Chapter Forty-One: In Vitro Veritas

Exams had arrived. Fortunately for Daphne, she was well-prepared, but even then, it was a pain to sit through all of them.

She did make use of the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam to ask Lupin if he'd discovered anything yet on the Marauder's Map, but to his own annoyance he hadn't yet. He did tell her that, if he hadn't discovered anything at the end of term, he'd go to Dumbledore to reveal the secret, but it was clear he wanted to postpone that moment for as long as he could. Given that Black hadn't been sighted anymore after his attack on Ron, Daphne agreed with Lupin's choice.

Her final two exams were Muggle Studies and Divination. For Muggle Studies, she had to write a long essay on the ways Muggles compensated for their lack of magic, using as much detail as possible.

Her wrist was cramped from the writing at the end, and her day didn't get any better when she realized that now, she'd have to go up to Trelawney's stifling room.

When she arrived there, she found out that everyone would be called in one at a time, and Daphne didn't really feel at ease when she climbed the ladder.

"Good day, dear. Your exam will be to gaze into the Orb, and tell me what you see within. Take your time…I know you are sensitive to its messages…"

Daphne fidgeted a bit. She really didn't want to look into the crystal ball. She wasn't sure if she could handle another strange vision. But Harry wasn't here now…maybe she wouldn't see anything. And Trelawney would be paying attention to her. She'd surely be able to tell if Daphne was simply looking at the table, or around the classroom.

"I…really don't want to, Professor," she said.

Trelawney nodded in understanding. "I understand, my dear. It's not always easy, to See what is to come. Yet I must ask you to try, regardless…"

Daphne sighed. She clearly wasn't going to get away with not trying. Unwillingly, she looked at the swirling mist. She was agitated, but the mist spiraled and twisted, and it was a beautiful, calming sight…

She saw broomsticks…then people in masks…a dragon…a village at the bottom of a lake…a hedge maze….and there he was again, Voldemort with his pale face, his red eyes, then shelves and shelves of glass orbs…a fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort…and then, once more, that clearing, Harry arriving…

Daphne tore her head away. "No! No no no no no no!"

She looked at Trelawney angrily, trembling. "I don't care if you fail me. What I saw in that crystal ball? I'm not sharing it. I don't accept that it's real. I'm just seeing things that aren't there."

"My dear, the Orb–"

"No," Daphne said firmly. "I don't want to know. I don't want to believe it's real. I won't let it be real."

She got up and left the room. Ron and Harry were waiting for her at the base of the ladder, and they immediately saw that she wasn't happy.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"You look into the crystal ball and say what you see," Daphne said.

Harry's eyes widened. "Did you–"

"I don't want to talk about it. It's just a load of rubbish. I'm just…stressed."

She angrily shook her head. "Look, just…don't ask me. Please."

Ron and Harry exchanged uneasy glances, but at that moment Ron was called into the room. Harry and Daphne were now the only two people still on the landing.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Daphne made an irritated gesture. "I'm fine."

"Daphne."

"I don't want to talk about it, okay? Did you ever think that maybe it's just none of your business?!"

Harry held up his hands in surrender. "Relax. I'm on your side, remember?"

Daphne took a deep breath. "I know, I know…I'm sorry, it's just…What I saw was…unpleasant. I don't want to believe that it's real."

"But you're afraid it could be?" Harry asked.

Daphne shrugged noncommittally. "I don't know. Look, I'll make you a promise. If any part of what I've seen, either today or back in that first class, comes true…I'll tell you everything. But…I'll only tell it to you, and I want you to promise me never to tell it to anyone else, even Hermione and Ron."

Harry didn't hesitate for a moment. "Deal."

He held out his hand and his sleeve rolled up a bit. Daphne saw the bracelet and smiled faintly before shaking Harry's hand.

Ron returned from his exam, saying he'd simply made stuff up, and Harry was finally called into the room.

"What do you think Harry will see?" Ron asked. "Or d'you think Trelawney is going to just sit there telling him he's going to die for fifteen minutes?"

Daphne forced herself to laugh, but the things she'd just seen were still going through her head.

A few minutes later, Harry came down the ladder, looking shocked.

"What happened?" Daphne asked immediately.

"Trelawney just…made a prediction," Harry said shakily.

"Was it the Grim?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "No…she said that the Dark Lord will be rejoined by his follower tonight, before midnight, and that he will rise again, greater and more terrible than he ever was. She couldn't remember saying it afterwards, either."

Daphne tried to keep her expression neutral, but judging by the way both Harry and Ron looked at her, she wasn't succeeding.

Harry's eyes widened. "Is that–"

"Shut up right now," Daphne said warningly.

"We need to get to Lupin," she said. "If Black wants to rejoin Voldemort tonight, we need to act. We have to stop it from happening. Whatever Lupin hopes to achieve, he'll have to do it tonight, or spill his secrets."

"Should we get Hermione? She'll be waiting for us in the common room," Harry said.

"Yeah, go and get her. I'm going ahead to Lupin's office," Daphne said.

She quickly made her way over to the office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Lupin said.

Daphne entered, and Lupin gave her a curious, worried look. "Daphne? Are you okay?" he asked.

"Professor, we have to go after Black now," Daphne said. "We've had Divination just now, and Harry said that Trelawney made a real prediction during his exam."

Lupin frowned. "What did she say?" he asked.

"That the Dark Lord will be rejoined by his servant tonight before midnight, and that he will rise again, greater and more terrible than ever," Daphne said. "And according to Harry, she couldn't remember making the prediction immediately after she'd made."

At that moment, Harry, Hermione, and Ron entered, and Harry gave Lupin the word-for-word rendition of Trelawney's prediction.

"It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will set out to rejoin his master."

Silence filled Lupin's office. In Daphne's mind, she saw Voldemort in the graveyard. It hadn't happened yet, but Trelawney had now predicted it as well. They had to catch Black before the prophecy would come true.

"Then I will have to go and look for Sirius right away. The four of you, stay in the castle. It's too dangerous for you to go out, and if this prediction is true, it might be my fault that Voldemort regains his strength."

He grabbed the Marauder's Map off his desk and set off.

"I don't want to let him do this alone," Harry said.

"Me neither," Daphne agreed.

"What do you expect to be able to do? If Lupin couldn't find Black even with the Marauder's Map, how will you?" Hermione asked.

Harry smiled grimly. "I'm the one he wants, right? I'll give him exactly that," he said.

"And you call me out on being too willing to sacrifice myself?!" Daphne shouted. "All of these security measures are there to keep you alive. Why would you go looking for Black?"

"Because if Voldemort returns, we'll have a far bigger problem! I don't want to go after him, Daphne. I really don't. But if I can lure him out of hiding long enough for Lupin to get to him…"

"You stupid, reckless, Gryffindor idiot!"

Harry grinned. Daphne grinned back.

"Are you two…quite done?" Ron asked.

Daphne and Harry nodded.

"We'll need to sneak out after dinner," Harry said. "I'll go and get the Invisibility Cloak from the common room, and we'll go out together afterwards. See you in the Great Hall?" He looked at Daphne.

"Yes. I'll go to the common room to dump my bag and I'll see you in a moment," she said.

They sped off in different directions. Daphne made her way down to the dungeons, and nearly ran into Snape while rounding a corner.

"Oh, er, sorry, sir," she said.

Snape, who was carrying a goblet of potion, said, "Try to look out, Miss Greengrass. Mr. Filch does like reminding students not to run in the hallways, after all…"

Daphne immediately realized what kind of potion Snape would be carrying like this.

"Er, Professor Lupin is out," she said, looking at the goblet.

Snape frowned. "Without his potion? Where did he go? If he transforms without it…"

"I don't know, sir," Daphne said truthfully.

Then, in a sudden, very stupid idea, she added. "At the moment."

Snape curiously looked at her, then took a vial out of his robes and scooped some of the potion in the goblet into the vial.

"This will not be enough to get him through the night, but it should allow him to get away from humans," Snape said. "I will attempt to locate him, but if you find him first, give him that vial. Do remember that you are forbidden from leaving the castle after dinner."

Without another word, he continued walking in the direction of Lupin's office.

Daphne quickly got rid of her bag in the common room, then joined her friends for dinner in the Great Hall.

"We've got a problem," she said softly. "Lupin hasn't taken his potion. We have to find him, and quickly."

They ate as quickly as they could, but had to wait for the entire mass of students to leave before they saw a chance to disappear under the cloak and sneak out.

"Where could he have gone?" Daphne whispered.

"I don't know," Harry said. "Maybe we could ask Hagrid if he's seen him."

"We're not supposed to be outside," Hermione said.

"But we do have Lupin's potion," Daphne reminded her. "And there really isn't any time. If Lupin doesn't have that potion, we'll have two killers running around tonight."

They quickly made their way to Hagrid's cabin and knocked on the door. "What're yeh four doin' here?" Hagrid said when he opened the door to a seemingly empty lawn.

"Have you seen Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, pulling the cloak off his head to talk to Hagrid.

"Yeh should be in the castle," Hagrid said.

"Hagrid, he hasn't had his potion," Daphne said, also pulling the cloak off her head. "We have to find him."

Hagrid shook his head. "I haven' seen him," he said. "He's probably in the castle, and yeh should–"

Hagrid fell silent and looked at his feet. A disheveled rat came sprinting out of his house, followed by Crookshanks, who had apparently been enjoying the sun in Hagrid's garden, and must've gone in through a window at some point.

"Scabbers!" Ron shouted.

"If we catch Scabbers, Lupin will have what he needs!" Daphne said.

They quickly shouted a goodbye at Hagrid and sprinted after Crookshanks and Scabbers — and then, suddenly, the big black dog Daphne had seen at the Quidditch final came sprinting from the side, diving on top of Scabbers and grabbing him in his jaws.

He glared at the place where Daphne, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were, and seemed almost to grin. Still holding Scabbers in his mouth, the dog jerked his head and began loping towards the Whomping Willow, followed by Crookshanks and Daphne, Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

"Should we be doing this? It could be a trap," Hermione said.

"Crookshanks is in on it. Whatever it is, it's not deceitful," Daphne said.

They reached the Whomping Willow. The black dog easily avoided the swaying branches and disappeared into a tunnel between the roots.

Crookshanks, meanwhile, pressed his paws on a knot near the tree's base, and it froze completely. He looked at the apparently empty air behind him and sauntered into the tunnel. Astonished, Daphne and the others followed him.

The tunnel beneath the tree was low and narrow, and they had to take off the Cloak to fit through it. Harry stashed it under his robes, and all four of them drew their wands as they crawled on.

Eventually, the tunnel went up again, coming out into a dusty, stained room, with wallpaper peeling from the walls in various places, and broken furniture littering the ground.

Daphne recalled her conversation with Snape, the first time she'd come to Hogsmeade, and said, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack. Snape told me this was the place where he nearly died because of Black."

A creak over their heads clued them in that whoever was here would be upstairs, and they headed out into the hallway and climbed the stairs. They didn't bother to be quiet; the dog and Crookshanks had invited them in.

Only one room was open upstairs, and they entered the room…where they were greeted by Professor Lupin, who looked at them partially reprovingly and partially amused.

"I specifically remember telling you to stay in the castle," he said.

"As if we listened to our teachers at their age, Remus," a hoarse voice from behind the door said.

They whirled around, and saw a man standing there with a mass of filthy matted hair to his elbows, his face gaunt and waxy, almost skull-like.

"You!" Harry said hatefully. He turned on Lupin. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

"It turns out my hunch was correct," Lupin said.

He raised a small cage containing Scabbers.

"This rat," he said to Ron. "Isn't a rat at all. If you'll lower your wands, Sirius and I will explain. First, though, Harry, you must know that Sirius is not the one who betrayed your parents."

He pointed at Scabbers. "Peter here is."

Hermione gasped. "You're Animagi!" she said.

Lupin smiled at Sirius. "I told you she was sharp," he said.

"Very impressive," Sirius croaked. "Yes, we're Animagi. Unregistered ones, as I'm sure you've figured out."

"Before you launch into a long story," Daphne interrupted. "Professor, I have a vial of your potion. I ran into Snape, who's brought the rest to your office," she said.

Lupin's eyes widened. "Of course…thank you, Daphne. In my haste, I forgot… Better make this quick, Sirius, we don't have much time," he said.

Sirius nodded. "Right. You've figured out what Remus is. Well, so did James, Peter, and I, when we were in school with him. He disappeared every month, you see, and we wanted to know where."

"This house, the tunnel leading to it, and even the Whomping Willow at its base were all planted here because I came to Hogwarts," Lupin took over. "Knowing what I was, Dumbledore still accepted me, and gave me a place where I could transform without harming anyone. In my pain and rage, I destroyed most of the house. Dumbledore encouraged the rumors of hauntings, and that's how the Shrieking Shack got its name."

"Once we had figured out what Remus was, we wanted to support him," Sirius said. "So the three of us studied to become Animagi. It took us until fifth year, but we did it. We could become animals at will. A werewolf is only dangerous to humans, so we could keep Remus company in our animal forms."

"Having my friends with me didn't make me sane, but it did make me less monstrous," Lupin said. "And soon, we began to explore outside. Sirius and James were big enough that they could keep me in check, and Peter could stop the Whomping Willow's branches so we could enter and exit the tunnel while transformed."

"But we didn't stop there. With our new forms, we explored more of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade than most people have ever seen. We didn't want to let the knowledge we'd gained go to waste, so in our sixth year, we created a map of the castle."

"The Marauder's Map," Harry said.

Lupin nodded. "Exactly. And the beautiful thing about that Map is that it will always show a person's real name, even invisible or transformed."

Lupin held up Scabbers's cage again. "And that's where Scabbers comes in. Or, to use his real name, Peter Pettigrew."

"Pettigrew? The one who died facing Sirius?" Harry asked.

Lupin nodded solemnly. "Yes. Only he didn't really die."

"And he was the one who betrayed your parents to Voldemort," Sirius said, and Daphne could hear the deep loathing in his voice, of the same level Snape used when he spoke about Sirius.

"I…weren't you their Secret-Keeper?" Harry asked. He looked at Lupin. "That's what you told me."

Lupin nodded. "And that is what I thought and believed happened. Until Daphne tipped me off about a rat with an unusually long life, who was hated by Kneazles. It was at that moment that I began to suspect that perhaps, there had been a change. And if I could find Peter, I could confirm it…and that moment has finally arrived."

Now Lupin's voice, too, had become very threatening. "We're going to force Peter to resume his human form, and then we'll have a little chat with him," he went on.

He took Scabbers out of the cage and silently cast a spell. A flash of blue-white light erupted from his wand. Scabbers was momentarily frozen in midair, then fell and hit the floor. There was another flash of light, and then Scabbers began to grow and change shape.

A moment later, a man stood where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands. Crookshanks was spitting and snarling at him. The man was small, with thin, colorless hair and a large bald patch, and he had a pointed noise and small, watery eyes.

Daphne stared at him in horror. He was the man she'd seen in the crystal ball.

So, a slightly faster conversation than canon, because there was much less to reveal. Of course, things are rarely this easy and I don't call this story 'heavily Stations of the Canon' for nothing, so you can all guess what will happen, to a large degree. Still…things will change…