If a Werewolf Received a Letter

Chapter 26: Goodbye Hogwarts - At Least for Now

"Don't go."

Harry was pleading with Remus as he packed his bag. It was six in the morning and Remus decided to leave the castle with Padfoot before anyone awoke. Sirius had already packed his, reduced it's size to that of a matchbox and cast a featherweight charms on it.

"Harry, Dumbledore had been kind enough to prevent any student from sending letters last night. Today, however, by evening, owls will be sent to Dumbledore by worried parents. We will meet again, Harry."

Padfoot transformed to Sirius. He looked as haggard as before. He hadn't had time to visit Kitty. Remus took him and Maria to his flat and the three of them went on their own way soon after. Sirius reached Hogwarts, transformed into Padfoot and joined Remus again. It was the news of Remus being a Werewolf that he couldn't put on his act of chiding Padfoot for running away for the sake of a cat.

Sirius said, "Do you think, I won't visit my Godson, now that I'm free and all that?"

Harry sighed.

Sirius frowned. "You much be wondering why you can't leave the Dursleys."

"I know the reason." Harry said sadly. "Mama Flora explained it to me this Christmas. I just need to stay with them for a week or two and then, I'm free to spend the rest of the days with the Braithwaites."

"You could come to visit Sirius and me once in a while too." Remus said hopefully.

"I will." Harry promised, then his expression became confused, "But your free now, aren't you?"

"He forced me to live with him." Sirius said.

"He can't take care of himself long enough to save his life." Remus said by way of explaining. "And I can't cook that well...you could call it a symbiotic relationship."

"Anyway," Sirius said, "I am going to have to live a double life as a man and a pet, so I suppose living with Remus will help."

Harry smiled and Sirius became Padfoot again.

Remus said, "Tell me something. Do you know why Buckbeak wasn't executed? I heard that they brought the executioner for the appeal."

Harry looked sheepish. "I can't tell you much, Remus, because I don't know half of it myself and I can't tell you a quarter of it. But, I do know that the girls were responsible for it. Hermione pulled Fé aside long after the execution commitee reached Hagrid's cabin, but they didn't even go anywhere! I can't figure it out myself."

Harry shook his head. "They took my invisibility cloak and everything. Ron, Neville and I even heard McNair swing the axe, but Buckbeak is still alive. Fé transfigured his coat to look brown so no one recognises him, and he's still somewhere in the forest."

"Ah." was all Remus said and continued packing in silence.

The Daily Prophet arrived soon after.

Padfoot transformed into Sirius once again and took the newspaper the owl and paid it.

Remus took the paper from Sirius's hands and placed it on the table where the headlines could be clearly seen in bold letters:

A LITERAL RAT'S NEST AT HOGWARTS AS ANIMAGUS PETER PETTIGREW FOUND ALIVE.

Sirius Black Found And Exonerated!

Azkaban helps innocent Prisoners escape!

Pettigrew slips through the Auror's fingers!

By the Chipper Brothers

"So those two are brothers eh? " Sirius commented. Remus ignored him and read through the article.

In a spectacular turn of events yesterday, a team of Aurors led by Mad-Eye Moody arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and claimed that Sirius Black was somewhere in or around the school. While searching the castle in pairs, they found Peter Pettigrew instead living as a rat and a pet to one of the students and he was questioned under Veritaserum.

The Auror team was accompanied by Igor Karkaroff, the Headmaster of Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Bartemius Crouch; the head of the International Magical Cooperation Department; Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself.

After Black was found hiding in the infamous Shrieking Shack, he was questioned and his story tallied with Pettigrew's. They both confessed to switching Secret Keepers of the Potters' home in Godric's Hollow. Black, knowing fully well that everyone would know he was the Potters' first choice, made Pettigrew the Secret Keeper of the Potters' house at the last minute, a desperate and final attempt to create a diversion to keep the family safe. Most unfortunately, however, Pettigrew was working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and happily divulged the secret to him.

Later when Black confronted him, Pettigrew yelled across the street claiming Black had betrayed the Potters, blasted the street with his wand behind his back, cut of his finger and transformed into a rat, his unregistered animagus form, and disappeared in the sewers. That left Black to take the blame for Pettigrew's crimes and for the supposed murder of Pettigrew.

"I have never seen such treachery in my life!" Minerva McGonagall, a professor of Hogwarts, said, "I had taught James Potter and Sirius Black at school. The two friends could have been considered brothers by anyone who didn't know them. I was shocked when I got the news that Black had betrayed the Potters. I am deeply ashamed to say, I believed it like everyone else, without proper proof, with only the word of those Muggles who knew nothing about our world."

In a tearful confession, Sirius Black said, "Remus Lupin had been the Potters' next choice after me, but he was away so we had to switch to Pettigrew. Did you see what I did? I led the Potters to their deaths!"

The Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, himself apologized to Sirius numerous times for the same mistake.

Remus Lupin, the current DADA professor of Hogwarts, and a friend of Potter, Black and Pettigrew, was knocked for a loop when he had heard that Black had committed the crimes twelve years ago.

"I regret it." he said. "I shouldn't have just jumped to conclusions. I should never have believed that Sirius was a murderer or traitor."

When a terribly shocked Harry Potter, the son of James and Lily Potter asked Pettigrew why he did it, Pettigrew said, "I wanted protection. There was nothing I could do but join the Dark Lord. He promised to keep me safe. The Dark Lord would have killed me if I did otherwise."

To this response, a mad Remus Lupin said, "Then you should have died! Just like we would have done for you, you coward! You, rat!"

Barty Crouch, head of the DMLE at the time of Sirius's arrest refused to give Sirius a trial, despite Albus Dumbledore's request. Sirius was declared innocent by Amelia Bones without a second's hesitation.

"Since Mr. Black was arrested without a trial, I found it only fitting to declare him innocent devoid a trial." She said, as she announced Black's innocence. "He will be given an official apology from the Ministry and a sum of five hundred thousand galleons that unfortunately will not make up for even a part of what he has suffered. The Ministry will also pay for Black's treatment under two of the best Healers in the world."

Madam Bones and Dumbledore have put Black in the hands of Healers Ruberto and Maria Braithwaite. They have taken him to an undisclosed location, where he will be receiving his treatment.

When asked how he escaped Azkaban, Black said that the wall he was leaning on at the moment just disappeared and he fell into a tunnel and after walking through it for around a long time with a regular supply of meals and a mat to sleep on, he reached the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts and has been living in the Shrieking Shack from then on.

Black said, "For how long I was in that tunnel, I have no idea. It could have been hours, days, weeks or even a month. I could hear the sea roaring above me. After a while all was quiet and I guessed that I had gone past the sea."

Dumbledore said that this is the ancient magical mechanism of Azkaban in favour of the innocent.

"In normal circumstances, the tunnel would opened within the week of Sirius's arrest. Unfortunately, due to the dementors and Sirius blaming himself for James and Lily Potter's death, the mechanism was delayed greatly."

For more information on the various working mechanisms of Azkaban turn to Page 3.

Barty Crouch began to refuse Madam Bone's decision of setting Black free, but, unfortunately for him, when he asked the Minister for support, Cornelius Fudge agreed with Amelia Bones. Igor Karkaroff knew that Peter Pettigrew was working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He hadn't mentioned Pettigrew's name because he thought the traitor was dead.

The maddening part is, Pettigrew made an arrangement with his rodent friends. As the Aurors took Pettigrew across the grounds of Hogwarts, Pettigrew gave a loud 'squeak', a sort of signal for the rats. At that moment a sea, a literal sea of rats came running for the group. Pettigrew transformed into a rat, neatly avoiding the curses and spells thrown at him and mingled with rats.

"The chaos was unimaginable." said Michael Braithwaite, an Auror student at the site. "Who would believe that rats, as disorganized as they are, could be so disorganized in such an organized manner. It was terribly confusing."

By the time the rats were captured and stunned and searched, Pettigrew was missing.

"I request everyone to please stay on the alert." a frantic Cornelius Fudge said. "Keep an eye open for a rat with a missing toe on his front leg. Pettigrew is dangerous, but he doesn't have a wand yet. I urge you all to hold on to yours at all times. Everytime you see a rat feel free to stun it. Check it for a missing toe and if it doesn't have one, let the poor animal go. But if it does have a missing toe, cage it and notify the Ministry immediately."

When Dumbledore asked Fudge about the removal of the dementors from Hogwarts, he said, "Yes, of course! Dementors, do not affect animagi and they, most unfortunately, will be unhelpful in searching for Pettigrew."

Fudge said that the Ministry would set out cats specially trained for trapping and capturing rats all over England. "They will help us catch Pettigrew faster than anything else." he said.

"Great." Remus sighed, "Now the country will be full of cats.'

"Happy days for dogs all over!" Sirius said happily.

Harry laughed and then sobered and said, "What was that thing on Pettigrew's arm, the arm Moody exposed?"

Remus hesitated, deciding to put on some sugar coating on the truth, but then thought against it for, heaven knows, Harry would probably need that information some day, he would need to be aware of that Mark and it's meaning.

"That is called the Dark Mark Harry." Remus said gravely. "Voldemort burns it onto the arms of his followers. His followers, Harry, call themselves Death Eaters. That mark is also used as a method of communication amongst them and Voldemort."

"Oh." Harry said. "That explains the shocked faces." Then he looked up at Remus and Sirius and said, "You know Trelawney, the Divination teacher?"

Remus nodded and laughed, "I couldn't forget her even if I tried. She tried to get me to let her read my hand a few days before Christmas! She wanted to predict my future."

"What did you do, Remus?" Harry asked with interest.

"I ran." Remus said. "What else could I do? Anyway, what about her?"

She gave a real prediction, at least that's what Dumbledore said anyway...she went all strange and her voice went all deep and she said the yesterday that one of Voldemort's servants would set out to find Voldemort that day itself. It true, isn't it? Pettigrew won't help him come back, will he?"

Sirius sighed. He walked around the the desk, pulled up a chair, sat down so be was almost in level with Harry and said, "He may. Now that he knows that he's being hunted, he'll resort to his last means of safety, even if he has to share his body with Voldemort, though I don't think Voldemort will want to get mingled in such filth. Listen, Harry. I don't want you to worry. Nothing will harm you as long as we are around."

Harry stood up and shouted hysterically, "That's just it! He will kill you because you will be in his way just like he killed Mum and Dad! All because of me!"

"Sit down, Harry!" Sirius said sharply. "I want you to listen to me and listen to me well...If we are in Voldemort's way, it is because we choose to be in his way. You didn't pull us in front of him. If I die - well, I have too, as you know I'm not immortal - but, if I die protecting you, I want you to know that I will have finally accomplished my goal in life - keeping you safe till my death. And - " Sirius raised his hand to silence Harry who was trying to protest, "It is my choice. You have no say in it."

Poor Harry looked at Sirius miserably but didn't open his mouth. He turned to look at Remus. Remus gave him a small smile and said, "Not to worry Harry, I'll see that he doesn't do anything stupid. But the same goes for me, should the situation arise."

Harry sighed with resignation.

Remus felt sorry for him, "Go on and join your friends for breakfast, Harry. Padfoot and I will be leaving now, while everyone's out of sight."

He pulled Harry into a hug, "Take care, alright. It's been a pleasure teaching you. It's been a greater pleasure meeting you and having you over every Sunday. Do come to visit us sometimes on your holidays."

Harry just sighed.

"Do you know what your Patronus is, Harry?" Sirius asked Harry as he pulled him into a hug.

"No. Did it take a form?"

"Yes it did when you cast it at Dementor Malfoy and his jugheaded buddies. I want to see it again before I go."

"Okay." Harry said uncertainly. He pulled out his wand, held it in front of him, closed his eyes and said, "Expecto Patronum!"

Remus saw the magnificent silvery white stag canter around the room and then come to stand proudly by Harry side, lowering his head. As an open-mouthed Harry raised his hand to touch it, it dissolved into thin air.

Harry looked at Remus with a wide smile and said excitedly, "It's a stag! It's a stag! Did you see that?"

"Yes, Harry, it is a stag." Remus said smiling, "That was your father's animagus form. And I'm sure both, James and Lily would have been extremely proud of you. Not only because of the Patronus, which you've successfully mastered at thirteen, but also because of everything else you have so wonderfully accomplished."

With that, Remus lifted his suitcase, which had Sirius's case tucked in one of its corners and followed Harry out of his quarters with one last look around the rooms...Padfoot at his heals.

xxxxxxxxxx The End xxxxxxxxxx

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are well.

First of, I would like to thank you for reading this fanfiction of mine. And a million thanks to everyone who reviewed this story.

I won't begin with a sequel immediately, but I'm going to start on some other fanfics too.

I'll be starting with University now and I don't know how hectic things will be. College definitely was but University is about an hour away from where I live and I don't want to change my residence.

In other words, I'll update when I find time, but I'll take a small break from this story first.

Please take care.

Ferns25100