Chapter 17: Wormtail's Sentence
"Wait! Don't kill him!" Harry said.
"Harry," Sirius began.
"Harry, remember what happened last time," Lupin said.
"No," said Harry, "it's not that. It's just… well, if we have Wormtail, he can confess and then Sirius' name will be cleared."
Sirius looked at Harry and his face broke into a smile. "That's a great idea!" he shouted.
So it was decided. Dumbledore accompanied Sirius, Lupin, and Wormtail to the Ministry of Magic. Using a truth potion, Wormtail was forced to confess about his faked death. Sirius' name was cleared; he was no longer a wanted criminal. Peter Pettigrew was locked up in a special magic-proof cell in the basement of the Ministry of Magic.
Ron soon felt better, and Harry and Hermione filled him in on their adventures ("I told you that girl was suspicious!"). Ron was a little disappointed at missing another adventure, but now the trio had other things to worry about: exams and the final Quidditch match.
It was that night. Harry had been asleep for a few minutes when he started to dream.
"Wormtail, it's just like you to go and let yourself get caught. Are you a complete imbecile?"
"No, Master. I'm sorry, Master. It won't happen again."
"It certainly won't," Voldemort said, his eyes gleaming in the dark dungeon.
"Master, no, please!"
"You have failed me too many times. I can't have you blabbing all my secret plans to these Ministry fools. Besides, now that some of the Azkaban prisoners are starting to become themselves again, I no longer need you."
Harry could hear sniveling and crying coming from the prison cell.
"Avada Kedavra."
"Hey! Who's there?" a voice called.
There was a small pop and Lord Voldemort was gone.
Harry woke up at this moment, but he was too tired to get up and tell Dumbledore, thinking he would do it the next morning. But by the time he woke up again, he had forgotten all about the dream.
Harry and Ron walked down to breakfast together the next day. Hermione was already there eating and reading her copy of the Daily Prophet. "Check this out," she said to Ron and Harry as they sat down beside her. She handed them the front page, which read:
Pettigrew Faked Death; Black Innocent
Fifteen years ago, a man named Sirius Black was accused of killing thirteen Muggles, Peter Pettigrew, and betraying Lily and James Potter's hiding place to You-Know-Who, writes Rita Skeeter, special correspondent. Only two years ago, Black was miraculously able to escape from Azkaban. Black was believed to be one of the Dark Lord's most loyal servants and double agent. It turns that it was the other way around.
It was discovered that Pettigrew was an unregistered Animagus, able to turn himself into a rat. This ability let himself escape from Black, cutting off his finger to let it seem as though he had been killed. Pettigrew then, as a rat, let himself be adopted by an anonymous wizarding family, where he stayed for twelve years.
Pettigrew was found impersonating Headmaster Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Pettigrew was forced to confess with Veritaserum and was placed in a magic-proof cell below Cornelius Fudge's office. Pettigrew was found dead this morning of unknown causes.
"I heard a strange noise last night when I was on my rounds," said a night watchman. "But when I got to the cell, there was no one there."
All charges against Black have been dropped and Pettigrew will be buried this afternoon.
"He's gone," said Harry.
"Serves him right. At least they didn't mention our name," Ron said, shuddering.
"Did you notice who the article was written by?" Hermione asked slyly.
"Rita Skeeter?" said the boys in unison.
"And no made up facts or opinions?" said Ron incredulously. "Wow, being kept in a jar must have done that woman some good."
The Easter holidays were quickly approaching, and so was the final Quidditch match. Ravenclaw had beaten Slytherin, and Hufflepuff had beaten Ravenclaw, so all Gryffindor had to do was beat Hufflepuff and they would win the Quidditch cup.
The match had started off as usual, and Gryffindor Chaser had already scored two goals each. Unfortunately, Hufflepuff was even better this year with their new Seeker and Captain, Isaac Tremblor. Isaac also had a Firebolt, and the two Seekers were evenly matched. But Harry hadn't yet seen the Snitch yet, so the kept playing.
"Angelina Johnson scores again, bringing Gryffindor's score up to 130," Lee called unenergetically. The game had been going on for two and a half hours and the teams were tired. Harry watched as a Hufflepuff Chaser got the Quaffle and scored. The teams were tied now. The scores in the other matches had been close, so whoever caught the Snitch now would win their team the Cup.
Harry felt the pressure on him. He had to win! And then he saw Isaac zooming towards the middle of the field. The Snitch was there! Harry put on a burst of speed, but he wasn't sure if his Firebolt could beat Isaac's; he had never flown against another one before.
Harry flattened himself as much as possible to the broom handle. He was gaining.
The two Seekers were side by side. Harry reached out, Isaac reached out. And then Harry felt something small and smooth in his hand. He had caught the Snitch!
The whistle blew and the team flew to the ground. The Gryffindors in the crowd spilled onto the field, including Hermione, Neville, Seamus, and Dean, who started to congratulate the team. Madame Hooch passed Harry the cup, and he passed it around to the rest of the team. It was even better winning the Quidditch cup when he was the captain.
Weeks passed; it was getting to be warm outside and no one wanted to pay attention to lessons, let alone study. Hermione pressured the boys into it, thought, and they were usually the only three people in the common room in the afternoons.
Hermione was spending a lot more time with Ginny now that Lauren was gone. Harry couldn't help but think that Ginny was a little jealous of Lauren and Hermione's friendship and was secretly glad of Lauren's true identity.
Not surprisingly, Malfoy was back to his old self. His gang of Slytherins looked up to him again, now that Rinaldi was gone. Malfoy never told anyone about his time in the Chamber of Secrets.
Exams came and went, and they all did well enough. Fifth years also had to take the O.W.Ls, which were even harder than regular exams, but they each did well. Fred and George were in their seventh year, and they had to take the N.E.W.Ts. Even though the twins looked like jokers, they were actually very smart, and did well.
The last week of school, Professor Delacour announced that she and her boyfriend, Roger Davies, were moving to France so she could teach at her old school, Beauxbatons. Scott Malfoy approached the Gryffindor table and told everyone that he was moving and that his parents wanted him to transfer to Durmstrang.
It turned out that Joey Marshall had no idea that Lauren was pretending to be his sister. In fact, Joey was the oldest child in his family; he had two younger sisters. He had never really understood why Lauren was always telling him things and being protective.
It was the end of the year feast; time to go back home. Harry was actually looking forward to it because he no longer had to go to the Dursleys. He could stay with Sirius for the entire summer! Dumbledore re-congratulated Gryffindor for winning the Quidditch Cup, but there was no House Cup winner because they had decided not to use points this year. This made Snape particularly angry because he loved taking away points from students he hated.
The next morning, everyone got on the Hogwarts Express and traveled back to King's Cross Station. When Harry got off the train and saw Sirius waiting for him, he knew this was going to be the best summer ever.
