A/N - Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to chapter 20. Thanks for the comments on chapter 19. I see a lot of you had similar thoughts to mine regarding the twins never seeing Pettigrew on the map. Just think of what would have happened if they had spotted him, say, at the beginning of Harry's first year and he had been caught. A lot of stuff would be different. Oh well, that's the way it goes I guess.

Kkzinho - Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you like the story.

Khatix - I haven't given much thought about Harry becoming an animagus. He's a bit too busy for that right now but it might happen in the future.

Archdruid89 - Regarding your question about Spider-Man he would be a teenager at this point. This story is essentially a Silver Age Marvel story so Peter Parker is in high school now and he hasn't been Spider-Man for very long at this time. Also Mr. Fantastic and Professor X do know each other. In chapter 12 Xavier said that Reed Richards showed him how to use unstable molecules.

The new chapter is below. I hope you enjoy it and please leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please.

Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Quotes taken from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

20) A SIRIUS PROBLEM (PART 2)

It turned out to be almost too easy to catch the rat. Deciding that the most straightforward method would be best Dumbledore himself went up to the Gryffindor third year dormitory followed by the other four. The map still said that Pettigrew was with Ron. The five went up to the room, Dumbledore in the lead, and entered it. As soon as Dumbledore was through the entrance Scabbers gave a squeak and tried to jump off Ron's bed and run away but Dumbledore was too fast for him and he was quickly stunned.

"What the bloody hell?" Ron said as he shot up from his bed in surprise. Before he could do anything else the headmaster motioned for him to be silent. He shot another spell at the rat and it glowed red for a moment.

"So it's true" said Dumbledore, "the rat is an animagus."

"What?" said Ron, "no he's not. He's just a rat."

"Mr. Weasley" said Lupin, "that was the animagus reveal spell. By turning red it showed that your rat is an animagus." Ron's face took on a look of horror and disgust.

"I let him sleep on my bed!" he said.

"Did anything happen?" asked Lupin sharply.

"Not that I know of" said Ron, "I thought he was just a rat and he's never behaved like anything else." Dumbledore turned and waved his wand at Ron.

"I see no signs of any obliviations" he said, "so I think we can be safely sure Pettigrew stayed in rat form the whole time he was living with your family."

"He better have" said Fred, "if we find out he spied on our sister – "

" – no one in the family will be happy" said George.

"Let's take him back to my office" said Dumbledore, "I'll contact the DMLE and the minister. Since he's been looking into Sirius' case lately he'll want to know about this. All of you should come too as well as Ginny and Percy. We'll contact your parents later."

It didn't take too long for everyone to assemble in Dumbledore's office. All five of the Weasley siblings were there now along with Lee and Professor Lupin. In addition Professor McGonagall was there as their head of house. They were soon joined by Amelia Bones, the Director of the DMLE and two aurors. Finally Minister Fudge arrived with two more aurors.

"Cornelius" Dumbledore addressed Fudge first, "I believe that we're about to learn the answers to our questions about what Sirius Black is after."

"You've caught him?" asked Fudge.

"No" said Dumbledore, "but we've discovered something very interesting in this castle that I think is going to throw a lot of light on the problem. Amelia, did you bring Veritaserum with you?"

"Yes" said Madame Bones handing a vial of the potion to him.

"Good" said Dumbledore who now put the still stunned rat down on the floor before nodding at Professor Lupin. Both professors raised their wands and, aiming at the rat, cast the animagus reversal spell together.

A flash of blue-white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, Scabbers was frozen [on the floor]... There was another blinding flash of light and then —

It was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, a man was [lying] where Scabbers had been... He was a very short man...His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes.

"That's Peter Pettigrew!" exclaimed Minister Fudge as he looked at the unconscious man, "I thought he was dead!"

"So did we all" said Dumbledore, "apparently not. We'll get to the bottom of this business now. Amelia if you would?"

Madame Bones nodded at her two aurors. They went to Pettigrew, picked him up and put him in a chair.

"Incarcerous" said one of the aurors tying Pettigrew securely to the chair. Dumbledore then forced the captive's mouth open and put three drops of Veritaserum in it. Stepping back from the bound man he shot another spell at him which woke him up. As Pettigrew woke up he reflexively swallowed. His eyes opened and for a moment he stared wildly around before his eyes took on a glazed look. Dumbledore again nodded to Madame Bones who sat down in another chair and took out some parchment and a dicta-quill.

"Interrogation of suspected fugitive" she said and turned to Pettigrew, "what is your name?"

"Peter Pettigrew" he said in a monotone voice.

"What is your date of birth?"

"May 14, 1960."

"It's working" Madame Bones said to the headmaster who now took over.

"Please tell me your story" he said, "how long have you been living with the Weasley family as a rat?"

"Twelve years."

"Did they know who you were?"

"No." All of the Weasley siblings sighed with relief upon hearing that.

"Were you hiding when you lived with them?" Dumbledore now asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was hiding from the Death Eaters" was the reply.

"Why?"

"Because they would all think I was responsible for the Dark Lord's fall." That raised some eyebrows. Dumbledore pushed on.

"Why would they think that?" he asked.

"Because I was the one who told him where the Potters were hiding" he said, "he went there to kill them but he fell instead."

"Were you the Potters' secret keeper?"

"Yes."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

Things progressed from there. It came out that Sirius Black was originally going to be the Potters' secret keeper but he had convinced James and Lily to switch to Peter at the last minute figuring that no one would suspect him of being the real secret keeper while Sirius would be a decoy and draw attention away from Peter. Peter seemed quite proud that he had convinced Sirius and James to switch. He had played on their fears of a possible spy close to them and had insinuated that it was Remus who was that spy.

After Lord Voldemort's fall Sirius had tracked down Peter to confront him but Peter had gotten the better of him. He had yelled out that Sirius was the traitor, cut off his finger, caused a big explosion that killed twelve muggles, and escaped into the sewers as a rat. He had hidden out with the Weasleys simply because they had taken him in thinking he was just a rat. While he was there he kept an ear out for any news of his master.

Dumbledore looked at Pettigrew in disgust.

"Well now we know who the real traitor is" he said, "take him away."

"Not so fast" called out Fred, "we have some things we'd like to know."

"Yeah" said George, "did you ever do anything to any of us when you were living with us?"

"No" said Peter.

"If one of us had found you out" said Percy, "what would you have done?"

"Obliviated you if I could" was the answer, "if that was impossible I would have killed the one who discovered me and disappeared."

"Bloody hell" said Ron, "and I let you sleep on my bed!"

"Did you ever spy on our sister?" asked Fred.

"Not really" said Pettigrew, "I occasionally watched her get changed or take a bath but she's not old enough yet to really draw my attention. It shouldn't be too much longer though."

"I'll kill him!" said Ginny who raised her wand but Lupin stopped her.

"Albus get him out of here" said Lupin, "before there's actual violence."

"Agreed" said Dumbledore.

"Take him to the ministry" said Madame Bones, "and keep him under close guard. Tell no one he is there. His presence must be kept secret until his trial."

"And don't forget he's an animagus" added Lupin.

Two of the aurors untied Peter, placed a pair of magic suppressing cuffs on his wrists and took him to the fireplace where they took the floo to the ministry. The other aurors quickly followed them at Bones' order. Dumbledore turned to the five Weasleys.

"I'm sorry you had to see this" he said, "please keep this to yourselves until after I've had a chance to speak to your parents, which I will do before the day is out. And Weasley twins and Mr. Jordan? Thank you for your help and fifty points to Gryffindor for each of you for your help catching a dangerous criminal. You may all go."

The five Weasley siblings left the office followed by Lee Jordan. They were all rather shaken by what had just happened and they would all be fairly subdued for the rest of the day. Fred and George even refrained from any mischief.

In Dumbledore's office the five remaining people were going over what they had seen and heard.

"Well that explains a few things" said Dumbledore.

"I can't believe an innocent man was thrown into Azkaban" said Professor McGonagall, "and without a trial."

"Hopefully he's the only one like that" said Fudge.

"The DMLE is looking into it as you asked" said Bones, "We haven't found anything yet but it's only been a day since we started the investigation."

"I think we can now be sure" said Lupin, "that Black was not after Harry here at Hogwarts but Peter instead. Somehow he must have found out that Peter would be here, but how?"

"I think I might know" said Fudge speaking up unexpectedly, "I remember the last time I saw Black was earlier this year during my annual inspection of Azkaban. You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark; there's no sense in them... but I was shocked at how normal Black seemed. He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You'd have thought he was merely bored —asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, cool as you please, said he missed doing the crossword. Since I was done with it I let him have the copy of The Daily Prophet I was carrying. That was the issue that announced that Arthur Weasley had won the paper's annual lottery and I like to follow that. I remember reading the article about it earlier that day and it had a picture of the whole Weasley family in it."

"I remember that" said Madame Bones, "because I was very pleased that someone like Arthur who really needed the money had won."

"Yes" said Fudge, "and on the youngest boy's shoulder in the picture there was a rat."

"Sirius must have seen that picture" said Lupin, "he would have recognized Peter at once and would have realized that he would be at Hogwarts when Ron Weasley went back for his third year."

"And since the paper would also have the date on it" picked up Dumbledore, "he would have also realized that Harry would be at Hogwarts too."

"Harry's his godson" said Lupin, "and they were close. Sirius loved to play with Harry and spoil him a little."

"This is all well and good" said Madame Bones, "and I think we can safely say that Black is innocent of the charges against him. But how do we find him to tell him that? Where is he?" Lupin looked thoughtful.

"I wonder if – ? He began, "no, that's too obvious. But maybe? It would make sense."

"What is it Remus?" asked Dumbledore.

"There's one place I can think of where he might go where it would be very unlikely that anyone would find him" said Lupin slowly, "but I can't be sure without actually going there to see for myself."

"Where?" asked McGonagall.

"I'd rather not say" said Lupin, "if I'm right it might be best if I go alone. We know he's innocent so he shouldn't be dangerous to me. If we all go as a group – "

"Of course my boy" said Dumbledore, "you go and see if he's there. If he is and you're able to explain things to him send a patronus and we will come to you."

"If he's where I think he is" said Lupin, "I should bring him to you. It's not a comfortable trip to get to that place."

"All right" said Dumbledore, "but in that case, before you do that – " Dumbledore turned to Minister Fudge and Madame Bones, "you should send the dementors back to Azkaban."

"You're right" said Fudge, "Amelia, you'll see to that?"

"At once" said Madame Bones as she rose from her seat.

"When you've done that come back here" said Dumbledore "and you can wait with us while Remus follows his hunch."

"Well" said McGonagall, "I'll be very glad to see those horrors leave the school."

"We all will" said Lupin.

"And I'm glad we're sending them back" said Fudge, "to think that they didn't need to be here in the first place. I'm sorry that the school had to suffer their presence for the last couple of months."

An hour later Professor Lupin was making his way down a low secret passage that led out of the school grounds. The passage was very rough, like it wasn't often used, which it wasn't as the Whomping Willow was planted right over the entrance to it. Unless one knew the trick to stopping the tree long enough to enter the passage it was inaccessible. Lupin knew the passage quite well. He had used it every month during his school days as it led out of the school and into the interior of the Shrieking Shack. He'd spent his full moons there so his werewolf self would be kept away from the rest of the school.

He reached the end and entered the dust filled interior of the shack. It was easy to see that someone had been here recently as there were footprints in the dust leading to the upper level. Lupin followed the footsteps up the stairs. On the upper floor the footsteps led to a closed door. Lupin knocked. There was a gasp from the other side of the door which was quickly stifled. Then silence. Lupin knocked again.

"Sirius!" he called, "are you in there? Padfoot? It's me, Moony. Everything's okay. I know you're innocent. We've just caught Peter and he confessed everything." Abruptly the door to the room was wrenched open from the inside and Lupin came face to face with Sirius Black.

"Moony" said Black and there was a wild look in his eyes, "please tell me you're not joking, that this isn't a trap."

"I'm not" said Lupin, "we really caught Peter. Marauder's Honor. I'll even give you a regular magical oath to that effect if you want."

"How?" demanded Black. He looked terrible. His clothes were ragged, his skin was dirty and his hair was tangled and matted.

"I'll tell you" said Lupin, "I think you'll be pleased." Lupin told Black his story. As he listened Black relaxed until finally he began to smile.

"They found him by using the map?" he said, "that's wonderful. I'd like to meet the Weasley twins and their friend Mr. Jordan."

"They'll be glad to meet you" said Lupin, "now Dumbledore is waiting back at the castle along with Amelia Bones and Minister Fudge. They were there when Peter was caught and they know you're innocent. The dementors have been sent back to Azkaban. It's safe Padfoot."

"I trust you Moony" was the reply. Lupin smiled, cast his patronus, and sent it to Dumbledore.

(To Be Continued)

A/N - That's all for this week. Next week we return to Harry and his classmates / teammates in America. Until then keep safe and well. Cheers!