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A Different Life
Chapter 29 - A Rat
It was during Harry's next advanced Potion lesson that he remembered his dream. Well remembered he had a dream, some of the details were a bit foggy since he left it so long to tell his father.
"Dad..."
"Hmmm..." His father answered distractedly
"The other night I had a dream-"
"What!" His father looked up from the cauldron abruptly, a slightly alarmed look showing on his face.
"No, not that type of dream." Harry quickly said, shuddering as he thought about the past 'dreams' that he had had where he was forced to re-live situations where he was abused by the Dursleys.
"Then what type of dream?"
Harry now had his father's full attention, so it was best to get straight to the point while he still had it.
"I'm not really sure what it was about, it seemed more real then a dream. I saw two men. They were standing over a cauldron and they were saying something about blood. I can't really remember. There was something about a body in there as well."
"Did you recognize the men?"
"One seemed familiar but I'm not sure."
"What did they look like?"
"I can't remember" Harry saw that his father was about to scold him for not remembering such detail so he quickly continued on. "But it was really dark."
"How long ago was the dream?"
Harry counted the days, scrunching his face up as he thought.
"The night after our last Potion lesson" Harry replied hesitantly, hoping that his father wouldn't be mad he had left it so long.
His father didn't say anything, just nodded, but did look a bit put out.
"Is there anything else?"
"Well, when I woke up... my scar hurt."
Harry looked away at his father's obvious anger.
"Your scar hurt! Why didn't you come straight to me or even Albus?"
"I- it didn't hurt that much. Besides I don't think you would have appreciated me waking you up at-"
"I don't care what the time was Harry, you still should have come to me."
Harry looked at the ground. "I'm sorry da-"
"Has this happened before?"
Harry quickly looked up and into his father's eyes, shaking his head to show that it was the truth.
His father sighed placing his hands on his hips, seemingly thinking about what he should do,
"I want you to promise me that no matter what the hour is, if you have another dream I want you to come straight down here and tell me. Even if your scar didn't hurt, if it is unusual in anyway come see me right away okay."
Harry nodded and then looked back at the ground, scolding himself for forgetting to not only tell his father, but forgetting a lot of the things that actually happened in the dream.
"It's getting late, you should head back before McGonagall has my head for keeping you out late."
Harry nodded and packed up his stuff, dumping his unfinished potion.
"I'll walk you to Gryffindor Tower."
Harry opened his mouth to object, feeling old enough to walk back by himself but was stopped as his father held up his hand.
"I am heading that way anyway as I need to have a talk with Albus." His father gave him a pointed glare that made him look away.
"Okay..."
They both walked back in silence, biding each other goodnight as Harry walked through the Portrait hole.
***
It was now the middle of November and Harry hadn't had another dream since, he sometimes woke up with a fuzzy feeling in his head but nothing more.
Dumbledore had asked to talk to him about his dream, but he didn't have any answers.
But Harry had more important things to worry about, like his up and coming prank with Ron. They were way overdue in doing one. But for now they were very excited about seeing the first Quidditch game of the season. It was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.
McGonagall had wanted him to try out for Seeker as she had seen him fly many times before. But he had reluctantly turned her down, feeling that it wouldn't be fair that he receive special treatment above the other first years. He would simply have to try out with everyone else in his second year.
But he was beginning to really regret that decision. The seeker they had gotten instead was not being much use. They had gone with a Seventh year and she was absolutely hopeless. Harry was cringing at some of the obvious mistakes that she was making.
It was a given that Slytherin would win and Harry was right, after only 20 minutes the Slytherin Seeker caught the snitch.
Harry could see his father smirking at him and Harry rolled his eyes.
***
It was just before Christmas that Harry had another dream. A dream that made him struggle for air, a dream that made his heart die and beat so fast at the same time that Harry gasped.
The pain he was feeling in his scar took a backseat to the shock of what he had seen in that one dream.
He had seen Voldemort.
Harry took little comfort in the fact that he seemed very weak, all he knew was that he was alive.
Another thing that happened in the dream then struck Harry, making him run over to Ron's bed.
"Ron! Ron wake up!" Harry began to shake him roughly when he didn't seem anywhere near waking up.
"Wha?" Ron asked dumbly, rubbing his eyes and sitting up more
"Ron, what happened to Scabbers after... well you know."
"You woke me up to ask me-"
"Ron!"
"Alright, alright, he got run over?"
"Yeah I already know that, what happened to him after that."
"Dad buried him of course. Now can I go back-"
"Did you see Scabbers before your dad buried him?"
"Merlin Harry, why would I have wanted to see him? Dad got him real good. As soon as he saw what happened he quickly buried him so none of us could see."
"So it may not have been Scabbers correct."
"Harry, I highly doubt that dad got it wrong. What is wrong with you? Why are you asking me all this?"
"Please Ron, just trust me. Is it possible that your dad got it wrong? That it may not have been Scabbers?"
Ron sighed and sat up on his bed more. "Fine, yes there is some chance, even if it is so small that it barely exists that dad got a different rat and mistook it for Scabbers, it did happen at night-" Ron glared at Harry as he again cut him off.
"Thank you Ron!" Harry quickly said, grabbing a coat that he had chucked on the floor from the previous day and then ran out of the room and out of Gryffindor Tower.
***
Harry was running so fast down the corridors at the extremely early hours of the morning that he ran straight into someone, which happened to be Remus, just who he was about to go find.
"Harry? What are you doing up? Is everything okay?"
"Remus, come with me." Harry barely got the words out as he started to run towards the dungeons this time.
As Harry entered his father's chambers he left the door open for Remus to enter when he caught up and ran into his father's bedroom, banging open the door so loud that that in itself was enough to wake his father up.
"Harry!" His father said in shock, he had his wand pointed straight at him, he looked like he had only been a few seconds from cursing him. But at the sight of seeing Harry he slowly lowered it.
"Dad, I need to talk to you right now. Remus should be here any second" Harry quickly said, rushing over to his father and grabbing his arm, dragging him over to his door.
"What's going-" His father didn't get to finish his sentence as Remus had rushed in and was calling Harry's name wildly.
Once Remus caught sight of Harry he ran over to him and bent down front of him, checking him over as he asked questions, not giving Harry time to respond.
"What's wrong Harry? Are you hurt? Were you attacked? Do you need to see Poppy? Come on Harry, I'll take-"
"Remus!" Harry said loudly, cutting him off. "I am not hurt, I was not attacked and I do not need to Madam Pomfrey. Something did happen, and I will tell you both but first I just need to ask you some questions." Harry replied a lot calmer then he felt, looking at Remus.
Remus stopped looking at Harry's arm for any injuries and looked into Harry's eyes instead.
"Okay Harry, what is it?"
"Maybe you should both sit down."
Remus and his father both shared a look, but did sit down.
Harry started pacing around the room, thinking about how he was going to say what he wanted to ask. He looked a lot like his father as he did.
"Remus...I need to ask you a few things that might be a bit painful for you, and I need you to understand that I do have a reason for asking you this okay?"
"Okay Harry." Remus looked curiously at Harry, wondering what he was to say.
"And you promise not to get mad or upset at me."
"I'll try my best Harry" Remus answered reassuringly.
"And you promise to let me finish talking before you but in?"
"Harry just ask the bloody question" His father said, sounding annoyed.
"I promise Harry." Remus ignored his outburst as Harry seemed to have.
Harry nodded and took a deep breath. The truth was, he truly didn't know where he was going with what he was about to say.
"Okay, I wanted to ask you about Sirius Black."
Remus took a quick intake of breath but refrained himself from saying anything.
Harry waited, making sure he was still with him.
"Go on Harry, what did you want to know?"
"He was a Death Eater correct."
Remus nodded, looking quite upset.
"And he was my parent's secret keeper."
Remus again nodded.
"He sold them out to Voldemort."
"Harry you know all this." His father snapped
Harry ignored him and continued to look and talk to Remus.
Remus finally nodded at Harry, his eyes looking suddenly dull.
"Peter Pettigrew could turn into a rat, which was his Animagus form correct?"
Remus again nodded.
"You called him Wormtail?"
Remus had a sad smile on his face, obviously remembering something from the past.
"Yes, that was his name Harry." Remus sounded a bit croaky.
"And Sirius Black killed Peter Pettigrew."
"Harry please..." Remus had his hand over his mouth, taking deep breaths through it, trying to calm down and stop any tears whatsoever from falling down his face.
Harry winced at the pain he was obviously causing Remus to live through, he was hesitant to ask his next question, but he needed to know. "Do you have his body?"
"What?" Remus gasped
"Do you have Peter Pettigrew's body, did they ever find it? You never really told me much about that part of the story."
"No, all they found was... was a finger..." Remus croaked out.
"A finger..." Harry repeated to himself. He felt flashes go through his mind, things Ron had said.
'...He's been in the family for years, we have had him since I was around one... he's missing a toe, I think he got into a fight with a cat...'
"I had another dream, just last night-" Harry blurted out, finally sitting down in a chair closest to him, which happened to be right next to the door that Remus had luckily closed when he entered through it.
"Harry, why didn't you tell us when you first came in?" Severus said sternly.
"I needed to know something first, which you have just told me."
Both Remus and Severus looked completely confused so Harry kept going.
"Well, in my dream I was just following a rat. It was so unusual, it looked exactly like Ron's rat Scabbers. In fact I was sure it was, it was even missing the toe at the front. But then I saw it transform into a man, a man whom Voldemort called 'Wormtail'."
"Voldemort!" His father seemed more interested that Harry had Voldemort alive in his dream, rather then Wormtail.
"Yes Voldemort."
"But that's... that's impossible..." Severus looked like he was in shock.
"Is it really?" Harry asked
Severus opened his mouth but then closed it.
"Are you sure that he said Wormtail?" Remus seemed to be the opposite of Severus, he was still in shock about Harry saying Wormtail.
"Positive. And I believe that he was Ron's rat Scabbers. It all fits, the missing toe, the fact that he had lived more years then a normal rat would have."
"Harry, Ron's rat died." Severus said logically.
"But what if it wasn't Scabbers?"
"I... I don't under-" Remus started but was cut off by Harry.
"I think that Peter Pettigrew is still alive." Harry finally said.
"Are you trying to say that Black didn't kill Pettigrew? That he is... is innocent?" Severus said disbelievingly.
"Harry, he betrayed your parents. How can you even say..." Remus trailed off, looking away from Harry, not believing what he thought Harry was trying to say.
"I know what he did, and I'm not trying to say that he didn't betray my parents... What I'm trying to say is that I do not believe that Sirius Black killed Peter Pettigrew. But perhaps they were both in on it together."
A Different Life
Chapter 29 - A Rat
It was during Harry's next advanced Potion lesson that he remembered his dream. Well remembered he had a dream, some of the details were a bit foggy since he left it so long to tell his father.
"Dad..."
"Hmmm..." His father answered distractedly
"The other night I had a dream-"
"What!" His father looked up from the cauldron abruptly, a slightly alarmed look showing on his face.
"No, not that type of dream." Harry quickly said, shuddering as he thought about the past 'dreams' that he had had where he was forced to re-live situations where he was abused by the Dursleys.
"Then what type of dream?"
Harry now had his father's full attention, so it was best to get straight to the point while he still had it.
"I'm not really sure what it was about, it seemed more real then a dream. I saw two men. They were standing over a cauldron and they were saying something about blood. I can't really remember. There was something about a body in there as well."
"Did you recognize the men?"
"One seemed familiar but I'm not sure."
"What did they look like?"
"I can't remember" Harry saw that his father was about to scold him for not remembering such detail so he quickly continued on. "But it was really dark."
"How long ago was the dream?"
Harry counted the days, scrunching his face up as he thought.
"The night after our last Potion lesson" Harry replied hesitantly, hoping that his father wouldn't be mad he had left it so long.
His father didn't say anything, just nodded, but did look a bit put out.
"Is there anything else?"
"Well, when I woke up... my scar hurt."
Harry looked away at his father's obvious anger.
"Your scar hurt! Why didn't you come straight to me or even Albus?"
"I- it didn't hurt that much. Besides I don't think you would have appreciated me waking you up at-"
"I don't care what the time was Harry, you still should have come to me."
Harry looked at the ground. "I'm sorry da-"
"Has this happened before?"
Harry quickly looked up and into his father's eyes, shaking his head to show that it was the truth.
His father sighed placing his hands on his hips, seemingly thinking about what he should do,
"I want you to promise me that no matter what the hour is, if you have another dream I want you to come straight down here and tell me. Even if your scar didn't hurt, if it is unusual in anyway come see me right away okay."
Harry nodded and then looked back at the ground, scolding himself for forgetting to not only tell his father, but forgetting a lot of the things that actually happened in the dream.
"It's getting late, you should head back before McGonagall has my head for keeping you out late."
Harry nodded and packed up his stuff, dumping his unfinished potion.
"I'll walk you to Gryffindor Tower."
Harry opened his mouth to object, feeling old enough to walk back by himself but was stopped as his father held up his hand.
"I am heading that way anyway as I need to have a talk with Albus." His father gave him a pointed glare that made him look away.
"Okay..."
They both walked back in silence, biding each other goodnight as Harry walked through the Portrait hole.
***
It was now the middle of November and Harry hadn't had another dream since, he sometimes woke up with a fuzzy feeling in his head but nothing more.
Dumbledore had asked to talk to him about his dream, but he didn't have any answers.
But Harry had more important things to worry about, like his up and coming prank with Ron. They were way overdue in doing one. But for now they were very excited about seeing the first Quidditch game of the season. It was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.
McGonagall had wanted him to try out for Seeker as she had seen him fly many times before. But he had reluctantly turned her down, feeling that it wouldn't be fair that he receive special treatment above the other first years. He would simply have to try out with everyone else in his second year.
But he was beginning to really regret that decision. The seeker they had gotten instead was not being much use. They had gone with a Seventh year and she was absolutely hopeless. Harry was cringing at some of the obvious mistakes that she was making.
It was a given that Slytherin would win and Harry was right, after only 20 minutes the Slytherin Seeker caught the snitch.
Harry could see his father smirking at him and Harry rolled his eyes.
***
It was just before Christmas that Harry had another dream. A dream that made him struggle for air, a dream that made his heart die and beat so fast at the same time that Harry gasped.
The pain he was feeling in his scar took a backseat to the shock of what he had seen in that one dream.
He had seen Voldemort.
Harry took little comfort in the fact that he seemed very weak, all he knew was that he was alive.
Another thing that happened in the dream then struck Harry, making him run over to Ron's bed.
"Ron! Ron wake up!" Harry began to shake him roughly when he didn't seem anywhere near waking up.
"Wha?" Ron asked dumbly, rubbing his eyes and sitting up more
"Ron, what happened to Scabbers after... well you know."
"You woke me up to ask me-"
"Ron!"
"Alright, alright, he got run over?"
"Yeah I already know that, what happened to him after that."
"Dad buried him of course. Now can I go back-"
"Did you see Scabbers before your dad buried him?"
"Merlin Harry, why would I have wanted to see him? Dad got him real good. As soon as he saw what happened he quickly buried him so none of us could see."
"So it may not have been Scabbers correct."
"Harry, I highly doubt that dad got it wrong. What is wrong with you? Why are you asking me all this?"
"Please Ron, just trust me. Is it possible that your dad got it wrong? That it may not have been Scabbers?"
Ron sighed and sat up on his bed more. "Fine, yes there is some chance, even if it is so small that it barely exists that dad got a different rat and mistook it for Scabbers, it did happen at night-" Ron glared at Harry as he again cut him off.
"Thank you Ron!" Harry quickly said, grabbing a coat that he had chucked on the floor from the previous day and then ran out of the room and out of Gryffindor Tower.
***
Harry was running so fast down the corridors at the extremely early hours of the morning that he ran straight into someone, which happened to be Remus, just who he was about to go find.
"Harry? What are you doing up? Is everything okay?"
"Remus, come with me." Harry barely got the words out as he started to run towards the dungeons this time.
As Harry entered his father's chambers he left the door open for Remus to enter when he caught up and ran into his father's bedroom, banging open the door so loud that that in itself was enough to wake his father up.
"Harry!" His father said in shock, he had his wand pointed straight at him, he looked like he had only been a few seconds from cursing him. But at the sight of seeing Harry he slowly lowered it.
"Dad, I need to talk to you right now. Remus should be here any second" Harry quickly said, rushing over to his father and grabbing his arm, dragging him over to his door.
"What's going-" His father didn't get to finish his sentence as Remus had rushed in and was calling Harry's name wildly.
Once Remus caught sight of Harry he ran over to him and bent down front of him, checking him over as he asked questions, not giving Harry time to respond.
"What's wrong Harry? Are you hurt? Were you attacked? Do you need to see Poppy? Come on Harry, I'll take-"
"Remus!" Harry said loudly, cutting him off. "I am not hurt, I was not attacked and I do not need to Madam Pomfrey. Something did happen, and I will tell you both but first I just need to ask you some questions." Harry replied a lot calmer then he felt, looking at Remus.
Remus stopped looking at Harry's arm for any injuries and looked into Harry's eyes instead.
"Okay Harry, what is it?"
"Maybe you should both sit down."
Remus and his father both shared a look, but did sit down.
Harry started pacing around the room, thinking about how he was going to say what he wanted to ask. He looked a lot like his father as he did.
"Remus...I need to ask you a few things that might be a bit painful for you, and I need you to understand that I do have a reason for asking you this okay?"
"Okay Harry." Remus looked curiously at Harry, wondering what he was to say.
"And you promise not to get mad or upset at me."
"I'll try my best Harry" Remus answered reassuringly.
"And you promise to let me finish talking before you but in?"
"Harry just ask the bloody question" His father said, sounding annoyed.
"I promise Harry." Remus ignored his outburst as Harry seemed to have.
Harry nodded and took a deep breath. The truth was, he truly didn't know where he was going with what he was about to say.
"Okay, I wanted to ask you about Sirius Black."
Remus took a quick intake of breath but refrained himself from saying anything.
Harry waited, making sure he was still with him.
"Go on Harry, what did you want to know?"
"He was a Death Eater correct."
Remus nodded, looking quite upset.
"And he was my parent's secret keeper."
Remus again nodded.
"He sold them out to Voldemort."
"Harry you know all this." His father snapped
Harry ignored him and continued to look and talk to Remus.
Remus finally nodded at Harry, his eyes looking suddenly dull.
"Peter Pettigrew could turn into a rat, which was his Animagus form correct?"
Remus again nodded.
"You called him Wormtail?"
Remus had a sad smile on his face, obviously remembering something from the past.
"Yes, that was his name Harry." Remus sounded a bit croaky.
"And Sirius Black killed Peter Pettigrew."
"Harry please..." Remus had his hand over his mouth, taking deep breaths through it, trying to calm down and stop any tears whatsoever from falling down his face.
Harry winced at the pain he was obviously causing Remus to live through, he was hesitant to ask his next question, but he needed to know. "Do you have his body?"
"What?" Remus gasped
"Do you have Peter Pettigrew's body, did they ever find it? You never really told me much about that part of the story."
"No, all they found was... was a finger..." Remus croaked out.
"A finger..." Harry repeated to himself. He felt flashes go through his mind, things Ron had said.
'...He's been in the family for years, we have had him since I was around one... he's missing a toe, I think he got into a fight with a cat...'
"I had another dream, just last night-" Harry blurted out, finally sitting down in a chair closest to him, which happened to be right next to the door that Remus had luckily closed when he entered through it.
"Harry, why didn't you tell us when you first came in?" Severus said sternly.
"I needed to know something first, which you have just told me."
Both Remus and Severus looked completely confused so Harry kept going.
"Well, in my dream I was just following a rat. It was so unusual, it looked exactly like Ron's rat Scabbers. In fact I was sure it was, it was even missing the toe at the front. But then I saw it transform into a man, a man whom Voldemort called 'Wormtail'."
"Voldemort!" His father seemed more interested that Harry had Voldemort alive in his dream, rather then Wormtail.
"Yes Voldemort."
"But that's... that's impossible..." Severus looked like he was in shock.
"Is it really?" Harry asked
Severus opened his mouth but then closed it.
"Are you sure that he said Wormtail?" Remus seemed to be the opposite of Severus, he was still in shock about Harry saying Wormtail.
"Positive. And I believe that he was Ron's rat Scabbers. It all fits, the missing toe, the fact that he had lived more years then a normal rat would have."
"Harry, Ron's rat died." Severus said logically.
"But what if it wasn't Scabbers?"
"I... I don't under-" Remus started but was cut off by Harry.
"I think that Peter Pettigrew is still alive." Harry finally said.
"Are you trying to say that Black didn't kill Pettigrew? That he is... is innocent?" Severus said disbelievingly.
"Harry, he betrayed your parents. How can you even say..." Remus trailed off, looking away from Harry, not believing what he thought Harry was trying to say.
"I know what he did, and I'm not trying to say that he didn't betray my parents... What I'm trying to say is that I do not believe that Sirius Black killed Peter Pettigrew. But perhaps they were both in on it together."