The Shack was as eerily silent as always when he entered. Though occasional muffled voices and scuffling of feet from the top floor hinted that Harry and his friends were in the building, the deadened wood silenced noises quite efficiently. Hopefully, it would work the other way also. They would not hear him coming until he was on them. He didn't know what he would do when he saw Sirius again. He wasn't sure if he could trust himself.
He crept up the stairs, as silent as he could move while trailing his robe through the dusty floor. The voices were becoming clearer, and shouting could be heard. Then, all fell silent. Remus, so startled at the abrupt decline of muttering noises, tripped and clanged hard against a few of the stairs.
Instantly, he heard Hermione Granger's voice ring out quite shrilly, "WE'RE UP HERE! WE'RE UP HERE- SIRIUS BLACK- QUICK!"
Knowing he could no longer sneak in, he bolted the last few stairs, ignoring the twinge in his leg that signaled a bruise forming. Nearly breaking down the door upon entering, he saw a most disturbing sight. The Weasely child was on the floor, bleeding from a wound on his leg. Miss Granger was standing over him, but Harry had his wand poised over Sirius' chest, ready for the kill.
Eleven years of pure instinct had not faded amidst thirteen years of anguish.
"Expelliarmus!" Remus shouted, before he had even realized what he had said. Harry's wand flew neatly into his hand, and he gripped it tightly, still feeling the warmth that Harry had- the hatred that had nearly killed Sirius… Hermione's and Ron's also zoomed over, settling themselves neatly next to Harry's. But… Now that he was in the room, Peter was nowhere to be seen. "Where is he, Sirius?" Remus asked curtly, trying not to betray any emotion.
Once-strong fingers pointed directly at the Weasely child, and Remus remembered Ron had a pet rat. If it was Wormtail… "But then…" he was quite aware that he was muttering to himself, his mind was working so quickly, and Sirius' brown eyes never left him. If Peter had been forced to hide for nearly thirteen years… more over the fact that he was still alive… "… why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless-" he felt his eyes go wide. If Sirius had not killed Peter, then Sirius was innocent. And if Sirius was innocent, then the only other person who could have known where Lily and James had been was… "- unless he was the one… unless you switched… without telling me?" Wormtail had been the Secret-Keeper. He had given Lily and James away. And Sirius had paid for his crime…
Sirius had caught the last bit of his ramble, from experience when they were younger. Once started, Remus rarely slowed down until he reached a conclusion. Fully held by Sirius' gaze, Remus felt himself losing everything. Years of agony, over a decade of wandering alone on the continent… When Sirius finally nodded, it all vanished.
He barely heard Harry speaking up, as he strode across the floor and extended a hand to Padfoot. His mind was buzzing with the possibilities of what had happened that horrible night- the night all of them had died with James. Without the slightest hesitation, Padfoot took his hand and allowed Remus to yank him to his feet. And then, Padfoot's arms were around him. They were thin, unnaturally so, and Remus felt his throat close up as he thought about it. He enclosed Padfoot's chest tightly, vowing never to let anything come between them again. Not after this… It was too much to bear…
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed. "You- you-"
Remus snapped out of Padfoot's embrace, and faced his student, hoping that his voice would not fail him, "Hermione-"
The girl was quite hysterical, "-you and him!"
"Hermione, calm down-" he tried to stop her, but was too aware of Padfoot standing so close to him. He was innocent. It was like a mantra that ran through his mind, second after second. He was innocent. He didn't do it. He didn't kill James…
"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you-"
Only then did he realize what she meant. Covering up… She must know… She certainly was clever enough to figure it out… "Hermione, listen to me, please!" he had to raise his voice to be heard, "I can explain-"
And then Harry spoke, his voice crackling with emotion, "I trusted you! And all this time you've been his friend!"
"You're wrong," Remus almost grinned at how 'wrong' Harry was, but now was certainly not the time to catch the child on semantics. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now- Let me explain…"
She refused to give him breath to speak. "NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too- he's a werewolf!"
A stiff silence fell at her announcement. He had hoped that the circumstances would be slightly different when James' son discovered he was a werewolf. To that matter, he had hoped that Harry would never have to know. When he found his voice again, he managed to level his tone, "Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione. Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead…" The memory of his last transformation returned to him, clear as day, "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."
Ron was attempting to stand, most likely to clear away from Black. He didn't make it far, and collapsed onto the ground, still bleeding heavily. Instinct took over, and Remus started forward. Ron was, after all, still one of his students.
"Get away from me, werewolf!" Ron yelled harshly, biting back the pain evident in his eyes.
His hand froze in midair. Clenching his teeth together, he withdrew his wand and closed his eyes. He had to forcibly remind himself that they were frightened, and did not yet know whom to trust. Inhaling deeply, he turned to the girl, "How long have you known?"
"Ages," Hermione whispered, her face pale. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay…"
"He'll be delighted." Of course. Snape. Who else would have tried to alert the students and therefore the parents that a werewolf was teaching their classes? "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant… Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"Both."
The poor girl looked petrified, as if he might turn wolf right there and then, and bite her. He gave a curt laugh, both at her stance and their current situation, "You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."
"I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"
"But they already know," he amended softly. "At least, the staff do."
"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf?" Ron gasped, "Is he mad?"
"Some of the staff thought so," he conceded, reminded abruptly of the hostility Snape had shown him the first day he had arrived at work. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy-" Though Snape had not been the only teacher. While most of the teachers at the school were extremely open-minded, some were still wary about a werewolf roaming the halls.
"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Remus' thoughts were cut short by Harry interrupting him, "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!"
Remus opened his mouth automatically by now, but Padfoot left his side quickly to sit on the bed that remained in the room. He sank onto the mattress and rested his forehead in his hand. Remus saw that he was shaking, and for a short instant, a small flash of anger directed itself at Harry for making this so hard on Padfoot.
"I have not been helping Sirius," he said impatiently, his eyes on Sirius for the moment. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look-" Perhaps if they felt that they held some power, they would at least give him a chance to speak. He took their wands and returned them to their owners, smiling wryly at their incredulous faces. "There," he said, replacing his own wand into its holster at his belt, "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"
"If you haven't been helping him, how did you know he was here?" Harry cast a heated look at Padfoot, who still hunched over on the bed, that blasted orange cat purring on his lap.
"The map," he cocked an eyebrow at Harry. Surely Harry remembered that he had taken it. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it-"
"You know how to work it?" Harry burst out in shock.
"Of course I know how to work it," Remus confirmed, his hand flicking away the details as unimportant. He wasn't sure how much time they had until they were missed. "I helped write it. I'm Moony- that was my friends' nickname for me at school."
"You wrote-" Harry's jaw dropped.
"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I? You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry-"
The child's face contorted amusingly, "How d'you know about the cloak?"
"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it…" Remus remembered one attempted trip up to the girl's dormitory under the cloak. Needless to say it had not succeeded. But that was a story for another time. It was important that Harry learned the truth right now. He cast his hand into the air again, clearing away the trivial facts. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you will still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by someone else."
"What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!"
"I couldn't believe my eyes," he had the urge to sneeze and suddenly realized he was pacing. It didn't matter, but stirred the dust on the floor and made the air seem more stagnant. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be here with you?" He was in his own train of thought again, and Harry's outburst couldn't reach him.
"No one was with us!" Harry yelled again, but Remus barely heard him.
"And then I saw another dot, moving fast towards you, labeled Sirius Black… I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow-"
"One of us!" Ron spoke up this time, and Remus glanced at the child, now across the room from him.
"No, Ron," he corrected gently, "Two of you."
Again, he cast his eyes over the Weasely. There was no sign at all of Wormtail, but he could possibly be in a pocket or some such… "Do you think I could have a look at the rat?"
"What?" Ron looked aghast. He had a right to be, Remus figured. The children were completely clueless as to what had happened. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"
"Everything," he tried to keep the urgency out of his voice, he didn't want the children to panic again. "Could I see him, please?"
When Ron finally moved to pull the rat from his pocket, Wormtail emerged, clutched tightly by the tail. He was squirming viciously, and Remus stepped closer in order to confirm that it truly was him. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Sirius the instant something fell out of place with what the Ministry had said, but years of what they had shared was not easily swept away…
After a moment of close scrutiny, Remus realized he was holding his breath. He exhaled shakily, and Ron's voice broke the tense silence, "What? What's my rat got to do with anything?"
"That's not a rat," Padfoot finally spoke. Remus didn't turn to him; he could barely stand to see him so broken.
"What d'you mean- of course he's a rat-"
"No, he's not," Remus straightened away from Ron, his voice low in amazement. "He's a wizard."
"An Animagus," Padfoot added, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."