Sirius was still in a mood when Harry called him on Monday night. The first thing he said, reluctantly, was that Dumbledore had to be informed of Pettigrew getting into Hogwarts again, as well as the method he was using, travelling through the sewer system. Harry was somewhat reluctant, but for once, Hermione was in full agreement with Sirius. The boys finally agreed as well.

Sirius was none too happy to hear that Lupin had put off teaching Harry until next term. "That does it. We're definitely meeting up, and soon."

"But what about the Trace?" asked Hermione.

Sirius sighed. "I'm afraid we'll have to go to my parents' house for just that reason. I'd rather have spared you that dreary place, but I know for certain that it's warded against the Trace."

Hermione nodded. Instead of arguing, trying to find reasons why it was a bad idea, she said, "But this time, we're planning to use the time-turner from the beginning."

This was gladly agreed on. Altogether, they all wanted to make sure their next meet-up would be planned meticulously. For that reason, they set a tentative date towards the end of November, which would give them about a fortnight of preparation time.

Early the next morning, Harry went to the owlery with the difficult mission of sending a letter to Dumbledore. He considered using a school owl, then decided not to upset Hedwig. She was suffering enough this term, being forced to endure all sorts of surveillance spells from unknown sources. Harry had warned her not to try to oppose her assailants, and she seemed to be holding up alright, but he still worried about her. In fact, he was considering Dudley's advice to have someone check her over – possibly Hagrid. In the meantime, Harry decided not to take away from her the opportunity to deliver a letter without any risk of assault – she should be quite safe within Hogwarts grounds.

There was no immediate response from the headmaster that day, but at lunch, noticing their curious stares his way, Dumbledore nodded to them from the high table. They decided that probably meant he had received Harry's message.

The weather did not improve as the week went on. The persistent rain had an unnatural feel to it, making Hermione suggest that it might be due to the dementors' rage, having failed to capture Pettigrew twice in one week. Ron argued that the dementors were more likely mad because Dumbledore was keeping them away from the school's inhabitants.

The weather, together with their recent loss, meant that quidditch practice had slowed somewhat. This Harry did not mind, because it left him more time for his other projects, including the Wolfsbane potion.

When Friday came around, he felt there could have been better starts to the weekend than spending an hour in Snape's presence. With the pretext of visiting the library, he followed Ron and Hermione out of the common room and to the dungeons. They had to avoid the Slytherin students as best they could, using the Marauders' Map. They were only partially successful, and received a number of odd looks from older Slytherins.

"Maybe we should use your invisibility cloak next time," Ron told Harry.

"And the time-turner," said Harry.

Hermione immediately scowled, but did not actually argue. They really did stand out in the dungeons.

Snape let them in just as brusquely as the previous time, but did not seem as inclined to discuss Lupin with them. He quickly showed them the fresh batch of Wolfsbane potion he had already begun brewing, but told them that they would be preparing the less volatile ingredients mostly by themselves that day. He had a stack of parchments spread out on his desk in the potions classroom, and after leaving them with some instructions, he sat behind his desk, and began correcting the parchments. Harry tried not to wonder whose homework he was marking – and whether or not it might be his year's – while he began to peel the gurdyroots.

The hour was almost up, and Harry had amassed a large amount of extra finely minced gurdyroot, when there was a noise which must have come from Snape's office. Through the sheen of tears, he saw Ron and Hermione looking at him. Then they all looked at the scowling face of their teacher. Before any of them could do much, there were footsteps approaching the potions classroom. Snape got up, turned towards the door he had closed behind them—

The door was opened and in walked Dumbledore. "Severus, sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow your, ah, assistants if you don't mind."

Harry carefully removed his glasses and wiped his eyes with his sleeve, careful not to get any more of the gurdyroot vapour into his eyes. He put his glasses back on. Now that he could see properly, he noticed that Snape looked as surprised as he felt, while Dumbledore was regarding their surprised faces with a serene smile.

Snape schooled his features into something more neutral. "Oh? Did you have any urgent business with them?" he asked.

Dumbledore walked into the room, his gaze sweeping their workstations with interest. His eyes came to rest on the small mountain of minced gurdyroots in front of Harry. "Oh, not particularly urgent, but it looks to me like you've accomplished most of today's work, isn't that so?" He was clearly refusing to satisfy Snape's blatant curiosity. His beard twitched. "By the way, Severus, I didn't think the gurdyroots needed to be minced quite this finely for the Wolfsbane potion."

"It certainly won't hurt," said Snape, unrepentant. He regarded Dumbledore shrewdly. "Would you like to use my office?"

Dumbledore nodded. "If that's not too inconvenient."

"There's something you don't want to be seen discussing with them, I take it? Actually, I'd like to mention something like that before they leave," Snape said. "It'll be much too suspicious if you three keep turning up here regularly without any pretext. But perhaps you could – create – the pretext. I'm sure you can think of ways to give me reason to give one – or all – of you detention—"

This was followed by loud protests.

Dumbledore's beard twitched again as he held up his hands. "Perhaps another possibility will suggest itself, Severus," he said.

Dumbledore then led the three friends through to the office, leaving Snape to correcting his students' work. His dark eyes followed them until the door closed, not hiding his displeasure at being kept out of the loop very well.

Dumbledore motioned for them to stay silent until he had cast protective enchantments – not hiding from them what he was doing, emphasizing the need for secrecy. Harry was immediately on alert, wondering at the reason for the headmaster to have orchestrated a private meeting with them. He cut across Hermione, who began asking the headmaster if she should have used the time-turner after all for their meeting with Snape. Harry frowned at his friend, almost telling her to get her priorities straight, but instead chose to ask Dumbledore if something was amiss.

Dumbledore did not rush to answer, instead first conjuring some armchairs for all of them, before lighting a fire. Snape's office was notoriously unwelcoming. "Nothing has happened with regards to a certain misunderstood grim – at least as far as I know," he finally said. "However, there are certain developments that I'd like to discuss with you."

Even though Harry was impatient for him to come to the point, Dumbledore first addressed Hermione's concern regarding the time-turner. Apparently, Snape did not even know they had access to one, and Dumbledore told them to keep it that way.

"The reason Professor Snape seemed so interested in what I'm about to discuss with you," Dumbledore went on. "He may be thinking that I'm about to discuss something regarding Professor Lupin with you. I was forced to tell him you knew of Professor Lupin's lycantrophy from me, so he wouldn't look further for another source." Dumbledore's face had suddenly turned serious. "It is not a good time to leave such trails leading to Sirius Black." He raised his eyebrows. "Nor for him to come close enough to the school to attract the dementors' attention – however well-intentioned his attempt to stop Pettigrew might have been."

The three friends needed a moment to recover from the surprise. Harry had been expecting some sort of questioning, but instead Dumbledore was admonishing them for not being secretive enough. Irrelevantly, Harry wondered how much worse Snape would have taken it, if he knew they were about to discuss the other Marauders – Sirius and Pettigrew – instead. In his own office, none the less.

Ron, sounding chastised, began a disjointed explanation of how that reveal had happened.

Harry cut across him. "So, does that mean you believe that he's innocent?" His voice was halting, still disbelieving. It would be a huge step in their favour, he knew, if they had Dumbledore on their side—

Dumbledore first turned to Ron, brought up his hands in a conciliatory manner. "I understand your heartfelt wish to help Professor Lupin. In fact, I commend you for it. However, the situation with Mr Black is unfortunately very volatile at the moment, and I'm afraid, once I started looking, I began seeing a great many trails leading from you three to him.

"I'm beginning to lean towards believing him to be innocent," he said after a pause. Before a sense of relief had washed over his listeners, Dumbledore brought up his hands again, this time in a gesture of caution. "I'm not fully convinced – yet—"

Harry, Hermione and Ron had discussed this after Harry's summons to the headmaster's office on Hallowe'en. They had thought about a fair number of arguments they could make in the days since. They began to say that Pettigrew had framed Sirius.

"Please let me explain," Dumbledore interrupted them. "When I say that I'm not fully convinced yet, I don't mean that I'm dismissing your judgement. For the three of you to still be such staunch supporters of Mr Black's innocence, he must have provided you with a convincing account of events, which must have withstood every detail you might have since heard about the events twelve years ago—"

"It's not just that," said Harry. "It's also all the things he's said and done since then." He drew a deep breath. Time to put all their cards on the table. "We've been in contact with him pretty much ever since he got out of Azkaban."

Hermione made a high-pitched, cut-off noise, but did not contradict him.

"I'm aware," said Dumbledore. "As I said, there were a number of clues I managed to follow."

To the three friends' dismay, he had a whole list to name. First of all, he had managed to get access to the transcript of Sirius' questioning. He was not particularly surprised that his listeners knew most of the contents of that questioning as well. He had then tried to piece together the sequence of events, knowing that Pettigrew was alive. Harry had to admit that Dumbledore's version was nearly identical to the one he knew from his godfather.

Moreover, Sirius had left a trail during his investigation of Lockhart, for all that the auror trainee, Tonks, had dismissed Lockhart's claims. Dumbledore had also talked to Mrs Figg, who remembered the stray dog Padfoot had pretended to be. He then mentioned that Bathilda Bagshot was an acquaintance of his living in Godric's Hollow, who had remembered seeing Padfoot in front of the church on Hallowe'en.

"The author of A History of Magic?" said Harry.

Dumbledore nodded. "She lives quite close to where your family used to live—"

Harry remembered the graves in Godric's Hollow belonging to several Dumbledores, and could not help getting sidetracked himself. He asked after them.

The headmaster hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Some of my family is from there."

He did not say any more on the topic, instead recounting to his listeners how he had carefully asked Percy about, and had it confirmed that Padfoot had stayed with the Weasleys for a little while.

"None of the people I asked thought there was anything at all suspicious about that dog," went on Dumbledore. "Despite the convenient time frame, they could not conceive of that friendly animal having anything at all to do with Sirius Black."

Ron crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Well, did Percy remember Scabbers? My – well, the rat Percy found and then gave to me."

Dumbledore drew back, frowned. It took him no time at all to understand. "Your pet rat? He – Pettigrew – used to live as your pet rat?"

This began an explanation of how Harry, Ron and Hermione had first encountered Sirius as a human, when introducing Scabbers to him, how they had come to believe him over the suddenly exposed Pettigrew. Dumbledore did not interrupt, but let them tell everything in detail, nodding along to the conclusions they told him they had drawn when Pettigrew had threatened them with memory charms, only to try a jumbled explanation for his actions after they had turned the tables on him. Despite having guessed most of it, he listened with rapt attention when they then recounted Sirius' version of the events.

Finally, Dumbledore nodded. "A coherent, believable account of the events." He sighed, looked away from the young faces, which had suddenly grown hopeful. "I'm afraid this is an exceptional case," he went on. "So much so, that the usual practice of assuming someone innocent until proven guilty won't do. I fear, what is needed is the by far more difficult task of actually proving Mr Black innocent. And that is no easy feat. As we all agreed, even a Veritaserum questioning is not infallible. The same applies to memories as well, subject to memory-altering charms as they can be—"

"What, you mean our memories?" exclaimed Ron. "You think Sirius changed our memories somehow? We've known him for well over a year, he's – he—" Ron stopped, frustrated, indecisive about how much to reveal about Sirius' involvement in their adventures, and their ability to stay in contact with him.

"I'm talking more generally. Witness accounts are not above doubt," Dumbledore said. "Your evidence, convincing as it sounds, could easily be dismantled in court—"

"Professor, you keep bringing up proving Sirius' innocence in court," interrupted Hermione. "But what about you? Do you believe us?" she asked shrewdly.

Dumbledore hesitated, clearly undecided how to answer.

Harry gasped. He had not seen what this discussion was really about all this time, but he was beginning to have an inkling. "Professor, you said in the beginning that you wanted to discuss some developments with us, but that it wasn't anything to do with Sirius. Did something new happen with Pettigrew?"

There had been nothing in the news, but by the way Dumbledore drew back, Harry thought he had guessed correctly.

"And now you're trying to decide whether to tell us," surmised Hermione," "because whatever we know would become known to Sirius as well."

"I won't promise not to tell Sirius," said Harry impatiently. If that was Dumbledore's condition, it would not do. He would not make a false promise to the headmaster – unlikely as that was to succeed anyway.

"That was not my intention," said Dumbledore. "I—" He drew a sharp breath. "I believe you enough to tell you some of it – but I will withhold a few details. Yes, something did happen, and I suspect the same group was involved that Pettigrew seems to be a part of, though not Pettigrew himself this time."

Harry waited impatiently for more, watching the eerie light reflected from the glass jars full of revolting things in Snape's office throw shadows on the headmaster's face, sat in the comfortable armchair he had conjured. Everything felt a little out of place about that image – most of all the serious expression on the usually bright face of the headmaster.

"Last time we spoke, Harry, I could not guess what Pettigrew had been looking for in my office. Last night, an object was stolen from the ministry. It was one of a pair of objects, the other of which is in my keep."

"You're not going to tell us what those objects are, then?" said Ron, after the headmaster paused again.

"Not at this time, though perhaps that'll change soon. For now, I'll say that I didn't realise they would be of interest to the parties involved. In fact, I don't believe the aurors have come to the conclusion that Pettigrew is connected to this event at all. The perpetrator this time was a confounded auror – something we have seen a fair number of recently." He regarded Ron and Hermione with a knowing look, until Hermione flushed and looked down. Dumbledore's beard twitched.

"Professor, did Pettigrew manage to take the other item – the one you have – on Saturday?" said Harry.

"No, he did not. I don't believe he even managed to get into my office, as a matter of fact. After last time, I made sure to increase the protection on my office, together with the entrances to the castle. Still, I failed to consider the sewer system…"

With a grimace, Ron told him that Pettigrew had done something similar the year before, and recounted his and Harry's run-in with Pettigrew – but without mentioning the Marauders' Map. "I wish we'd told you, but we didn't realise he was travelling through the actual sewers. After discovering the Chamber of Secrets, we thought his escape route must've been connected to that."

Dumbledore did not admonish them. He looked curious, aware that they were leaving something out – for how could they have found Pettigrew without the Marauders' Map? – but he did not question them. "Indeed a curious state of things," he went on. "Very inventive ways to get inside Hogwarts. By the way, you were right about Pettigrew getting in through the owlery on Hallowe'en, Harry. We discovered a delivery box there with sophisticated warding on it, both to make him less noticeable to the dementors and to repel the owls – to keep them from eating his rat form."

Harry felt relieved, hearing this. It explained why Hedwig had not gone after Wormtail, despite having attacked him in the past. His fear that it might be because of the surveillance charms she was regularly subjected to abated.

"Also, both instances when Pettigrew entered Hogwarts coincided with times when all three of you would be away. I believe you also agree that that was not a coincidence? In the first case, the aurors also discovered somehow that Harry and Sirius were going to be in Godric's Hollow, but I've yet to find out how."

Harry and his friends did not dare look at each other. Dumbledore was not the only one who was unwilling to share all his secrets. They wanted to make sure to keep the existence of the Marauders' Map hidden.

"And yet, once inside Hogwarts, Pettigrew's actions were somewhat less impressive," Dumbledore went on, once again not questioning them. "He got in my office the first time, but I had not even considered the possibility that he would manage to get inside the castle back then, or that my office would be his target. It's even possible that I myself opened the door to let him in, as I was not on the lookout for a small rodent. He was less than impressive once there, at any rate. He did not even manage to ascertain that what he was after was not there, necessitating another visit – an even less successful one. And, of course, he was almost eaten by your pet cat, Hermione—"

"Wait, so the object – whatever it is – is not in your office?" said Ron.

Dumbledore hesitated for a moment, before finally agreeing. "It wouldn't have been a bad guess for a hiding place, if I had deemed it necessary to protect that object as thoroughly as I could. But I'd been unaware that it was being sought after, so I didn't. Hogwarts is the safest place I have access to – besides Gringotts. My bank account wouldn't be of use in this case, however, because keeping it there would make it very difficult for me to – access it," he said slowly, carefully deciding on the phrasing.

"So it's like one of your instruments in your office, then," surmised Hermione. "It helps you keep track of something?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he nodded. "Indeed. You're exactly right, Hermione. However, I shall not say any more, in fear that you'll guess the whole of it."

Dumbledore soon said goodbye after that, with a mutual promise to keep each other updated. Snape's suspicious gaze followed them out of his office, though he did not say a word in Dumbledore's presence.

That night, Sirius took the news of their conversation with the headmaster well, saying that it was not unexpected. Pettigrew must have had a reason for taking such risks. He was not unnecessarily worried, in fact he was taking it as a good sign that Dumbledore had told them as much as he had. In a good mood, he laughed at their outrage at Snape's plan to give them more detentions to cover up their helping with the Wolfsbane potion.

"Well, that's what you get for helping that git! Not that doing something like that for Remus isn't a great idea." He grimaced. "Or getting along with Snape, if you want that." He smirked. "Really, such concern over a couple little detentions—"

Hermione scowled, drew breath to respond, then deflated. "Oh, no!" she said. "I forgot to ask Professor Dumbledore about that break-in into St Mungo's, and whether he thinks it had anything to do with Pettigrew after all."

Sirius sighed. "Most likely. Assuming our guess is right and Malfoy is involved, they're probably after something interesting. They didn't even trust Pettigrew with the operation at the ministry. I'm beginning to think they might stay away from Hogwarts altogether, if they figure out soon that whatever item they're after isn't there."

Harry crossed his arms. He did not see why that thought seemed to make Sirius so happy. Not being able to keep an eye on what Pettigrew was after did not cheer him in the slightest.

Sirius must have guessed some of what Harry was thinking from his expression. "You mightn't be happy about it, but I'd prefer not to have him near any of you. Not that he hasn't tried his best to stay away from you. First on Hallowe'en, when he must've assumed that all of you'd be in Hogsmeade, and then during your quidditch match—"

"Us?" said Harry. "What about you? That whole set-up with the aurors—"

"Yes, I also used to think that he'd planned the break-in at the same time I'd be – occupied," said Sirius. "But I think that was just bonus. He probably just hoped it'd prove an opportunity to be rid of me. The second time, he didn't care at all where I was. He only cared where you'd be – that you'd be away from your foe-glass and the Marauders' Map – which he still believes is in your possession."

"Well, we have a copy," said Ron.

"Yes, and so do I," said Sirius. "And Pettigrew mightn't have guessed that, but hopefully he realises now that I have ways of keeping track of him."

Harry, Ron and Hermione left Sirius in his optimistic mood. They themselves were feeling a little off-kilter, not knowing what they could do if Pettigrew really was involved in something outside of Hogwarts.

"Well, there's one other thing we need to do," said Hermione. "Like Professor Dumbledore said, we need to find more evidence of Sirius' innocence."

~HP~

No, it was not entirely due to the surprising workload that he was reluctant to socialise with the other staff of Hogwarts. But Remus with his hairy heart found it difficult to overcome years of habit.

Hagrid would not believe his excuse that he was too busy with work to go out for a pint that Friday afternoon. Even though it was also Hagrid's first year of teaching, he did not seem to find the workload as daunting. Though, of course he was teaching one of the electives, which meant he had far fewer classes. Remus had no idea how the other teachers of the core subjects managed to teach twenty-four classes a week, mark all the homework on time, yet never seemed overworked.

Despite having had a weekend in between, Remus was still not caught up on the work he had missed over Hallowe'en due to the full moon and Pettigrew. Still, he finally agreed that with the whole weekend ahead of him, he could spare the few hours.

It was mostly the usual group of Flitwick, McGonagall and Hagrid that braved the rain and left Hogwarts in the late afternoon, joined by the more infrequent members of the group Remus, Sinistra and Vector.

The dementors were close enough to be felt on the way. The more Dumbledore kept them away from the school, the angrier they were getting, and Remus was beginning to fear that the inhabitants of Hogsmeade were the ones paying for it.

The Three Broomsticks was close to the road from Hogwarts, near one of the ends of the Hogsmeade high street. Remus was about to follow his colleagues in, when a sudden motion caught his eye. Looking along the street, he saw a figure had just fallen down on the cobblestones. It was when he noticed her hair turn a sudden, vivid red as she picked herself up and dusted off her trousers that he recognised who she was.

"I… I just need to go to the post office for a moment. I'll be right back," he said to Hagrid, then walked along the high street towards the post office, where he had seen her disappear into.

It may not be the best idea to talk to an officer of the law, he was aware. He had some things to hide, after all. Still, if there was the possibility to get an update—

The post office was loud, full of squawking birds, a couple hundred owls of different sizes fit inside a not overlarge space. Tonks' hair had turned to a dull brown, but was easy enough to spot despite the change. She was next to the counter, one of only two customers inside. It was close to the end of the work day, after all.

"And you're sure it was this package, then?" she was asking the witch serving at the counter, showing her what appeared to be a photograph.

"Certainly." The witch sounded stand-offish – insulted, almost. "I remember it. He paid for an express delivery to Hogwarts, said it was a fragile item." She drew a large book towards her, leafing through it. "Here's the record. Paid cash, so there was no need to fill in the form."

Tonks had brought a camera, and took a picture of the entry. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

With careful questioning, Tonks extracted a description from her, of a young-ish man, on the thin side, of average height, with a large, bulbous nose, brown hair and a week's growth of beard. Without any obvious scars, tattoos, a limp or other distinguishing features.

"Did he have all his fingers?" Tonks finally asked.

"Excuse me?" The other witch really did sound offended then.

Remus, who had been browsing the shelves, watching the owls to pass the time, turned abruptly.

Tonks sighed. "That's a yes, then. Alright. You said young-ish. How, er, how old would that be?"

It was a fair question, considering the post office witch herself looked to be in her eighties.

She shrugged. "Oh, about that wizard's age," she said, pointing straight at Remus.

Tonks turned towards him as well. "Wotcher, Professor!" she greeted him cheerfully after only a moment's surprise.

"It wasn't me," said Remus, feeling a little caught out. He took it as a good sign that it brought a smile to her face.

The post office employee looked him over critically, tutting. "No, no. Him I'd have remembered." She did not sound like she meant it as a compliment, either.

Tonks returned the photograph and her camera to her backpack, thanked her and left, Remus following after her.

Remus hastened to explain his presence. "I'm just here for some drinks. In Hogsmeade, I mean. I'm here with some of the other teachers. Or, rather, they're in the Three Broomsticks. I—" He stopped his rambling, unsure how to explain that he had been eavesdropping on what seemed to be an investigation.

Tonks did not seem upset, at any rate. She started slowly walking along the high street, in the direction of the Three Broomsticks. Remus walked beside her.

"Oh, well, if you were hoping for an update, you just heard most of it." She pointed back towards the post office.

"I'm afraid I'm at something of a loss," said Remus.

"Oh, I'm investigating the package delivery that Pettigrew used to get into Hogwarts on Hallowe'en," said Tonks. "I was given the task because I'm good with disguises, you see." She grimaced. "So Scrimgeour thought I could question the witnesses about the physical descriptions. I tend to be quite good at guessing what's real and what's part of a disguise."

"I'm sorry, I'm not following," said Remus. "Pettigrew had himself delivered inside a parcel?"

Tonks looked at him with a fair amount of surprise. "You didn't know?"

"I – No, I can't say that I did. I don't know whether to be impressed or horrified."

Tonks nodded. "Pretty inventive, right? Rumour has it that Dumbledore was the one who figured it out. Savage, one of the senior aurors, then found the package in the Hogwarts owlery the following morning." She stopped in the middle of the road and extracted the photograph from her bag to show him.

It was an ordinary moving photograph, showing someone's hands holding a small parcel package, rotating it slowly from all sides.

"How bizarre. And it was delivered by an ordinary post owl?"

She nodded. "It wouldn't have been my first guess, either." She then explained about the protective enchantments of Hogwarts being better at checking the owls than the actual parcels due to privacy issues. "So annoying, that." She shook her head. "I mean, look at this!" She pointed to the postal address on the package in the photograph. "It's to be delivered to a 'John Smith' – clearly a fake name. And then, the first address line reads 'The Owlery!' I mean, really! If that postal worker had just properly looked at it—"

"Did you point that out to her?" said Remus. It would explain what the witch had taken offence to.

Tonks grimaced. "I just asked her—" She huffed. "I just pointed out that a delivery to a boarding school – to children away from their parents – might've warranted a bit more care."

"I see." Remus felt a smile pull at the corner of his mouth, and tried his best to fight it. No wonder the postal worker had sounded offended.

Tonks did not miss that. She sighed. "She told me it was not part of her job." She shook her head, looking unhappy. "Well, so much for the students' privacy. As if it wasn't enough that one student's mail was under surveillance. Now every delivery to Hogwarts will have to—"

"What?"

Tonks drew back. "Oh, forget I said that. It isn't supposed to be, er, widely known."

Remus was not sure what to make of the throwaway comment, especially as he had the bad feeling that he could guess the identity of the student in question. She clearly was not willing to say more, however. "So what did you make of the description? It could hardly have been Pettigrew himself. Hogsmeade is constantly patrolled. Besides, he'd have been inside the parcel," he said instead.

"Well, he could've climbed in afterwards. And Hogsmeade isn't completely secure. Hogwarts is much better protected, but Pettigrew managed to get in anyway. But no, I don't think it was him. The over-large nose, the hair colour – that sort of thing might all be part of the disguise. Those are the things that are easy to change, so that's what most people go for when they want to alter their appearance. But disguising a missing finger would be much harder. Also, the weight and height difference. Changing mass is one of the more difficult aspects of transfiguration – much more so than colouring." She considered it for a moment. "It could've been Black, I suppose. If he's skilled at transfiguration. Beyond being an animagus, I mean."

Remus made himself tell her that it was possible it had been Sirius. Even though he felt so strongly that it had not been him. That he and Pettigrew were not conspiring together, but were on opposing sides.

Remus' heart gave a lurch, as that thought collided with what had been said before, about the ministry reading a student's letters. If it was Harry, as he suspected, then the reason for it was because it had been Harry's letter to Azkaban that had led to Sirius' escape. Were they suspecting that Harry might be in contact with Sirius?

"We're here, I suppose," said Tonks, pointing to the entrance to the pub. "You just had a far-away look. Were you considering if it could've been Black?"

"No, I don't think it was him," said Remus before he could think better of it, but did not go on.

"Well, maybe you could tell me about your reasoning at some point?"

Remus was not fully listening, and shot her a confused look.

"I was wondering if you'd like to discuss the evidence against your former friends some more, maybe try to figure out their motivations. And you may have some questions for me. Some things are confidential, but there's also a fair amount that Mad-Eye wouldn't mind me telling you."

Remus blinked, returning to the conversation. Mad-Eye must have fairly praised him to her, for her to be that willing to give out information on an open investigation. Remus felt the bitterness of knowing the trust was not entirely deserved. And yet, he found himself agreeing with her, his wish to get more information outweighing his scruples.

Once she had left, Remus' thoughts settled back on the possibility that Harry was in contact with Sirius. It was not a new thought to him. For weeks now, he had been noticing something in Harry's mannerisms, in his secretive ways, that was familiar, yet did not remind him of James. He was undecided whether the terror he felt was due to the potential danger to Harry or due to the danger to both Harry and Sirius, were the ministry to find out. After all, if Sirius was innocent, there was no harm in him keeping in contact with his godson.

Remus had fought accepting the possibility at first. He barely knew Harry, and it was possible that he merely kept noticing the differences to James, whom he resembled so much physically, yet differed from in other ways. The other teachers, who certainly knew him much better would have noticed a change in Harry's behaviour much more easily, Remus tried to tell himself.

He had learned about Harry's miserable family situation from Snape, of all people, during a discussion in the staff room. While Snape had delighted in seeing Remus' pain and guilt at the information, Flitwick had disagreed, recounting the effort Harry had gone through in his first year to be able to contact his cousin without breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Hagrid had dashed Remus' momentary relief, explaining that Harry only got along with his cousin, but he really did have serious issues with his aunt and uncle.

For some time, Remus had tried to convince himself that Harry's home life, in some ways reminiscent of Sirius', might very well explain their apparent similarities. Harry could hardly be expected to be as happy and confident as James had been, without having been spoiled by two doting parents.

Then Harry and his friends had mentioned Pettigrew a mere few days before Hallowe'en – and in relation with Godric's Hollow. Never mind their privacy – Remus wished he had listened better.

It had been the wolf who had finally made Remus admit what he was thinking. Pettigrew breaking into Hogwarts on the morning after the full moon, on Hallowe'en, had made Remus' recovery that much more difficult – both because he had forced himself to be on his feet the following day, to help search the castle, and because the wolf, whose hold on him had still been felt, had been conflicted at Wormtail's presence.

Snape was not entirely wrong to question his loyalties, Remus had to admit to himself. The wolf – Moony – still thought of Wormtail and Padfoot as his companions, his pack. Remus, fighting the waning influence of the moon, had spent the following day fading in and out of horrible nightmares. The recent image he had of Harry had become overlaid with older memories of Sirius, wearing a very similar expression, using very similar phrasing.

There was reason to suspect, Remus knew. Yet, he remained silent on the matter. He, with the hairy heart and with a werewolf's loyalties, was beginning to feel like a traitor the more he believed in Sirius' innocence in the face of everyone else's hatred. It was precisely that hatred, that refusal to consider the possibility that they might have made a mistake, the vindictive certainty of so many people that Sirius, who used to be so high up in the world, was the worst and had always been so that made Remus ever more firm in his belief that his former friend might be innocent.

And he would not betray Padfoot and Prongs' son when there was a good chance that he was right.