound was Scabbers' frantic squeaking as he tried to escape Hermione's grip. Harry continued to point his wand at Sirius, but he did not cast any spells; though his intent was clear, it seemed that he lacked the will to follow through.

Then, suddenly, the door burst open. "Expelliarmus!" Lupin cried. The wand flew out of Harry's grip, as did the wands that Nico and Neville had been holding.

"Professor?" Nico said cautiously.

Lupin ignored him. "Where is he, Sirius?"

Sirius remained motionless for a few moments. Then, slowly, he lifted a hand and pointed at Hermione.

"But then…why hasn't he shown himself before now?" Lupin muttered. "Unless…unless he was the one…unless you switched…without telling me?"

Again slowly, Sirius nodded. Harry tried to ask what was going on, but broke off when Lupin helped Sirius to his feet and embraced him.

Eyes wide, Hermione turned to Nico. "Did you know about this too?"

"Know about what?" Nico demanded, for once as baffled as the other students.

"He's a werewolf," Hermione murmured, sounding thoroughly dazed.

Ron's eyes widened and he took a step away from Lupin. "What?!"

Lupin turned to Hermione, looking somewhat pale but overall surprisingly calm. "How long have you known?"

"Since Professor Snape set the essay," Hermione whispered.

Nico frowned. "Why did you never tell me?"

"You killed a werewolf last summer, Nico!" Hermione reminded him. Lupin and Sirius both looked disturbed by that piece of information. "And I thought…I think…" She looked back at Lupin. "You and Nico both seem to think Black isn't evil. I'm fairly certain this rat isn't a rat. So will someone please explain what's going on?"

"You've been helping him too!" Harry exclaimed, looking at Lupin with disgust. "And all this time, I thought you were my friend…"

"You're wrong, Harry," Lupin insisted. "I haven't been helping Sirius and I am your friend…look." He tossed Harry and Ron's wands back to their respective owners. "Nico, let Neville go. I think they may be more inclined to listen if we aren't holding them hostage."

Nico released Neville and moved to stand by Hermione. He picked up his and Neville's wands from the ground and tossed Neville's wand back to him. Lupin handed Hermione her wand and tucked his own into his belt. "There. You're armed, Sirius and I are not. Now will you let us explain?"

Harry hesitated, glancing at Sirius. "If you haven't been helping him, how did you know he was here?"

"The Map," Lupin explained. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it—"

"You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously.

"Wait, what is the Marauder's Map?" Hermione cut in.

"An enchanted map of Hogwarts that my friends and I made when we were in school," Lupin replied. "It not only shows the entire castle and grounds, but also the names and locations of everyone at the school."

"You wrote…?" Harry said in disbelief.

Lupin dismissively waved a hand. "The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you and your friends might try to be with Hagrid when his hippogriff was executed…"

"The hippogriff was pardoned," Nico interrupted, frowning.

Lupin raised his eyebrows. "Was it? That's good. I hadn't heard. Anyway, I watched four of you cross the grounds to Hagrid's hut. But there was only one person inside, and it wasn't Hagrid."

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "No one was inside!"

"I couldn't believe my eyes," Lupin continued, pacing. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be there? And then I saw two more dots moving toward you, labeled 'Sirius Black' and 'Nico di Angelo'; I watched as Sirius led the way inside. I knew I had to get down here immediately. I had to see for myself if it was true." He turned to Hermione. "Do you think I could have a look at the rat?"

"What's Scabbers got to do with it?" Ron demanded, bewildered.

"We were right, weren't we," Hermione stated, looking at Nico. "He's a human in disguise."

Sirius finally spoke up. "An Animagus, by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

There were several moments of silence as Harry, Ron and Neville all processed this statement. Then Ron found his voice. "You're mental, all of you."

"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" Harry exclaimed angrily. He pointed at Sirius. "He killed him twelve years ago!"

"I meant to," Sirius growled, teeth bared. "But little Peter got the better of me…not this time, though!" He lunged at Hermione. Nico immediately moved in front of Hermione, and both he and Sirius went tumbling to the ground.

"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, dragging Sirius away. "WAIT! You can't do it just like that—they need to understand—we've got to explain—"

Sirius protested, but eventually agreed to let Lupin tell the story. Harry, Ron and Neville started to protest again that Pettigrew was dead and the story was crazy. Hermione added her own doubts, pointing out that she'd looked up the Animagus register and Pettigrew wasn't on it. Lupin laughed and informed her that there were three unregistered Animagi that the Ministry had never known about.

Lupin finally started the tale from the beginning, explaining how he'd been bitten as a child. He talked about the horrors of lycanthropy—the nightmarish transformations, the then-unavailable Wolfsbane Potion, and the fears that he would never be able to attend Hogwarts. He then started to explain how the Shrieking Shack had been built for his use, but broke off and frowned at Sirius. "Although, speaking of the Shack…why and how did you break in?"

"I just used the Whomping Willow tunnel," Sirius replied, confused. "Nico had gotten locked out of the castle after the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch match and I wanted to get him out of the rain. How did you know about that?"

Lupin stared blankly at him. "No, I mean right before the Easter holidays, when you completely destroyed the wards."

"I never did anything of the sort," Sirius responded, thoroughly mystified. "Why would I destroy the wards when I know how to use the tunnel?"

Harry, Ron and Neville all looked suspiciously at Nico. Nico held up his hands in a defensive gesture. "I honestly didn't think anyone would notice!"

"You broke into the Shack?" Lupin said in disbelief.

"I wanted to figure out why people thought it was haunted," Nico muttered.

"…you, a third year student, completely demolished wards meant to contain a werewolf and keep out adult wizards?"

Neville narrowed his eyes at Nico. "Standard wards don't apply to him. Isn't that what you were saying on Halloween, Hermione?"

"What?" Hermione said, confused. She didn't remember talking to Neville about anything like that.

Nico sighed and summoned his sword. "Gift from my father. Powerfully magical. Apparently powerful enough to destroy all the wards on the Shrieking Shack. Sorry about that." He turned the sword back into the ring.

"…why would your father give something like that to a teenager?" Lupin demanded, looking slightly concerned.

"Because Nico's father comes from the most violently dysfunctional family I've ever heard of and he wanted Nico to be able to defend himself against murderous relatives," Hermione cut in. "Can we get back to talking about what your lycanthropy has to do with Peter Pettigrew being an Animagus?"

Lupin gave Nico an odd look, then sighed and got back on topic. He explained how the Whomping Willow had been planted to guard the tunnel to the Shack, and the eponymous 'shrieks' had come from him. He explained how his friends—Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter—had figured out his secret and became Animagi to help him. He explained how they'd explored the grounds in their animal forms, learning the school well enough to create the map, and how guilty he'd felt for betraying Dumbledore's trust. Then he told the story of the "prank" that Sirius had played on Snape, which forced James to intervene to save Snape's life.

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you?" Harry asked slowly. "Because he thought…"

Before Harry could finish his sentence, Snape burst through the door and disarmed Lupin. "Well well," he said smugly. "I've told the headmaster again and again that you were helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof."

"Severus, you're making a mistake," Lupin said urgently. "You don't know everything—"

"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" Snape interrupted, as if Lupin hadn't spoken. He explained how he'd come to bring Lupin his Wolfsbane Potion, only to find Lupin out of his office and the Map still active, showing everyone in Hagrid's hut. Then he magically bound Lupin and refused to hear a word in Sirius or Lupin's defense, despite all five students protesting. Sirius even offered to come quietly so long as Hermione brought the rat, but Snape instead suggested summoning the dementors the moment they left the hut.

Harry moved to block the front door while Nico moved to block the back. Snape angrily ordered Harry to get out of the way. Harry tried again to reason with Snape, only for the two to wind up yelling at each other. Then, four voices shouted the Disarming Charm, and Snape was blasted into the wall and knocked unconscious. Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione all looked nervously at each other.

"You shouldn't have done that," Sirius murmured, looking at Harry. "You should have left him to me…"

Nico moved forward and started untying Lupin's bonds. Moments later, Sirius knelt next to him and helped. Once Lupin was free, he stood up and rubbed his arms, looking at Harry. "Thank you."

"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry said stiffly.

"Then it's time we offered you some proof," Lupin said. "Hermione, give me Peter, please."

Hermione moved to hand the rat over, but Ron quickly blocked her, still protesting the idea that his pet of three years could possibly be Peter Pettigrew. He demanded to know how Sirius had even known where Peter was hiding, to which Sirius explained how he'd seen Scabbers in the Weasley family photo on the front page of the Daily Prophet. He pointed out Scabbers' missing toe and explained how he'd been working with Crookshanks to try to capture the rat, only for Pettigrew to fake his death again.

"Wait," Neville said suddenly, looking at Nico. "You were telling me you'd had a dream about Scabbers that morning. Do you think the dream scared him into hiding?"

"Quite possibly," Nico agreed. "Looking back on it now, I'm pretty sure my dream was telling me that Pettigrew was the real traitor."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry suddenly yelled, pointing at Black. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE LUPIN TURNED UP! HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"

Sirius clarified his earlier statement in a hoarse voice, explaining that it had been his idea to switch Secret-Keepers.

"Enough of this," Lupin said. "There's one way to prove what really happened. Give me that rat."

"What are you going to do with him?" Ron asked fearfully.

"Force him to show himself," Lupin replied. "If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him."

Ron hesitated, then finally stepped aside and let Hermione hand Scabbers over. Nico offered Sirius his wand again. Sirius accepted, and together he and Lupin cast a spell on the rat. There was a flash of light, and then sure enough, the rat grew into a man that Nico recognized from his earlier vision of the explosion.

Pettigrew whimpered and his eyes darted all over the room, seemingly searching for possible escapes. He tried to appeal to Lupin as an old friend, claiming that Sirius was the traitor and had come to finish him off, but he didn't sound very convincing. Lupin and Sirius coldly confronted Pettigrew with his treachery, rebutting his every effort at denial. When Pettigrew demanded to know how Sirius had stayed sane and broken out of Azkaban, Sirius admitted that knowledge of his innocence had helped him keep his mind and he'd used his Animagus abilities to slip past the dementors and swim back to the mainland. He segued into mentioning that he'd gone to see Harry in Surrey and watched him play Quidditch, proudly telling Harry that he was just like his father.

"Believe me, Harry," Sirius croaked. "I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."

After several tense moments, Harry finally nodded. Pettigrew reacted as if he'd been handed a death sentence, falling to his knees and pathetically pleading for his life. He pleaded for mercy from his old friends, pleaded for Ron to take pity on his former pet, pleaded with Hermione for being such a 'sweet girl', pleaded with Neville for being such a 'kind boy', started to plead with Nico…but apparently he couldn't think of any plausible argument to get sympathy from that corner, so he turned to Harry instead, claiming that Harry's father wouldn't have wanted him killed. Sirius and Lupin cut him off, angrily repeating their accusations once more. Pettigrew finally gave up denying it, begging for them to understand that he'd only done it to save his own skin. They were unimpressed, retorting that had they been in his place, they would have readily died for their friends. And now, they were going to kill him.

Nico frowned as he watched all this play out. He didn't particularly approve of cold-blooded murder, but his father's words from the previous summer were playing in his head—some deaths should not be prevented. He couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't meant to intervene here…and then he came to the sudden realization that he got absolutely no sense of impending death from Pettigrew.

Just as this thought crossed Nico's mind, Sirius and Lupin raised their wands and pointed them at Pettigrew. "NO!" Harry shouted, suddenly placing himself between Pettigrew and the other two adult wizards. "You can't kill him. You can't."

Sirius and Lupin expressed surprise at Harry's intervention, but ultimately conceded that if anyone had the right to decide Pettigrew's fate, Harry did. They agreed to take Pettigrew to the castle instead, warning him not to transform or they would kill him after all. Ron and Lupin volunteered to be chained to Pettigrew for extra security, and Sirius cast a spell to make the unconscious Snape float along with them.

At last, they all headed back to the castle, hoping that the worst of the night's excitement had passed. They'd all forgotten Harry's prophecy of doom—and the lunar cycle.