Chapter 13 – Year 3 – The Magical Menagerie
"What powers does he have?" said the witch, examining Scabbers closely. "Er-" said Ron. The truth was that Scabbers had never shown the faintest trace of interesting powers. The witch's eyes moved from Scabbers's tattered left ear to his front paw, which had a toe missing, and tutted loudly. "He's been through the mill, this one," she said. "He was like that when Percy gave him to me," said Ron defensively. "An ordinary, common or garden rat like this can't be expected to live longer than three years or so," said the witch.
"Well, he isn't ordinary then, is he?" said Harry. Ron and the witch blinked in surprise. "Ron's had Scabbers for three years already, and Percy had him before that." "Yeah," said Ron, "Percy got Scabbers in his first year, and gave him to me when he got Hermes – his owl - for becoming a prefect." "And since Hogwarts prefects are chosen in fifth year," concluded the witch, "your rat is at least eight years old. If you wait here, I'll take him in the back and do some tests on him – nothing painful- to see what powers he has beyond long life, if any."
The witch pocketed her glasses and took Scabbers into the back room of the shop. Harry, Ron and Hermione waited, the two boys looking at the basket of humming yellow balls of fluff, while Hermione took an interest in an enormous ginger cat curled up on a high shelf. "What are these?" asked Harry. "Puffskeins," said Ron. "They don't do anything except sit there and purr. They've got really long tongues, so they stick them out like worms, to try and find food. We had one when I was five, but it died when Fred decided to use it for Bludger practice." Just then, a scream and a cry of "Stupefy!" came from the back room. The shop witch came out, looking pale. "Young man," she said to Ron, "I'm afraid you won't be getting your rat back." "Why?" he asked worriedly. "Because he's not a real rat – he's an Animagus. I'm going to have to ask you to leave, I need to close the shop until the Ministry sends someone out here to deal with him."
A couple of minutes later, they left, Hermione's arms clamped around the ginger cat. As they met up with the rest of the Weasleys, Mrs Weasley asked "Did you get Scabbers seen to, Ron?" "Er- sort of, Mum." "What do you mean, "sort of"?" "The witch behind the counter took him in the back room, to do some tests on him, to find out if he had any powers," Ron said carefully, "'cos Harry pointed out Scabbers couldn't be a normal rat, 'cos he'd already lived more than double the time normal rats do – then we heard her scream and she came back out and said I wouldn't be getting Scabbers back."
"Why not?" asked Mr Weasley. "She said Scabbers was actually an Animagus, Mr Weasley." answered Hermione. "She let me buy Crookshanks," – everyone noticed the cat for the first time – "but then she closed the shop, because she needed to get someone from the Ministry."
At the Leaky Cauldron the next morning, the main room was abuzz with discussion. Grabbing a copy of the Daily Prophet from a table, Harry read the front page headline: "PETER PETTIGREW DISCOVERED ALIVE AFTER 12 YEARS BELIEVED DEAD – UNREGISTERED ANIMAGUS - SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT!" Scanning the article, Harry learned that Peter Pettigrew was the man Sirius Black had been imprisoned for killing, along with 12 Muggles. The Ministry had interrogated Pettigrew under Veritaserum, whatever that was, and had learned that it was Pettigrew who had actually committed the crime. He had blown up a street and then transformed into a rat – Scabbers – and escaped into the sewers. Naturally, this meant Sirius Black was innocent, but the article writer wondered how Black was going to be told the Ministry knew that, since he had escaped Azkaban and was on the run.