A/N: Here's another chapter before more wands are pointed at me. LOL

Wormtail

Dumbledore stepped into the room alone, and closed the door behind him quietly.

Sirius' face was white as ash. Memories of the sight of James and Lily's lifeless forms at Godric's Hollow came back to him in a rush.

"Albus! Where…" Remus was about to speak when Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him.

Just then, a faint giggle could be heard behind the door. It soon evolved into laughter that grew louder and louder.

Realisation soon dawned upon McGonagall and Remus and both let out signs of relief.

Sirius, on the other hand, was growling.  He walked over to the door and yanked it open. "Who on Merlin…" He stopped in mid-sentence as his mouth fell open in shock.

At the doorway, a woman with long dark hair was giving him the widest grin.

Sirius looked from April to Dumbledore, perplexed.

"Forgive me. She chose this as her reward," smiled Dumbledore.

Sirius turned back to April and his eyes narrowed.  "This is not funny," he said quietly as he stared at April who stepped into the room happily, hands behind her back.

"You were actually worried about me, weren't you?" April glanced hopefully at Sirius. 

A flicker of surprise showed in Sirius' face before it hardened. "Me? You must be kidding. I just don't want you to die before you do what you promised."

"What?"

"My freedom.  You said you can clear my name," Sirius replied, keeping emotions out of his voice.

April's face fell. "Oh…so this is it huh?"  She turned her face away, looking wounded.

"Yes," Sirius found himself saying in the same emotionless voice.

"Here. Take this!" she said coldly as she thrusted a glass jar into Sirius' hands.

Something was inside the bottle.  Something that made McGonagall and Remus gasped sharply at the same time.

"So this is what she was holding behind her," Remus mumbled under his breath.

Sirius was staring unblinkingly at the jar in shock.  His shock soon gave way to raging anger.

"Wormtail.  Welcome back." He hissed at the rat that was desperately trying to get out.

Sirius was overcome with a sudden, mad urge to kill.  He longed to taste blood.  Without registering what he was doing, his hands reached for the lid of the jar and gave it a slight twist, a hungry look on his face.

Sensing Sirius' thoughts, Remus immediately tried to grab the glass jar from Sirius. But Sirius was holding on tightly to it and would not let go.

"Padfoot! Let me hold it. Don't do anything you'll regret later," Remus said with a sense of urgency in his voice.

"I will regret only if I do not kill him now," Sirius said menacingly, not taking his eyes away from the rat.  "The last time I was merciful, look what happened?" he barked.

"Pettigrew will not escape this time," said Dumbledore.  He gave Sirius' hands a gentle pat, encouraging him to let go of the jar. "Trust me," he told the younger man.

Sirius reluctantly loosened his grip, allowing Dumbledore to remove the jar from his hands.   Dumbledore then waved his hand over the jar and it disappeared.  Shocked, Sirius was lunging towards the headmaster when the latter told him quickly, "I've kept it in a safe place.  I feel that it's wiser to keep Peter out of your sight till the trial, Sirius."

Dumbledore than turned to McGonagall. "Minerva, please inform the Ministry at once.  We need a trial as soon as possible.  By the end of the day, preferably.  Tell Fudge we have captured a murderer who went scot-free for years, and that I will personally escort the accused and provide more details at the trial," said Dumbledore. 

McGonagall nodded and left the room at once.

Dumbledore turned to the other three present in the room.  "I suggest you take a rest here. As soon as Minerva is back, we may have to leave for the Ministry."

"You need us there too?" Remus asked quietly.

"Yes, I'm afraid so.  The Ministry would not only want to question Sirius but I suspect they may also want a word with you, Remus.  I will have a fair bit of explaining to do myself.  Afterall, we did provide refuge to a convicted murderer," Dumbledore replied gravely.

Sirius looked stricken. "What…what if they do not believe us?  What if they refuse to believe that I'm innocent and throw both of you in Azkaban?"

"We stand a very good chance, Padfoot.  Now that we can prove that Wormtail is alive, they'll realise that you were wronged," said Remus gently.

"And her?" Sirius threw a glance in April's direction.

"She will come with us.  The Ministry will be interested to listen to her account of how she got Pettigrew."

Sirius' eyes widened as he stared at April.  "You?"

April threw him an angry look of exasperation.  Before anyone could say anything, she had left the room, slamming the door forcefully behind her.

Dumbledore gave a small sigh, and told Sirius and Remus, "April was the one who lured Pettigrew to St Mungo's. She did it despite knowing the dangers involved."

There was little response from the two men.

"There are a couple of things I have to see to.  The two of you can rest here until Minerva is back." 

In the next moment, Dumbledore swept out of the room.

*

About an hour later, Remus was knocking softly on the door to April's office, which swung open by itself almost immediately. 

Remus looked into the room and saw April sitting by the window, back facing him.

"April?" he called out and there was no reply. He moved closer to her and saw something that made his eyes widen.

An enormous grey rat was sliding down April's left arm, from her shoulder to her hand.  Each time it reached her palm, she would return it to its previous position on her shoulder, and the rat would slide down her arm again. 

"April?" Remus asked again, in barely a whisper.

"Yes?" she answered absently, now placing the rat in her right hand and patting it gently with her left.

"Are you alright?"

"Sure," came the reply in the same faraway voice.

"Where did the rat come from?"

She turned around and looked up at Remus.  Then a smile crept into her face when she realised the reason behind his questions. "It was here when I came back.  Someone must have slipped this little thing into my room when I was away.  It probably belongs to a Slytherin.  This is not the first time I encounter these unusual guests."

"You're not scared of rats?"  Remus asked.

"That is just something I made up to encourage your little friend to pay me a visit."

Suddenly, Remus understood.  It was all pretence.  "Wormtail?"

April nodded, her eyes twinkling, "You should have seen him at St. Mungo's just now.  When he couldn't touch me with his curses, he immediately transformed into a rat and charged towards me.   The poor soul probably thought I'll freak out and faint or something." 

Then she grimaced, "do you have any idea how tiring it was to pretend to scream and jump each time I see one of these things? Some of the bratty students have been making sure that I cross paths with these often enough.  Probably thought it was entertaining.  I've had so much practice that I'm now a very accomplished actress."

"What exactly happened at the hospital?" he asked.

"Well, Albus was waiting in the ward for both myself and Pettigrew," she paused for dramatic effect and Remus urged her to continue.

"He was invisible, of course, so Pettigrew had no idea he was present. When Pettigrew raised his wand to curse me, Albus had acted by casting a Shield Charm on me.  That rat tried several more times before he got really worried.  So he transformed him into what he thought was the creature I'm most afraid of.  Naturally, all I had to do after that was to chant 'Petrificus Totalus' and scoop him into the jar," April recounted with a look of triumph on her face.

But Remus was not sharing her joy.  He hesitated before asking her, "What if Albus did not make it in time?"

In an instant, the smile disappeared from April's face.  "I trust Albus. I know he would rush to St Mungo's the moment the stone in his ring turns red," she said fiercely.

"And what if the two of you reach there before he does?" Remus persisted.

"Then I just have to bear the Cruciatus Curse for a while and hope that Albus comes very soon."

There was awkward silence in the room.

Remus was looking for an excuse to change the subject when he suddenly remembered why he was there.  "Professor McGonagall is back.  Albus wants us to assemble at his office right away."

As they were making their way to the headmaster's room together, Remus finally managed to say something that had been burning on his lips.  "You really gave us a bad fright with the trick you pulled in Albus' office just now."

"Did I?" she came to an abrupt halt and gave him a curious look.  Then she managed a slight smile and replied, "It was mean.  But I just wanted to know how you guys will react if I do not make it back."  She lowered her head and stared hard at the floor.  "For a moment, I thought none of you would have cared."

Remus reached out, placed an arm over her shoulder and told her firmly, "Of course we do.  Let's go.  We have a long day ahead of us." 

***

See? No cliffhanger this time.  I'm a good girl afterall, right? LOL

Lildarkkitty / Lil Lupin / Ms Padfoot / hplover13 / Fire'N'Ice / SiriusLvr / Dragongurl / Rainbow: Thanks, thanks, THANKS!  : )

Katie Black: *giving you a hug in return*

Senshichan14: Phew! Luckily the stuff you threw did not hurt.  And thanks for your cookie…it's yummy!  ; )

Tiger Lily: Ok, ok. I've already posted a new chapter.  Please spare my life! 

Ainsley Sloan: No, the rings have nothing to do with the Sorcerer's Stone.  The only connection is both the rings and the Stone were made by someone in the Flamel family. LOL. Lupin is my second favourite character, and JKR had to give Wormtail the silver hand! Werewolves are scared of silver. Grrr…she'd better not think of killing Lupin or Snape!

cassie black: Cassie is a lovely name.  I have a good friend by the name of Cassie too! But…sorry, dear.  I want Harry to have Sirius all to himself, so there'll be no kids for Sirius in this fic. 

Someone Reading: What? You asked me to quit reading reviews? Now that's really evil!

Destructor-of-peace: I know you can't bear to kill me, right? Er…wrong? Oh no!  *run away to hide under an invisibility cloak*

stormyweather457: You have to review EVERY chapter ok?  I'm VERY greedy. Please? LOL