Summery: Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban when Harry was five years old. They lived hidden from the wizarding world. Now Harry is fifteen.

On the Run

Chapter Seven

Rat!

Remus turned toward the sound. He knew it was something small. The sound suddenly stopped, but he knew its location.

Pulling out his wand he silently whispered the stunning spell in the direction he knew the small creature was at.

A direct hit! He thought as he heard a squeak before nothing.

Still, with his wand drawn, he moved toward the wall where the creature was. Bending down he said 'Lumos' to get some light.

Laying there next to the wall was a small furry rat. Figuring it was a student he gently picked it up and examined it. It was rather old, surprisingly. Most rats didn't live too many years. Turning it over something stuck him as familiar, though he couldn't figure out what it was. There was a missing toe on its front paw.

Sighing, he decided to think on that later, since he couldn't figure it out now. He placed the stunned rat in his pocket and began walking.

PETER! It suddenly stuck him. 'The smell of that rat was familiar. That's why. And the missing toe! All they found of Peter was a missing toe! Could this be real?'

Remus immediately stopped walking. Slowly he took the fat out again. Looking at it closer he was stunned. This WAS Peter! It had to be!

'I need to get to the Headmasters office!' Remus began the journey to the headmaster's at a very fast pace.

Saying the password 'M&M's' he entered the room with the spiral staircase. Quickly he made his way up to the office and began to knock on the door yelling for the Headmaster to open it.

A few minutes later the door opened revealing Albus Dumbledore in sky blue, silk pajamas and a night cap on his head.

"What's wrong Remus?" Dumbledore asked alarmed. It was unusual to be awoken in the middle of the night. Furthermore, by Remus Lupin. Usually he'd wait till morning to address any problems.

"Peter!" Remus gasped. "Is ALIVE!"

Dumbledore frowned in confusion. Gently he led Remus to one of his overstuffed chairs.

"Remus, Peter is dead."

"No, Albus." Remus said shaking his head as he began to rummage in his pockets. Albus frowned in confusion.

A moment later, Remus pulled out a small rodent.

"This IS Peter." Remus said.

"Remus, Peter is dead. This can't be Peter."

Albus Dumbledore knew of the Marauder's illegal Animegus forms. He'd been told by Remus shortly after Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban. James Potter was a Stag called Prongs. Sirius Black was a black dog called Padfoot. And Peter Pettigrew was a Rat.

"No, Albus look closer." Remus said thrusting the rat closer to Dumbledore. "I recognize the scent."

"Remus." Dumbledore said as he looked at the small rodent in his hand back to his former student. "You could be…"

Remus cut him off. "Imagining it? I know. I thought of that. But look it its paw. It's missing a toe! And all they found of Peter was…"

"His toe." Dumbledore finished having found what Remus was trying to tell him.

Dumbledore placed the stunned rat on the ground and stepped away. Casting a silent spell, the rodent suddenly turned into a man.

The man began to look around. He froze as he saw Remus and Dumbledore.

"Peter." Remus said shocked.

"R-Remus." Peter stuttered.

"Mr. Pettigrew." Dumbledore said getting his attention. "We believed you to be dead."

"Um… Well… Um…." Peter tried to find an explanation.

"Remus, could you floo Severus for me?" Dumbledore asked, his wand trained in Peter. "Ask him for veritaserum."

"Of course." Remus said. He was angry, but trying to keep his temper. This changed everything.

After flooing the cranky Potions master Remus stepped back and waited. A moment later green flames burst up and Severus Snape stepped through.

He froze at the sight before him. The last person he'd ever expected to see was there. Peter Pettigrew.

"Severus, we need the veritaserum." Dumbledore said patiently.

Severus restrained Peter to a chair he transfigured. Then he dropped three drops of the truth potion into Peter's mouth.

After a moment, Peter's face became blank.

"What is your name?" Dumbledore asked.

"Peter Pettigrew." Peter said in an emotionless voice.

Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Call the ministry. Get some Aurors here."

Severus nodded and left the room.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Thirty minutes later they had four Aurors and Minster Fudge with them, as well as Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, and Gryffindor head of house.

"Are you Peter Pettigrew?" One of the Aurors asked Peter.

"Are you an animegus?"

"Yes." Peter answered.

"What form does your animegus take?"

"A rat."

"Did you tell He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named of the Potter family's location?"

"Yes."

Remus fumed. But held his fury.

"Were you their secret keeper?"

"Yes."

"Was Sirius Black ever the Potter's secret keeper?"

"At the beginning it was believed he was. But he never was. That was a ruse. I was the secret keeper the whole time."

"Why did you tell He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named the Potter's location?"

"He would have killed me had I not."

That was all it took to push Remus' anger too far. He lunged at Peter, but the Aurors held him back.

"Remus, come with me." Dumbledore said leading him out side the office.

"I'm sorry, Headmaster." Remus apologized for attacking Peter, even though he didn't really feel bad about it.

"It's quite understandable, Remus." Dumbledore waved the apology away.

The door opening caught their attention. It was an Auror.

"Headmaster Dumbledore." After Dumbledore's nod he continued. "We have placed Mr. Pettigrew in out custody. He will be sent to Azkaban without trial."

"What of Sirius Black?" Remus asked.

"We will inform the world of his innocence in tomorrow's paper." The Auror answered. "Maybe, he will come out of hiding. Though he is still under kidnapping charges."

Remus nodded in understanding.

"This changes a lot." Professor McGonagall said as she entered the hallway with them.

"That it does, Minerva." Dumbledore said. "Almost everything has changed."

"What now?" Remus asked.

"Now, we wait." Dumbledore answered sighing. "We wait for Sirius to make a move. Severus, can you please give Remus a sleeping drought?"

Severus nodded. "I'll bring one to your quarter's Lupin."

"Thank you, Severus."

End of Chapter Seven

A/N: I hope you all like the new chapter! Please read and review! Thank you for reading! For those of you who have been asking for a little action, heres finally some! I'm posting so frequent on this story mainly because I'm fareing about 10 chapters over what I post. And I have a pretty good idea of how this story will go. The chapter may start getting longer at about chapter 17 or so. No promises, though. Please REVIEW! I love reading them! And I promise I will answer them. But I like answering them in a chapter of their own named 'Review Replies.' It makes them easier to keep track of.

We didn't sustain too much damage from hurricane Wilma! Yeah! We lost one tree. It fell on a friends truck. Boy was he mad! lol. But the truck wasn't too banged up. We have no exhisting fence anymore. Our lights went on and off all day. Last year during the hurricanes our electricity was of 4 and a half weeks! Boy did that get old! This time, my friend had hers off longer than I did! They got theirs on at 8 this morning.

THANK YOU all who gave me happy birthday wishes! They made my day! And I did have a good birthday. I went around and took pictures of the damage from the hurricanes. (I love to take pictures.) I also got a couple of movies. There is no cable yet. (Darn the Comcast! Their horrible!) For anyone who has not seen Batman Begins or Herbie Fully Loaded, I recomend watching them. Their great! THANK YOU AGAIN!