Hermione had spent hours with the others agonising over the article to send to Rita Skeeter regarding Harry's adoption into the Gorlois line. They'd eventually sent the article just in time for it to be printed into the morning news, and they sat together at the Slytherin table at breakfast, withstanding the equally potent glowers of both Dumbledore and the other Slytherins for their troubles.

Unsurprisingly, word had already escaped to certain relevant parties by other means. Some were relatively reasonable - Cedric Diggory; a sixth year Hufflepuff came over to let them know that his father was glad that Harry ended up somewhere where he was happy and that they'd only put their names in in the first place to be a neutral option.

Lucius Malfoy, however, sent a massive black eagle bearing a black envelope. It swooped once around the hall, screeching to make rue it had everyone's attention, before dropping the letter in front of Hermione.

'Oh no.' Neville muttered, eying the letter as though expecting it to catch fire. The hall had gone deathly silent.

'It's not a howler?' Harry asked nervously as the letter began to smoke.

'No. Worse.' Theo groaned, eyes wide with horror. Cautiously, Hermione reached for the letter and flipped it over. The seal pressed into emerald was was that of the Malfoy family, and she looked up the table to see that Draco looked positively gleeful. She broke the seal, but before she could open the letter itself, the smoke convalesced into a ghostly figure of Lucius Malfoy.

'Matriarch of House Gorlois, I, Lucius Malfoy, son of Abraxus of the ancient and most noble house of Malfoy demand recompense for three sleights against my house. I challenge you to a duel where we shall prove ourselves in the field of fair combat. I shall be met on the morning of Ostara, in the Hogwarts duelling arena to stake my claim. Should you refuse, your honour will be forfeit.' The ghostly figure vanished, smoke evaporating away and leaving just the letter. The hall burst into excited chatter.

'Gellert warned me that this might happen.' Hermione admitted.

'You can beat him though?' Neville confirmed, glancing around their small group. Theo shrugged.

'He'll probably be stronger than you for another year or so, but from what Anneken says, you're one of the best duellers alive.'

'I didn't particularly want everyone knowing that though.' Hermione admitted, glowering at the letter.

'Well why not have Mordred to fight as your champion?' Neville asked brightly. 'You're underage, so that's not dishonourable and he's a brilliant dueller too.'

'What? Send the dark wizard that's been dead for fifteen hundred years to fight for her?' Harry asked sceptically.

'I could...' Hermione considered. Mordred's existence wasn't exactly secret; she'd mentioned him in front of people a number of times and if they did intend to include him in the coven, he'd have to be revealed to the world at some point.

'There's no legal reason why he should be dead?' Harry confirmed. 'I mean, it's not necromancy?'

'He was the king, I don't think it was possible for a king back then to do anything illegal. Besides, the Flamels weren't illegal and they'd lived for three times the normal life span.'

'It's better than you duelling.' Theo pointed out. 'Fudge is an idiot, but there will be influential people that will be nervous about how quickly you're gaining influence. If they know you're a better dueller than Grindelwald too...'

Hermione acknowledged his point.

'But can Mordred win?' Ginny asked, leaning in close. 'I mean, modern duelling is very different.'

Hermione's mind darted back to the duelling club in second year, with all of the moons and stars and accepted stances. It was different even from anything she'd done barely a century ago. Duellists would be forced to deflect rather than dodge and with no environment to work with, the whole match would come down to magical strength, casting speed and size of spell repertoire. Whilst Mordred may have the second down easily, his unfortunate status as undead severely impacted the first, leaving him on an uncomfortably average playing field and as far as actual offensive spells went... Suffice to say, she wasn't confident in Mordred's ability to win the fight.

'He definitely wouldn't know the rules.' Hermione decided.

Sirius whined from under the table, scratching at her boots with his paw. She glanced down at him, barely more than a pair of gleaming eyes in that dark. Sirius yipped and tossed his head.

'You think you could teach him?' Hermione asked. Sirius yipped again.

'My father could apparate the sword to Hogsmeade, and one of us could go and pick it up.'

'I'll do it. I've got my dad's cloak.' Harry volunteered. Sirius yapped again and Harry scowled, pushing his nose away. 'You're staying here. The dementors are after you, remember?'

Sirius whined but subsided under the table.

'Whilst you're at it, we could have another look for Pettigrew too.' Theo suggested. They'd discovered very quickly that finding a single name on the massive map with it's warren of halls and classrooms was very difficult, particularly because names tended to overlap one another in crowded rooms such as the dormitories and the great hall.

'Yeah, good idea.' Harry agreed, then frowned. 'What I don't understand is what the three "sleights" were?'

'Check the letter. It should have more details inside.' Neville suggested. Hermione picked it up obediently. The seal was broken; presumably that was what had held the enchantment for the talking ghost. With a flick of her wrist, the black parchment unfolded to reveal glittering emerald ink. On such a dark background it was almost impossible to read.

'It would still have been ominous and more practical if he'd used silver.' Hermione grumbled, trying to angle the parchment so that the letters shone. Ginny snickered. 'The first sleight was the savage assault of my familiar on his heir; we all expected that one. The second was when Harry launched an unprovoked attack on his heir during class; again, I expected that. The third was... oh that's ridiculous... he's saying that I bribed Harry into joining my family by sending him the firebolt. I didn't even buy it for him!'

'Technically, you did buy it.' Theo pointed out. 'It was bought in your name and Black delivered the order and the gold.'

Hermione sniffed, tossing the parchment away. Neville caught it, glancing over the details inside.

'It doesn't specify that you can't use enchanted items.'

'Good. Mordred can't go more than about fifty meters from his sword and I wouldn't want the duelling wards to interfere with his manifestation.' Hermione pursed her lips. 'And I'm sure he's got a set of duelling robes somewhere.'

'Er...' Theo hesitated. 'I think he probably just duelled in his armour. It's got some pretty hefty protective enchantments on it.'

'I bet his crown is somewhere too. Remember that one you used to have?' Harry nodded to Hermione.

'Mine belonged to Morgause.' Hermione informed him. It was still tucked away in her trunk, but the protective spells were gone, so it was little more than a piece of jewellery that was no longer particularly relevant. 'His is much more...' She made a vague gesture that suggested loftiness.

There was a moment of silence as they all imagined Mordred turning up to duel Lucius Malfoy with a crown on. Then Theo stood, offering a hand to Hermione to help her up as well.

'We need to hurry if we're going to owl father before transfiguration.' He prompted. The others stood too; with the Slytherins in the group gone, there was little reason for the three Gryffindors to remain at the table of the snakes.

The day passed slowly with the anticipation of bringing Mordred to the castle hanging over them. Theo's owl returned at lunch to say that Lord Nott would arrive in Hogsmeade with the sword at five, which would give Harry plenty of time to get there and pick it up.

In the meantime, Hermione, Sirius and Ginny would look for Pettigrew using the map. Theo and Neville had begged off with the need to catch up on Ancient Runes because, as usual, Hermione hadn't allowed them to copy the translations that she completed as easily as she read English.

They met in an abandoned classroom where Hermione could cast a proximity ward that would alert them of anyone approaching with enough time for Sirius to transform back. Ginny lit the fire for warmth whilst Hermione and Sirius levitated a group of tables together and spread the map out across it. Then, they split it into sections and began searching for any anomalies or, specifically, Peter Pettigrew.

The sun set as they searched. At one point, Hermione took a quick break to manually light all of the candles in the room, desperate to look at something other than moving black ink. They spotted Harry making his way up the hallway with Mordred Gorlois almost hidden beneath his name tag, then the ward went of, buzzing painfully at the back of Hermione's mind before she recast it.

Harry appeared, shrugging off the silvery invisibility cloak and passing the cloth wrapped bundle he was carrying to Hermione. She squinted at it, puzzled by the dimensions. Mordred's sword was only perhaps a little longer than the typical 6th century blade, measuring just over three foot, but the package that Harry passed to Hermione was easily five.

'Lord Nott disguised it as a broom. He thought a sword might be confiscated.' Harry explained.

'There!' Ginny suddenly exclaimed, jabbing at the map with her finger. They crowded around immediately, peering down at where Peter Pettigrew had just slipped out from Ronald Weasley, who was making his way up from the hall. His name rippled as he climbed the staircase, then disappeared, Ron was chasing after him and Seamus Finnegan trailed behind. Sirius darted over to the part of the map that displayed the third floor, just in time to see Pettigrew appear, then disappear again as he continued upwards.

Sirius was in dog form in a blink, streaking out of the door in a blur of black. Cavella, excited by the proceedings, darted after him and Hermione swore, trailing after them at the fastest pace she could manage with only two legs.

She reached the staircase just as the dogs reached the fifth floor, leaning over the banister to see Sirius leap for the brown burr that was the rat.The rat squealed, narrowly evading reaching claws, whilst below, Ron Weasley let out an incoherent cry at the noise. Cavella, intelligent enough to know that it was the rat they were after, snapped at the rat, snagging the tail between her teeth. Pettigrew screeched again, writing desperately as Cavella hung on grimly. Ron was on the third floor himself now, able to look across the staircase to identify the two hounds that were attacking his rat.

With one last desperate screech, Scabbers tore free, shredding the skin off his tail and leaving a gruesome splatter of blood across Cavella's white face. Sirius pounced again, but Scabbers had gone, darting down the corridor. The two dogs tore after him, Cavella baying furiously and claws scrabbling against stone as they skidded around the corner. There was a loud crash as something was knocked off a table, then Sirius yowled in fury and dismay.

Ron had reached the fifth floor, barrelling after the two grims, hollering furiously.

'They're going to get away.' Ginny wheezed, slamming into the stone balustrade beside her and hanging over precariously in an attempt to see down the corridor two floors below. Hermione hissed and sprung down the stairs three at a time, haring down the corridor behind the red headed Gryffindor whilst Ginny peeled off to distract Seamus.

It was easy enough to follow the yells, squeaks and yelps of the chase around the corner, taking a left at the tapestry of Freyja and skidding to a halt at the dead end. Ron had tackled Sirius, and the big black dog rolled around on the floor with the redhead whilst Cavella bayed at the cowering rat behind a large, decorative urn.

'Gestille!' She cried, flinging her hand towards the corner. A pulse left her hand like a sci-fi stun gun, rippling over the urn in a wash of blue light.

'You foul, slimy snake!' Ron bellowed as Sirius's flailing back paw caught his crotch.

She darted around the brawling dog and boy, swiping beneath the urn until her fingers met the hot, bloody tail of the rat. She cursed the stupid animal's existence as she dragged it out, covered in dust and blood. It was frozen by her spell, eyes wide with terror and body as rigid as a board.

'Cavella, heel!' Hermione bit out. Cavella immediately stopped growling and darted to sit at her feet. 'Black, let him go. I've got the rat.'

'You filthy cow, I knew you were no better than the rest! Pet murdering monster.' The furious tirade escaped Ron as Sirius extricated himself from the tangle of limbs and shuffled over to her, sniffing eagerly at the rat in her hand. A moment later, Harry appeared around the corner, rushing to hold Ron back as he made to leap at Hermione. Cavella stood up, growling warningly.

'Ron! That's not a rat.' Harry insisted.

'He's been sick all year, ever since she brought those dirty great mutts to school.' Ron writhed against Harry, but Harry played a lot of sport and was much stronger than the taller boy. He held on grimly. When Hermione looked down at the rat in her hand, she noticed that he did look a little sick, even before Cavella had left his tail a mangled mess. His fur was mangy and he was very skinny. She sneered, dropping the rat onto the floor and aiming her wand at it. Ron renewed his struggling just as Ginny appeared, looking particularly mussed. The younger witch quickly joined Harry in helping to restrain her brother.

'Verus Revelo.' Hermione swished her wand and blue light shot from the end. Sirius had taught her the spell and she'd practiced it on him a number of times, so she was unsurprised when the rat began to swell and change. The mangled tail shrank, the paws lengthened and the fur smoothed over into worn clothing. Ron finally fell silent, whimpering in disbelief at the frozen man before them. Sirius growled and Hermione gripped his fur firmly.

'Your rat, Ronald, was an animagus.' Hermione informed him curtly. She poked her foot into the man's side and heaved him over to that he lay on his back. He had distinctly rat-like features; a little pink nose that dribbled snottily and yellow, overlong teeth. Like Scabbers, his hair was a mangy and boring pale brown. 'Ginny, please fetch Professor McGonagall.'

Ginny nodded, releasing her brother and hurrying down to the transfiguration classroom.

'Who is he?' Ron finally asked, sounding faint.

'Peter Pettigrew.' Harry answered, teeth gritted furiously as he glared down at the frozen traitor on the floor. 'He's the real reason my parents are dead. He betrayed them to Voldemort, then framed Sirius Black.'

'He slept in my bed!' Ron finally moaned into the silence, horror stricken. Sirius growled.

A moment later, rushed footsteps echoed down the corridor. McGonagall appeared, Ginny, Neville and Theo at her heels. She took one look at the man on the floor and gasped, her hand coming up to her chest. The transfiguration professor brushed past Harry and Ron, bending to check Pettigrew's pulse.

'Ronald's rat was an animagus, Professor.' Hermione explained, assuming from Ginny's heavy breathing that she hadn't yet. 'Peter Pettigrew was the real secret keeper, and he framed Sirius Black after betraying the Potters to Voldemort. He's been hiding as a rat ever since.'

'Nott?' McGonagall demanded after a moment of silence, 'use the floo in my office to contact the auror office. Tell them that we have apprehended a dangerous criminal and notify them that Miss Gorlois was involved, that should get them here in a hurry. Weasley, fetch Professor Snape, please ask him to bring some Veritaserum.'

'Veritaserum.' Ron repeated, hurrying off down the corridor after Theo. Then McGonagall turned to the closest portrait and asked it to fetch Professor Dumbledore. The lordly occupant of the painting hurried off, mayoral chains clinking heavily.

The wait was longer this time. The aurors were the first to arrive, predictably responding to Hermione's name as a person of interest to the government. There were four of them, including the witch with the pink hair from last time.

'He's a rat animagus.' Hermione warned as one of the aurors conjured manacles on Pettigrew's hands.

'Are you telling me how to do my job?' The auror grouched. Hermione blinked twice.

'Yes.'

'The minister is coming.' Theo huffed, interrupting Hermione and the auror before anything more could happen.

'I'm sure that won't be necessary. I do wish you'd come straight to me, Minerva.' Dumbledore hummed, sweeping into the corridor and eyeing up every one of the occupants. Hermione sneered at him.

'Why have I been summoned at this hour, Headmaster?' Snape sneered, detaching from the shadows of the corridor like a vampire.

'It appears that Miss Granger-'

'Gorlois.' Harry corrected.

'Has apprehended an illegal animagus.'

'An animagus who has been pretending to be dead for over a decade!' McGonagall's voice trembled furiously, just as Fudge appeared around the corner, still situating his bowler hat on his head.

'Now what's going on here, Albus?' The minister huffed.

'We have uncovered Peter Pettigrew, hiding as a rat.' Hermione announced loudly, speaking over Dumbledore.

'Peter Pettigrew?' The minister sounded stunned and he hurried forwards to peer down at the frozen man. 'Sirius Black's victim?'

Beside her, Sirius growled. Hermione tightened her fingers in his fur.

'I believe that it was actually Peter Pettigrew who betrayed the Potters, and when Sirius Black hunted him down for revenge, Pettigrew framed him by blowing up the street and cutting off his own finger.' Hermione continued. The frowned, eyes narrowing.

'Yes... Perhaps you're right. The finger did look a bit too... well, tidy, to have been blown off.'

'Albus?' McGonagall demanded sharply. 'Was it not you who cast the fidelius charm?'

'It was.' The headmaster acknowledged, looking unusually grave.

'So? Was Black the secret keeper?' Fudge demanded. He was starting to look very pale.

'He was not.' Dumbledore admitted. McGonagall straightened furiously and the headmaster continued quickly before she could speak. 'But I did believe that he had hunted down Pettigrew and blown up the street full of Muggles, and he deserved Azkaban for that. You know as well as I do how emotionally volatile Black was, Minerva. I couldn't have Harry being raised by him.'

Sirius growled furiously at Hermione's side.

'That was not your choice to make.' Hermione hissed, 'these matters lie with the people.'

'The girl is right. I'm beginning to believe an inquiry into your behaviour might be necessary, Dumbledore.' Fudge huffed, then he squinted at Snape in the corner. 'Ah, Severus. I don't suppose you've got any Veritaserum handy? If we can get a confession from him today then I can have this matter resolved in time for the morning papers.'

'Certainly.' Snape produced a small vial of the clear liquid from his robes. 'Might I ask what charm has been used to restrain him?'

'A variant of petrificus totalus.' Hermione answered. 'Would you like me to release him before of after you administer the potion?'

'After.' Snape purred, forcing the unresponsive man's mouth open and carefully tapping three droplets of potion onto his tongue. Hermione whispered the counter charm, expecting the man to struggle, but he seemed dazed as the aurors hauled him upright against the wall.

'What is your name?' One of the aurors demanded.

'Peter Pettigrew.' The captive murmured, sounding surprised by that fact. The aurors all shared significant looks, as if that meant something.

'What is your animagus form?'

'A grey rat.'

'Excellent.' The aurors turned to the Minister. 'He seems particularly susceptible, perhaps because of his extended period in his animagus form.'

'That would be likely.' McGonagall agreed solemnly and Hermione remembered that the elderly witch was also an animagus. 'Our animal forms are usually lower functioning, so after a decade as a rat, I imagine he's not used to higher thought processes.'

'Fascinating.' Snape sneered. 'If we could continue? We only have thirty minutes.'

'Were you the Potter's secret keeper?'

'Yes.' Pettigrew confirmed.

'Tell us about the night that Lily and James Potter died.'

'You-Know-Who came to me and told me that he needed to know the Potter's most recent safe house. I was the secret keeper, so I took him to them. He went inside and there was a large explosion and this black figure flew off into the night. I went inside, and realised that You-Know-Who had been defeated. I knew that Sirius would kill me when he found out what had happened.'

Sirius growled at Hermione's side, lips curling up to expose savage fangs.

'There! See! He's come for me again!' Pettigrew wailed, staring at the black grim. Ginny hissed and Hermione's fingers tensed in Sirius' ruff. McGonagall turned slowly to face them.

'Pettigrew was never intelligent enough to become an animagus alone, he must have had help... you call your pet Black, do you not?'

Hermione winced.

'Sirius Black? You think Lady Gorlois' pet is Sirius Black?' Fudge asked incredulously. Sirius whined, shuffling back into Hermione's shadow.

'He approached me.' Harry said, shouldering into the circle of adults. 'After he escaped, he found me in Diagon Alley and told me everything. I believed him and asked Hermione if she could help.'

'So you did break him out of Azkaban?' Fudge rounded on Hermione. In a flurry of black, Sirius was suddenly standing beside her in his human form. He was almost unrecognisable from the gaunt man in the wanted posters; his hair had been trimmed by the Gorlois elves, he wore a set of plain but good quality robes and months of plentiful food had begun to fill out his cheeks and shoulders again.

'Hermione was in the court room with the wizengamot, as you saw.' Sirius informed the minister. 'She was going to pursue a proper trial for me, once she had her seal back. But when I heard that Harry was living with those awful muggles, I realised that I couldn't take the risk that she wouldn't be successful. It was stormy, when we got back to the island, and dementors can't see very well at all, not can they sense non-human emotions very well. I took advantage of the moment and transformed. It was so dark that they couldn't see my black fur against the stone walls. Then the lightning struck the tower and I used the chaos to jump into the sea and swim away.'

'I'd bet it was Quirrel who organised the breakout then, Minister.' The eldest auror said, without removing his suspicious glare from Sirius.

'But you let someone who was potentially a dangerous criminal into Hogwarts?' Dumbledore asked.

'Of course not.' Hermione scoffed. 'Who do you think designed the magical repression cuffs that Grindelwald used? I'm more than capable of a temporary magical bonding charm.'

'Impossible!' Fudge huffed.

'It's not, although I can't explain it, accidental magic of some sort, maybe?' Hermione shook her head, adopting her best forlorn look. 'I fell asleep one night in my parent's home in muggle London, and woke up in 1890's Germany. Gellert's mother took me in as a ward, and we grew up together, fought together, got betrothed, and then I woke up again, back in London, ten years old again. I don't understand it.'

McGonagall, Snape and the ministry officials looked at her like she'd sprouted a second head.

'I suppose... as improbable as it may be, it does explain several things?' McGonagall murmured. 'I can't imagine how else would she have been adopted by Grindelwald, when we all know that he's been in prison without visitors.'

'The unspeakables might know something, Minister.' The pink haired auror suggested.

'Oh no!' Hermione said quickly. 'I just want to enjoy this second chance at a childhood. Lady Grindelwald and Gellert were wonderful to me, but it was the beginning of the German revolutionary war and we didn't have much of a chance to be children. The dark wizard Livius Lucan, the siege and fall of Blau Berg, I barely escaped the execution of the Baba Yaga, then the poisonings...'

'I was at school with Dolohov. We all thought his grandmother was utterly batty because she used to go on about the life debt she owed to the youngest Grindelwald, then went off on a rant about how Gellert Grindelwald was a bastard.' One of the aurors, grizzled, with a white streak in his hair like a badger put in.

'Merlin.' Fudge needed his eyebrows as if he had a headache coming on. 'Yes, we will speak to the unspeakables, but the matter of Pettigrew and Black is more pressing right now. I need the rest of the statement from Pettigrew.'

The auror that had been asking the questions cleared his throat and asked about what had happened when Black finally tracked him down. Pettigrew explained, still in that dead tone of voice, the events of the morning that Sirius had caught him. How he'd figured out that he could never beat Sirius and had lain in wait, wand ready, before blowing up the street and faking his own death. As the conclusive evidence was provided, Fudge took on a very troubled expression.

'This will not go down well.' He muttered, almost to himself. 'False imprisonment of Lord Black...'

'But Minister, wasn't it the opposition that was in power when Sirius was captured?' Hermione suggested slyly. Fudge glanced at her, eyes calculating, then nodded. 'I brought it to your attention after Black approached me, and you sent aurors to investigate, discovering and arresting the real culprit at Hogwarts where he was poised to attack Harry Potter.'

'Yes, yes, quite.' Fudge agreed, sounding far happier. Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at her across the corridor. 'Order of Merlin, I think, second class, for all of your school friends for your efforts. First class to Lord Black. On second thought, there was the instance with Quirrel in your first year and the snake last year - what kind of school are you running here, Dumbledore? Perhaps First Class to yourself and Heirs Potter and Nott.'

'Thank you, Minister.' Theo dipped a quick bow, Harry hastily copying him.

'Right, er... Lord Black, if you come with us, I'll call an emergency session of the wizengamot. Aurors, bring Pettigrew and for Merlin's sake, don't let him transform.'

Sirius glanced at Hermione, then nodded when she shrugged and trailed after the minister and the aurors down the corridor.

'Hey?' Ron demanded, 'what about me? He was my pet. Don't I get anything?' Everyone paused, then Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.

'Your life?' Ginny snarked. 'We saved you before he could curse you in your sleep?'

'I'll buy you a new owl, Weasley.' Hermione offered, before calling Cavella to her heel and striding from the corridor. The others hurried up to join her. She waited until they were out of earshot before huffing irritably.

'Why does it have to be called an order of "Merlin"?