"Ow…." Elizabeth moaned as Harry fell on top of her.
"Sorry!" Harry apologized as Hermione tumbled in after him, falling right next to them.
"Don't apologize, just get off!" Elizabeth said, shoving him off.
After Ginny came through, they all got up and started walking down the tunnel after Luna.
"Are those scratch marks?" Ginny asked, pointing her wand towards the wall. Luckily they all had their wands on them and were using the illuminating charm to light their way.
"Well, this place looks kind of old. Maybe anything down here is already dead?" Elizabeth asked, hoping it was true. The last thing they needed was some kind of horrible monster along with a powerful black dog.
They reached the end, and at the end of the tunnel was a large closed door. Hermione tentatively opened it.
"Ron!" She cried. She ran inside, and the rest of them followed. Ron was lying on a large, worn bed.
"Get out! Now! It's a trap! The dog is-" Ron was cut off by the door slamming shut.
Sirius Black emerged from the shadows, looking even more bedraggled than when Elizabeth saw him last.
Hermione leaped in front of Harry. Luna and Ginny quickly followed suit. Elizabeth took a few steps back but was still in front of all of them.
"You won't kill Harry! We won't let you!" Hermione spat.
Sirius's face was one of shock.
"Kill Harry? Kill Harry?! He's not the one I want! Someone else is dying tonight!" he cried.
Harry pushed through the human shield the girls had made, and tackled Sirius to the ground.
"YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!" Harry yelled, raising his wand towards Sirius's face. Sirius looked fearful and started to plead for Harry not to do what he was about to do.
"Harry, STOP IT!" Elizabeth yelled. She ran over and grabbed Harry by the waist and started to tug. She was just able to pull him away as someone else entered the room, and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"
Harry's wand flew out of his hand, and he and Elizabeth stopped fighting to see who it was.
"Remus?" Elizabeth asked at the sight of the professor.
He motioned for them to move back, which the two did.
"Well, well, well, Sirius," Remus said, advancing towards the escaped convict, wand raised. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" he asked.
"Very long. You don't know how slow time passes in Azkaban." Sirius responded.
Then, to Elizabeth's surprise, Remus offered Sirius a hand and pulled him up. They hugged.
"I found the rat. It's really him." Sirius said, quivering.
"I know," Remus responded.
"Let's kill him. Right now." Sirius said vengefully.
"No!" Hermione said, angrily. "I kept your secret all this time! I trusted you! And you were his friend all along?!" She yelled.
"Remus, what is going on? What have you been hiding from us? From me?" Elizabeth asked her favorite professor. Remus's face softened when he saw Elizabeth.
"It's time you all know the full story since you're all already down here." Remus told them.
"No! You'll just use it as a way to distract us so you can kill us!" Hermione protested.
"Remus is a werewolf! That's why he was missing classes!" she told them.
Elizabeth turned to Remus, knowing his expression would confirm or deny the claim.
"Hermione, you truly are the smartest witch of your age I have ever met," Remus said. "When did you figure it out?"
"When Professor Snape gave us the essay on werewolves." Hermione responded.
"Remus! He's got him!" Sirius yelled, pointing towards Ron.
"Got what?" Ron asked fearfully, holding Scabbers tightly in his hand.
"Sirius we need to wait a moment, explain all this to Harry." Remus said.
"I've done my waiting! Twelve years in Azkaban because of him!" Sirius roared.
"Who?" Luna asked serenely.
"A man I thought was dead until a short time ago. Peter Pettigrew!" Remus announced.
"What?!"All six students asked in unison.
But before their questions were answered, Snape stormed into the room, his wand pointed at Sirius's neck.
"Revenge is sweet." He drawled, his dark eyes boring into Sirius's.
"Snape. Long time, no see." Sirius said angrily.
"You are not in the position to speak like that to me. All it takes is one summoning spell for a dementor, and you'll be in their hands." Snape drawled.
"Stop it!" Elizabeth yelled.
Snape turned to her, as did Lupin.
"Don't call the dementors!" She ordered.
"Elizabeth, why are you bent on protecting him?" Remus asked.
"Yeah, you pulled me off of him. Why?" Harry asked.
"Because Sirius isn't the bad person everyone thinks he is! I've suspected it for months, and now I know it's true!" Elizabeth told them.
"How would you know anything of the sort?" Snape asked.
"Because he saved my life! He wasn't the one who set the common room on fire in November, I did it by accident! He pushed a bookshelf away from me before it crushed me, and got me out o the common room after I passed out! There's more to the story than what you think!" Elizabeth exclaimed.
Snape advanced towards Sirius. "Even so he is a dangerous criminal that cannot be trusted." He said, his wands end jutting towards Sirius.
"Stupefy!" Remus yelled, pointing his wand at Snape, causing him to fly towards the wall and smack into it, leaving him unconscious on the ground.
Sirius turned towards Elizabeth, his face thoughtful.
"You were the girl I saved that night. I recognized you from the papers. Elizabeth Gryffindor: Girl of Impossibilities." He stated softly, quoting the newspaper headline after Elizabeth passed her exams.
Elizabeth nodded. "After that, the story everyone told me to believe didn't add up. So I tried to do some investigating." She explained.
"Were you one of the people who sent the notes with the cat?" Sirius asked.
"Yes. I was EG, she's Luna or LL, and Ginny was GW." Elizabeth said, gesturing to her two best friends.
"Wait, you sent him notes?" Hermione asked.
"We did. We wanted answers from Sirius, but it's not like he ever answered." Elizabeth told Hermione.
"Sirius, it's time they know the story. All of them." Remus said. Sirius looked at the six of them, and Elizabeth made sure she sent him a look that conveyed firmness.
"Alright. Do you want to start?"
Remus cleared his throat and began to tell the story that explained everything.
"Hermione is correct, I am a werewolf. I was bitten when I was five years old, and my parents thought I wouldn't be able to attend Hogwarts, since the prejudice against werewolves is very strong, especially back then. But, Albus Dumbledore became Headmaster right around the time I was set to attend. He came to my and my parent's home and told us that as long as proper precautions were taken, there was no reason I shouldn't go."
Sirius picked up the next part of the story.
"I was in Remus's year. I met your father, Harry, on the train. We became fast friends and were both sorted into Gryffindor, despite my family's reputation for Slytherin. Remus was sorted into Gryffindor as well, as was Peter Pettigrew. We all became best friends, and called ourselves the Marauders."
"Wait, like the Marauders Map?" Harry asked.
"What's the Marauders Map?" Ginny asked.
"A map made by the four of us, to keep track of where everyone was in the school. We'd use it to sneak out. How did you come by it, Harry?" Sirius asked.
"Fred and George Weasley gave it to me." Harry responded.
"Can we get back to the story that somehow convinces us you won't kill our friend?" Ron asked.
"Yes, of course. I was not able to keep my werewolf secret for long. Peter, James, and Sirius got suspicious and confronted me in our second year. I disappeared every month, and unbeknownst to them, I would hide here, in the Shrieking Shack, every month. I used the tunnel you all used to get here. I believe James was the one who came up with the idea to turn himself, Sirius, and Peter into animagi, so they could still be with me during the transformation." Remus continued.
"You were the dog, weren't you?" Luna asked. Sirius nodded.
"James was a stag, so he and I could help keep Remus in line if he got out of control. Peter became a rat, so he could sneak under the Whomping Willows branches so he could press on the special knot to stop them from moving, and James and I stayed under his invisibility cloak." Sirius explained.
"We had some of the best times of our lives as animals. When we all graduated, James and Lily quickly married, and when you were born, Harry, they made me your godfather. So when they went into hiding, it was obvious to anyone that I would be the Secret-Keeper. So, to keep them safe, I switched with Peter, hoping no one would think of him. But he betrayed Lily and James, he betrayed all of us! He is the reason You-Know-Who knew where your parents were! He killed them!" Sirius was hysterical at this point, sobbing into his hands.
"So… you went after him. And those muggles that died that night... " Elizabeth trailed off when Sirius's body went rigid.
"Peter framed me. He killed all those muggles and faked his death. He cut off his finger and left some blood, and left me to take the blame. I spent twelve years in Azkaban because of him. TWELVE. YEARS!" Remus wrapped him in a hug, letting him sob.
When his tears subsided, he turned towards Ron, who still held Scabbers in his hand. "How long have you had that rat?" He asked.
"My brother Percy found him. Twelve years ago." Ron said quietly. He held Scabbers up, and Elizabeth spotted he had one toe missing.
The truth dawned on all of them just as Scabbers launched himself from Ron's hand and scurried across the floor. He tried to go through a hole in the wall, but Remus caught him, and before their very eyes, Scabbers became Peter Pettigrew.
He was a pudgy man, and his facial features were very rat-like. He looked up at Remus and Sirius, trembling all the while.
"My old friends…" He said with a smile. Sirius spat in his face.
"HOW DARE YOU!" He screamed. He raised his hand to strike at him, and soon Peter's face was marred with an ugly red hand mark.
"Let's do it, Remus." Sirius begged. Remus nodded and gave Sirius his wand.
"Wait!" Elizabeth called. Sirius and Remus turned towards her.
"You can't kill him. If you do, you'll just go back to Azkaban. And everything everyone says about you will be true." She said, looking at Sirius.
"She's right. He deserves punishment, but it shouldn't be from either of you. I don't think my parents would want their friends to become murderers." Harry insisted, standing beside Elizabeth.
"You can turn him in, and explain everything to Dumbledore. Then you'll be free, and he'll end up in Azkaban." Hermione suggested.
"You make a good point, all of you. Sirius, we need to take him to Dumbledore." Remus told his friend. Sirius looked reluctant but nodded.
Peter looked very relieved. "Thank you, thank you so much, sweet girl. Smart girl… thank you." He said shakingly to Elizabeth, inching closer towards her feet.
"Touch her and we change our minds, Wormtail." Remus warned as Elizabeth backed away.
The group then arranged a plan to get back to the castle. Hermione and Harry helped Ron to his feet, as his leg was broken. Sirius explained that he knew Ron had broken his leg from the Whomping Willow and wanted to get him out of danger, so that was why he had taken him into the tunnel.
Remus cast a spell to carry the unconscious Snape as if invisible strings were tied around his body. He and Sirius stuck by Pettigrew closely so he would not escape. Luna, Ginny, and Elizabeth brought up the rear.
The moon, though hidden behind a cloud, shone down on the ten as they walked, and when Elizabeth passed by Hagrid's hut, she felt terrible for her friend and his loss.
"How did you believe I was innocent?" Sirius asked Elizabeth as they continued.
"I honestly wasn't sure, but when you saved my life twice, that got me thinking. You said you knew who I was from the papers, so you can understand why I got suspicious." Elizabeth responded. Her history with live-saving spoke for itself.
"Yes, but actually reaching out to a criminal that had a nationwide manhunt searching for him, that took quite a bit of courage and faith." Sirius replied.
Elizabeth looked to her best friends.
"I had some help. And I've been taught to believe in the impossible."
Sirius smiled and turned towards Harry.
While they talked, Ginny asked Elizabeth if what she said was true.
"Of course. Luna, you taught me all about the fantastical animals of our world, And Ginny, you always encouraged me when everyone else wasn't. You made me believe in myself, even when everyone was calling me a freak." Elizabeth said.
"That's a very nice thing to tell us." Luna said.
"She's right. Thanks, Elizabeth." Ginny said.
The moonlight shone down on them, and Remus drew in a sharp breath.
The pieces started to fit together.
Remus's body started to contort in pain, and he dropped to the ground. Fur sprouted from his arms, legs, and torso.
The end result was a werewolf. One that had not taken the Wolfsbane Potion.
"Children, run." Sirius said.
