Chapter 16

The small name was moving along one of the ground floor corridors towards a side door that led to one of Hogwarts many courtyards. Specifically the one where the gobstone club met on warmer weekends. Harry grabbed up the map and his currently small chain and ran for the staircase.

The Peter Pettigrew name was making its way at an oddly slow pace but by the time Harry reached the fourth floor it had almost reached the exit. Jumping down stairs while focusing on the map Harry had to catch himself as his next flight moved away. Why would anyone make something like this bloody flighty staircase!

He turned quickly and bowled over some students that were exiting the Charms Corridor. The girl in the group shrieked in surprise, dropping her books.

"Watch it, Potter!" One of them shouted. Harry caught himself mid fall, Quidditch reflexes coming in handy.

"Sorry, I'm sorry!" He shouted as he ran past them. The Charms Corridor was mercifully attached to a short cut down a level, though it would deposit him further away from his target. It should still be faster than waiting on the whims of blasted stairs.

The secret passage was covered by a tapestry of two centaurs galloping on an open plane. So he moved the heavy fabric aside and squeezed through the gap in the stone. Clearly this passage wouldn't be available to him much longer.

He took the winding stairwell in the passage two at a time and when he reached the other end, covered by a cabinet that would slide easily with a push, he stopped to check the map.

Pettigrew's name had disappeared as expected. He quickly turned off the map and muttered. "I solemnly swear Peter Pettigrew is up to no good." And tapped it with his wand. The castle spread once more across the page but it was absent any names at all. The grounds then.

The sun was late in the sky and people had begun to move towards the Great Hall for dinner. Harry had to push through throngs of boisterous Hufflepuffs and backtrack towards the stairs to get to the corridor where Pettigrew's name had last been seen.

The corridor was empty so Harry ran down through to the courtyard beyond and pulled out the shrunken chain links.

"Engorgio." Harry commanded, flicking his wand. The chain expanded back to its full size, about six feet and an inch thick. With another tap of his wand he said. "Peter Pettigrew." The chain began slithering forward like a snake, links dragging across the ground. It was peculiar, as he had assumed it would just sort of drag along in a straight line. Perhaps it was mimicking its target's movements and adjusting. Not the time Potter, he thought to himself, shaking his head.

The chain was thankfully slow enough to keep up with however he quickly ran into an issue as he left the courtyard. The archway at the end of the courtyard exited to some stairs which clung to the wall and lead down to the grounds. His chain quickly slithered over the bannister and continued down the side of the steep hill. Harry, however, had to take the stairs two at a time, winding down to the fields which surrounded the castle. He quickly lost ground on the enchanted metal but thankfully did not lose sight of it.

His artificial hunter was quickly approaching the Forbidden Forest. The sun was already setting and Harry resigned himself to his yearly trip beneath that dark canopy. The chain disappeared into the tree line. He could see the dementors floating in the distance and his hand was sweating as he gripped his wand firmly.

But he was a Gryffindor and he wanted answers about what happened to his parents. To his whole life. So he steeled his resolve and ran into the trees. Maybe he should have made some new armour.

The huge pines loomed above him and quickly blocked out both the sun and his view of the castle. He had no clue how he was going to find Pettigrew or whatever his chain was chasing in here. He just hoped that it kept to a straight line.

"Lumos." Harry said, holding his wand up, flooding his surroundings in light. He slowed down and made sure to keep scanning for anything dangerous or a hint of the chain. He hoped the light would reflect off the metal and draw his eye, much like the snitch.

It luckily didn't actually take him all that long to find it. It was wrapped up in a ball which was rolling on the ground, something clearly trapped inside it. The chain must have caught up quickly because whatever it was hunting was quite small, or it hadn't been wanting to stray too far from the castle. Regardless, whatever his chain had caught was decidedly not human.

Harry approached slowly, wand out and circled the wiggling ball. It really was quite remarkable how much the chain resembled a snake, constricting its prey. Did magic just really like snakes or something.

Crouching down Harry took a closer look at the wrapped up creature and found a squealing bundle of fur. He picked up a stick, not willing to risk his wand, and pushed the chain away slightly. He would recognise this ruddy thing anywhere, Scabbers, Ron's missing rat.

Why had his chain chased and caught a pet rat of all things? Maybe he had been called Peter Pettigrew previously. Though as far as Harry knew Scabbers had been owned by the Weasleys, first by Percy then by Ron…how long do rats live anyway. It would be odd for a pet to have a last name. Or maybe he had made a mistake with his creation. Peter wouldn't be such an odd name for a rat. Though that wouldn't explain the map, which seemed to work just fine.

Still, at least the missing rat problem could be solved tonight. Harry reached out to pick up the mess of fur and metal, hoping he hadn't hurt Ron's pet, when a black streak caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

Harry turned, wand coming up, but all too slowly. The black blur clarified into a huge dog, even bigger than fang, with black scruffy fur.

The hound knocked Harry's wand away as it pushed past him and snatched up the trapped creature, chains and all. The light from his wand snuffed out and he was left momentarily blind in the dark. The dark shape of the dog lingered for a moment as Harry struggled to make out what was happening. Then there was a squeal of pain and the dog ran off with its prize into the undergrowth.

"What in Merlin's beard?" Harry uttered, going to pick up his wand and chase after the animals, more perplexed than ever. He really felt like he was missing something in all of this.

As he reached for his wand he realised it was too soft, and short. He had picked up something else in the dark. Something thick, cylindrical and oozing blood on his band.

"Ahhh!" Harry screamed and dropped it, realising he had picked up a finger of all things. A human finger, a still bleeding human finger. How the hell did a human finger get here? Was scabbers just someone pretending to be scabbers, some weird human transfiguration? He remembered vividly McGonagall turning herself into a cat. Perhaps this was a practical joke gone wrong. But then his chain had been hunting Peter Pettigrew, so it was a dead man turning himself into Ron's rat. Or…

"Harry?!" A voice called out through the darkness. Harry scrambled and picked up the finger with a wretch, shoving it into his robe pocket. He found his wand close by also and raised it just in time to seek Professor Lupin enter the clearing. "Harry, thank the founders." The man puffed slightly out of breath.

"Professor Lupin?"

"You know well that the forest is out of bounds, I've heard." The man approached slowly, holding his lit wand high. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm not sure. " Harry said honestly.

"You're risking a week's detention for no reason?" Lupin asked.

"I made a new map sir." Harry offered. "And this afternoon I saw that name again, Peter Pettigrew." The Professor's eyebrows rose in surprise and looked around curiously at the empty clearing.

"Why are you out here then?"

"I made something sir, to catch people, I thought it might work…"

"You made something to catch people? In a school?"

"Just a chain, it'd find and wrap around them, no worse than the incarcerous!" Harry argued, not wanting to risk further punishment. He had looked that particular spell up after Quirell had tied him up beneath the third floor corridor. "It didn't work anyway. Nothing I make seems to work all that well."

"Why do you say that? Professor Babbling's reports give a much different impression of your abilities."

"Because when I got here all it did was catch Ron's bloody rat!" Harry complained. The Professor's eyes seemed to focus hard on Harry then and the boy took a small step back, suspicious of the change in demeanour.

"A rat?" The man asked, his voice suddenly hoarse.

"Yes?" The younger wizard replied with uncertainty. "Scabbers, then this big dog came and ran off with him!"

"Which way did they go?" The Professor demanded, and Harry pointed further into the forest. "Very well Harry, we are going to go after them, but you do as I say under all circumstances and you stay behind me, is that understood?"

Harry's throat suddenly felt tight and difficult to swallow at the older man's serious tone, but not wanting to be left out he nodded and kept his nerve. The teacher and student moved slowly deeper into the woods, keeping their wands raised.

"Should we cancel your light charm?" Harry asked in a whisper but Lupin shook his head.

"He will know we are coming anyway, best we be able to see." The man answered and Harry nodded. Lupin suddenly stopped for a moment then adjusted their course. It took Harry a moment to understand why but as they moved quietly he realised he could hear talking, shouting.

"Face me like a man Peter! Or I'll crush you like the man you are. Lily! James! Twelve years, I've waited and you'll look me in the eyes!"

They came to another clearing where a large man in threadbare clothing was screaming down at Harry's chain, which had grown still. The man was completely unkempt, hair long and scraggly and face growing a messy beard. Harry could tell by his frame that he was severely malnourished also.

He looked up quickly as Harry and the Professor entered the clearing, wands aimed at who was unmistakably Sirius Black. Black lunged and grabbed up the bundle but then froze.

"Remus?" He asked, surprise etching his tired sore voice. "James?"

"Not James, Sirius, Harry." Lupin corrected. "Put that down if you would." The Professor flicked his wand, indicating the bundle.

"It's him, Remus, it's him! After all these years we can have our revenge."

"I know Sirius, we saw him on the map, but I don't understand how. And before anything else we need to know that. Harry needs to know."

"Harry?" The escapee's eyes seemed to take him in for the first time then. "You look just like-"

"My father, I know." Harry interrupted hotly, there was little he hated more than being out of the loop and he felt very out at this moment. "Will someone please tell me what is going on?"

"We are just about to get to the bottom of that." Lupin twirled his wand at the parcel of metal and said. "Animato animagus!"

Black quickly chucked the parcel into the air and Lupin's spell struck it square on. There was an odd twisting motion within the chains and the whole thing expanded until a rotund little man landed on the ground with a thump and a squeak of pain.

That's when Harry finally understood what had been playing in his mind, right out of his reach. They were all animagus. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Padfoot a dog, Wormtail a rat. His dad and Lupin something else, and owl for Lupin perhaps. Something with points for his dad, a deer, maybe an antelope.

"Hello Peter." Lupin said, standing over the man. "Now we are all here, perhaps it's time for a catch-up."

"Remus! My old friend! Sirius escaped and he's come to kill us both, to finish what he started with James!" The small man shrieked, struggling with his binds.

"Shut up! It was you! It was all you, you snivelling coward!" Black shouted, jumping at the restrained man. Lupin flicked his wand and ropes sprung from them, wrapping around the emaciated man, who fell next to Pettigrew.

"Now, let's hear it, Sirius first I think." And so Sirius told his story, of convincing Harry's parents he was too obvious to be their secret keeper. That Pettigrew could more easily hide. Only for him to go running to Voldemort to save his own skin.

Sirius had apparently been the first to reach the house in Godric's Hollow, and gave Harry to Hagrid to protect. This corresponded with Harry's understanding of events and certainly helped make the man's case. If he was a spy or whatever, why would he give Harry to Hagrid after all.

Then Black claimed to go after Pettigrew only for the rat to kill a dozen people and frame Black. He finally finished his story describing having been taken to Azkaban, apparently without a formal trial and then most recently seeing Scabbers in a picture in the Daily Prophet.

"But he's here now Remus! We can kill him and take revenge for James and Lily!" Sirius finished, working himself up again and struggling against the ropes.

"No!" The little man pleaded desperately. "You don't understand what it was like, what he was like!" Harry blinked in shock, an admission just like that, the man really was a coward.

"So it was you after all." The Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor muttered, almost too quietly for Harry to hear.

"Let's kill him, Remus! I spent twelve years in that place for murdering him I may as well get the pleasure!" It was a strangely logical argument Harry had to admit.

"What was I going to do! He was going to kill me, you don't understand his power!"

"I would have died for them, died for them Peter, in an instant!" Sirius screamed, and in a burst of accidental magic tore through the ropes restricting him and jumped at the man.

"No!" Harry screamed, and tackled the fully grown man off of the other. "If you kill him you'll go straight back to Azkaban. You're meant to be my godfather!" The large man suddenly seemed to lose his fight and stopped struggling. He was laying on Harry, both of them looking into the canopy, holding the man around his arms.

"If you go back to jail I have to go back to my own, at Privet Drive. I didn't know my parents but I don't think they would want that for either of us! So please, let's take him back and he will face justice, for them and the others he killed."

"Your own jail?" Sirius asked softly.

"They have been awful, they hate my mother and so they hate me too, call me a freak and other things, make me do all the chores. We don't know each other, at all, but I was meant to live with you, so you can't go get locked up again, please!" The man nodded and went limp, allowing Harry to let him go. The convict really needed a shower, Harry suddenly realised.

Thankfully his godfather rolled off of him allowing Harry to get to his feet. He went to point his wand again at the rat when he realised that he had lost it in the tussle.

Looking around wildly in the suddenly very dark clearing Harry's eyes came to rest on the chained up animagus. Only he wasn't so chained anymore. Sporting a sneering grin, Pettigrew was holding his holly wand in an outstretched free arm. He must have got it free during Sirius' attack and Harry must have dropped his wand.

Harry grinned back as the man froze suddenly, then screamed in pain. But he kept hold of Harry's wand and managed to tap himself on his head. The same spinning and twisting occured and despair gripped him as that ugly pointed face shrunk and changed. Suddenly the man who betrayed his parents was gone again, a rat once more, disappearing deeper into the forest.

He felt once more like he was back in the cupboard under the stairs. Crying alone in the dark. Hungry and hurting and alone. Wishing desperately for someone to break open the door and take him from that place. From the old mattress. From the spiders. From his pitiful keepsakes. From the dark. From his pain.

But somebody had come already, a vision of a big jolly face covered in hair delivering his first ever birthday cake. He wasn't that boy anymore. He wasn't alone and he never would be again. Nobody would take anyone from him.

Harry scrambled, his breath misting in the cold evening air, and snatched up his wand. "Sirius, we have to go, he's getting away!" Turning around, Harry found his godfather unresponsive, cradling his head in his hands, muttering something under his breath. There was a screaming in the distance.

He turned again to the only other person in the clearing. Professor Lupin was looking off in the distance, seemingly distracted. "Professor?" No response. The screaming was getting louder. Harry ran over and grabbed the man's arm to shake it. "Professor Lupin!"

The mousey brown haired man seemed to snap to attention and looked down at Harry, all colour seeming to have drained from his face. "They are coming. Quickly now!"

The man pointed his wand at the trees and shouted. "Expecto Patronum!" A bright silver wolf sprang from his wand and with the new light Harry saw them. He didn't know how he hadn't noticed their presence before then.

The clearing was covered by frost and the wizard's breaths hung heavy in the air. Descending from the trees was a legion of skeletal figures, the creatures of shadow and sadness that haunted his dreams.

The wolf lunged at the closest, pushing it away, and continued on to the next. Harry watched on in despair though as they kept coming. Drifting slowly down like an inevitable end, a blanket of death and emptiness. Harry's mother's screams chorused through him, a cold knife through his heart.

With a shaky voice Harry lifted his wand and mirrored his teacher. "Expecto…expecto patronum." It was no use though. He'd never really found a memory good enough. Maybe he didn't have any. He had tried them all, Hermione waking up, seeing Hogwarts for the first time, even most recently winning the Quidditch Cup. None of them produced more than a flimsy shield.

Maybe he just wasn't a very good wizard. He couldn't protect anyone when he needed to after all.

A hand gripped his then, dirty and calloused and large. "Just think of something good, that you'll always remember, and try to return to that moment." Sirius smiled and pushed his wand arm into the air.

Harry remembered then Hermione saying some, it was about the feeling, not necessarily the memory. But then a memory came to him anyway, one that welled so many feelings up in him, even though it now held a sting it lingered with him.

A girl, with dark red hair and a lopsided smile, glowing in happiness before an immense tree. This was something the dementors could never take from him and he shouted then. "Expecto Patronum!"

A huge silver stag exploded from his wand and joined the wolf in battling the creatures. Tossing and trampling them. The soul blights fled before it, screaming into the night and Harry collapsed.


The sound of raised heated voices brought him back around. He was equal parts surprised and unsurprised to be met with the Hogwarts Hospital Wing ceiling. Turning over he found two chairs occupied by his best friends, though neither were looking at him, but rather at the curtain.

"What's happening?" Harry asked, feeling more tired than seemed normal, so his question came out as a bit of a slur. Hermione jumped in surprise while Ron just turned around looking relieved.

"Gave us a right scare mate, thought you'd been kissed the way Dumbledore brought you back in."

"Not today anyway." Harry replied with a smile. He was then engulfed in a hair filled hug as Hermione practically launched herself at him.

"What were you thinking chasing after Sirius Black like that in the Forest. You could have been killed! You were almost killed!"

"I didn't chase Sirius, Hermione, I chased Peter Pettigrew." She drew back looking shocked, even though he had already told them both about what he had seen on the map close to Christmas.

"What happened?" She asked, concern in her eyes. He appreciated it but now wasn't the time.

"What's happened since I passed out?"

"Black has been locked up again." Ron offered. Hermione took a seat on the bed rather than where she had been sitting and looked worriedly at him. "The Minister is here and is trying to get him kissed by the dementors but Dumbledore is trying to stop him. Professor Lupin is saying Black is innocent but nobody is listening to him except Dumbledore."

"Why not?!" Harry demanded. "He's telling the truth!"

"Because he's a werewolf." Their female friend answered. Harry paused at that new piece of information, but quickly decided it was irrelevant. The man had done nothing wrong to him and was a friend of his family. Ron also appeared shocked so this must be need to him too.

"But he's telling the truth. I saw Pettigrew, he confessed and everything!" Harry twisted in the bed and brought his feet to the floor. His friends both moved to help him and he was thankful for that as when he tried to stand he wobbled drastically, his legs feeling drained. After a moment though he was able to walk.

They pushed the curtain aside and found Professor Dumbledore, grey and silver robes sparkling like the night sky, talking with a much shorter man with a bowler hat and a green three piece suit. Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, was a lot shorter than he looked in the papers.

Fudge was the first to spot him and quickly stopped debating with the Headmaster. "Ah, Harry my boy, glad to see you up and about. Gave us quite the scare, but you seem no worse for wear after fighting off Black." Fudge had donned a rather fake smile and Harry was taken aback by the casual friendliness.

"Hello Minister." Harry greeted slowly. "It wasn't Sirius who did this though, it was the dementors."

"Ah yes, well, you know, just doing their job hunting Black, I was just telling the Headmaster here that they clearly had been needed as they have successfully detained the criminal." The Minister had seemed momentarily surprised but quickly picked up steam again.

"And I was just telling the Minister that they had once again endangered innocents." The Headmaster countered with his usual friendly tone.

"Now see here Dumbledore-" Fudge started, but Harry quickly cut in.

"Respectfully, sir, you have the wrong man. Sirius Black is innocent." The Government official looked shocked, and he fiddled with his hat.

"The werewolf said so too, but you know you can't trust…No, the testimony of a child and .creature would not do." He seemed to be speaking more to himself than anyone else. But he looked at Dumbledore then he looked at Harry again. "It's not enough, the country is panicked enough, a murderer on the loose. We have him now and that's the end of it-"

"I'm not asking for you to let him go." Harry interrupted again. The Minister frowned at him in response. Harry decided he needed then to take a different tack. "I understand your position, the country should know they are safe, but also that their Government keeps them safe. I'm not asking that you let him go, just that we follow our laws and you give him a trial."

"There is a kiss on sight order, all legal for an escapee of Azkaban." Fudge retorted, puffing up. "That will not change without proof."

"I have proof." Harry reached into his robe pocket and cringed slightly as his hand closed around the amputated finger. Pulling it out he showed it to the Minister, who recoiled in shock. "Peter Pettigrew was out there tonight and he left a bit of himself behind, again."

"Dawlish?" Fudge asked and a man dressed in dark red robes Harry hadn't even noticed stepped forward from the right of the Minister. He took the finger nonchalantly and ran his wand up and down its length. After the third run a small piece of paper popped into existence from the end of his wand. The man in red, Dawlish, nodded at the paper and handed it to the Minister.

After a few moments of quiet contemplation Harry decided to speak up again. "If he is guilty then he is kissed, if he isn't then you have righted a wrong of the past and the people will know they get fair treatment."

Fudge purses his lips and then sighed heavily. "Very well, he will have his day in court. Dawlish, take that to Amelia and see what she makes of it." Fudge made to walk away but stopped at the last moment. "You will be at the trial then?" He asked Harry, who nodded.

"Nobody is more interested in justice being done for my parents than I am, Minister." He responded. The politician nodded and then smiled slightly.

Then, with a quick nod at the Headmaster and a farewell he was gone. Dumbledore was looking down at Harry with a twinkle in his eye.

"Quite the show Harry, if I do say so. He won't underestimate you a second time I imagine."

Harry shrugged in response. "I'm just hopeful he will do as he says."

"Oh he will." Dumbledore reassured. "It was quite inspired, talking about the responsibility of the government. You are becoming wise beyond your years it seems."

"I bought a book about the Wizarding World over the summer, it talked about the Ministry. I didn't realise that it would come in handy like this though."

"Great knowledge can be found in books, as you might attest Miss Granger." His otherwise silent friend 'eeped' at the sudden acknowledgement. "But wisdom is to know when to use it." Dumbledore smiled to himself, obviously pleased with himself.

"I suppose, sir." Harry said, unsure.

"Quite. Now you must back to bed, lest our dear Madam Pomfrey decide to tan both our hides. And I should like an overdue chat with an old dog I think." With that Albus Dumbledore too departed, leaving only the three third years and a frowning nurse.

"He really is as barmy as they say." Ron said as they watched the tall wizard depart.


AN: Possibly one or two more chapters left at Hogwarts. Undecided on a few things so the next chapter might take a little while.

In other news I am giving up trying to guess exactly what people are going to take away from what I write. I'm sure there is something unsatisfactory about this chapter, probably Harry still having some affection for Daphne still.