Hello, hello again! I know I updated yesterday, but as Sable was so nice, and lovely I decided to give her another chapter :D I had planned for something else to happen at the end, but decided it was probably best if I left it where I did. I also haven't properly edited through the chapter, so I'm sorry about that.
As always, if you see any grammatical errors, be sure to PM me and let me know :)
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Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, and only the story line and any OC's belong to me.
For Sable and Lais xxx
In the flurry of movement that follows Hermione's attack on Peter, Remus sees one interaction that stands out sharply against the rest of it.
Ron and Hermione's wands are wrenched from their grasp, and they stand there looking slightly irritated, but they don't do anything further.
They both turn to see who has a hold of their wands, and Remus watches as Ron's eyes widen exponentially. Remus follows his line of sight and sees Arthur Weasley. Remus hasn't really interacted with the older man much, aside from a bit of small talk here and there. They are in different stages of their lives, so the number of topics they have to work with are limited. Arthur is married with children, and Remus is only a year out of Hogwarts, with no girlfriend and he doesn't think he will ever want children; if only to keep them from being damned with his curse.
"Dad?" Ron says, inadvertently taking a step towards the other redhead. Remus frowns lightly, but then he sees it. Arthur is a bit older, a bit taller, his nose is a bit longer, his face is a bit rounder, he's dressed in a thick woollen sweater, slacks and brown leather shoes, his hairstyle is completely different with his ginger hair falling over his ears, with long bangs that almost get in his eyes; but otherwise they look almost exactly alike.
"I beg your pardon?" Arthur stumbles over his words, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You're Arthur Weasley, right?" Ron asks, eyebrows creeping up his forehead.
"Indeed I am," Arthur responds, eyebrows knitting together, and Remus can hear the sound of Arthur's foot beginning to tap ringing in his ears.
"Bloody hell," Ron whistles, rubbing his head with his right hand, once again looking at Arthur in awe. "Well, certainly wasn't expecting to see you so soon."
"Enough!" James yells, huffing, shoulders moving up and down rapidly as he glares at Hermione. "Why the fuck did you attack Peter?" James flings his hand out in Peter's direction, and Remus turns to the left, noticing for the first time that Sirius is kneeling beside the silently sobbing boy, trying to pull the ropes from his body. In fact, it looks like the more Sirius pulls, the tighter the thick ropes get-cutting and rubbing painfully into Peter's skin from the agony filled look on his face.
"You think he's the spy," Remus guesses, astutely from the small smile she shoots his way before her lips curl into a displeased look.
"We know he's the spy," Ron rolls his eyes, as if it should be entirely obvious, and believing anything to the contrary is foolish. "We don't think. We know. We're from the future remember?"
There is a long, tense silence, the only sound is Peter's sobs, Sirius's frustrated grunts and everyone's breathing.
"We could give you the long spiel, but I think providing pensieve memories for everyone should suffice, that way you can all confirm who we are for yourselves" Harry speaks up for the first time since the whole mess began a few minutes ago.
"Are you saying that Dumbledore's word is not enough?" Minerva asks coldly, gesturing to the man who is still rooted in place, eyes darting about frantically at all of them. Remus can't help but think that Dumbledore being anything but calm after going through the boy's mind, can't be a good thing.
"H-How did you know that he was already the spy...that we even had a spy yet?' Dumbledore rasps.
"When you were searching my mind, I was searching yours-" Harry shrugs, upon seeing Dumbledore's eyes widen a fraction he tacks on, "-don't worry, I kept it to recent events, I merely needed to know if there was a spy yet or not. If there was, then I would know it was Pettigrew."
"How do you know it's Peter?" Sirius growls, forgetting his task of freeing Peter for a moment, getting up and storming towards Harry, stopping abruptly in front of him. Before anyone can react, Sirius's wand is out and he yells, "Legilimens!"
Remus gasps softly, Sirius isn't thinking straight, he's downright volatile at the moment. He's not a skilled Legilimens either, which means this will be an excruciating process for the boy as Sirius stomps and stumbles naively through his mind.
Remus's suspicions are confirmed when Harry throws back his head in pain, eyes clenched shut, a piercing scream cutting through the room. His body writhes and shakes violently until he's thrust from his chair and he's shifting in agony on the ground.
"NO!" Hermione's heart wrenching cry stabs at the air, and she's struggling against Ron's hold as he prevents her from throwing herself on Sirius; the redhead is making shushing noises and hugging her to him as he looks over her head at his friend with grief and pain, as if it was him on the ground and not Harry.
They can't do anything but wait, wait as Harry screams, as Hermione screams, as Dumbledore watches on with a cold kind of detachment, Minerva shaking Dumbledore's shoulder and begging him to do something, anything.
Time seems to stretch for an eternity, yet it is over in less than a second.
Sirius stumbles backwards, gasping, and wildly looking around, until his eyes fall on Peter. He glances at James briefly, and then he lets out a strangled, broken cry as he charges towards Peter. "You, filthy rat!"
Remus steps into Sirius's path, blocking him from getting to Peter, and swiftly, without hesitation whispers, "stupefy."
James looks at Remus with rage as Sirius crumples to the ground, the red spell had knocked him unconscious. Remus sees Hermione and Ron rush to Harry's side in his peripherals.
Remus calmly says, "we need to figure out what's going on, and to remain calm. Sirius was clearly highly emotional, and he would have done something he regrets, again," Remus says the last word with such force and venom, that it silences James.
"Now does anyone want to clarify what the fuck is going on?" Remus cocks an eyebrow at the room of gaping individuals.
"We know Peter is the spy, we found out in our third year. He was in hiding in his animagus form, he had been for twelve years. He was Ron's rat," Hermione says shakily, fighting back tears.
"There was a prophecy, about someone who could defeat Voldemort-" at the scandalised gasps in the room, Hermione pauses, but she merely scoffs before she continues, "-someone else told Voldemort about it, so Dumbledore insisted that Lily and James be moved to a safe house whilst Lily was still pregnant, as well as Alice and Frank. Both of their sons would fit the prophecy, but Voldemort chose Harry...on October thirty-first in nineteen eighty-one, he made his move. Killing Lily and James, and attempting to kill Harry, but being thwarted. It was how Harry got his scar, it was why Harry was known throughout the wizarding world as its saviour."
"Sirius feared that they would come for him, that it would be dangerous having him be the secret keeper...and Remus and him were on speaking terms, not really, he had been away you see-" Hermione's eyes flick up to him then, and he takes in a deep breath when the next few words fall from her lips, "-he was away, in the werewolf packs, under Dumbledore's command."
"So Sirius turned to their only other friend, Peter, the only one he trusted wholly without question."
"They didn't know he was the spy, had been for years, they didn't know that he was going to betray them," Harry chokes out, and Hermione's head flies in his direction, and she's asking him if he's alright before he waves her off.
"Then he framed Sirius for the whole thing, and he went to Azkaban for twelve years," Ron finishes, but then the redhead's eyes widen and he adds casually, "oh, and that's only one part...do you all still think that Dumbledore's word is good enough, or do you want to use the pensieve?"
