Chapter 38 A Wild Night

There was just a moment of silence then -

"YOU WERE THE ONE HELPING HIM INSIDE THE CASTLE?" Harry roared.

"No. He wouldn't let me." I shook my head calmly.

"You - you've been in contact with each other?" Lupin asked, looking between me and Sirius.

"I found out he was dear ole Snuffles the day before I went to the Malfoy's for Christmas." I said, observing the room.

Ron was on the bed, his leg looking pathetic on the ground. Hermione was close to tears and Harry; Harry was angry.

"Why -?" Harry managed to get that question out.

"Oh yes, let's hear how that conversation would have gone shall we? 'Hey Harry, so that Grim omen that's been following you, it's my dad Sirius Black. " I rolled my eyes. "You wouldn't have believed me! And besides, Sirius told me not to do anything. And I was doing so good in not drawing attention to myself so I kept it that way." I explained.

"What are you wearing?" Sirius asked, finally looking me thoroughly.

"They're my sneaking clothes." I smiled cheekily at him.

"You have every right to be angry with me." I turned back to my friends. "But you must listen to what they have to say." I pointed at Sirius and Lupin.

Harry was turning red before turning to Lupin to get answers.

"If you haven't been helping him," Harry asked, furiously looking at Sirius. "How did you know he was here?"

"The map," Lupin answered. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it -"

"You know how to work it?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Meet Moony." I pointed at Lupin. "And this is Padfoot." I patted Sirius's shoulder.

"We wrote the map." Lupin added.

"You wrote -?"

"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, Cassie, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"

Lupin started to pace the little room.

"You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry -"

"How d'you know about the cloak?" Harry asked.

"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it…," Lupin waved an impatient hand. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map -"

"And if you know about someone's Animagus form, you can see them on the map. If you look at the map now, you'll see Sirius whether he's human or dog. I'm not sure about werewolves though." I said, looking at him.

Lupin nodded, "no matter what form a person takes. Cassie can change her whole being and she will still show as Cassie. When I am a werewolf, my name still appears."

"I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid and set off back toward the castle. Where Cassie was supposed to meet you outside, but you were now accompanied by somebody else." Lupin turned back to Harry to explain this last part.

"What?" Harry asked. "No, we weren't!"

"I couldn't believe my eyes," Lupin said, still pacing. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"

"No one was with us!" Harry said.

"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black… I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow -"

"One of us!" Ron said angrily.

"No, Ron," Lupin shook his head. "Two of you."

Lupin stopped his pacing to look at Ron.

"Do you think I could have a look at that rat?" Lupin asked evenly.

Scabbers started to struggle even harder, but Ron refused to notice.

"What?" Ron asked, "what's Scabbers got to do with it?"

"Everything." Lupin and I said.

Everyone looked at me and Hermione started to look angry.

"Could I see him, please?" Lupin asked, ignoring what I had said.

"He won't take him." I said keeping my voice soft.

Ron hesitated, then reached into his pocket that was thrashing slightly. He pulled out Scabbers and had to hold him with both hands to keep him from escaping. Crookshanks got up and let out a hiss at the sight of the rat.

Lupin took a few steps closer to Ron, holding his breath as he looked at the rat.

"What?" Ron asked again. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"

"That's not a rat," Sirius finally croaked after our brief conversation.

"What d'you mean - of course he's a rat - "

"No, no he's not," Lupin kept his voice quiet. "He's a wizard.

"An Animagus," I spoke up, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

"You're all mental." Ron said, pulling Scabbers into his chest.

"Ridiculous!" Hermione's voice was faint.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" Harry said. "He killed him twelve years ago!" He pointed at Sirius.

"He's just as dead as Voldemort is!" I said, putting myself between Sirius and my friends.

Harry had a flicker of something over his face but ignored me.

"I meant to," Sirius growled behind me, "but little Peter got the better of me… not this time, though!"

I was pushed out of the way and Sirius lunged for Scabbers. Ron yelled from the pain of Sirius landing on his broken leg.

"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, catching Sirius and dragging him away from Ron.

I held my hands up as I went over to check on Ron's splint I had made. I added another piece of wood and conjured up another thing of rope to give it more support.

"WAIT! You can't do it just like that - they need to understand - we've got to explain -"

"We can explain afterwards!" Sirius snarled.

"You are being overly dramatic right now." I said, standing up and putting myself between Lupin, Sirius, and my friends, again.

"They've - got - a - right - to - know - everything!" Lupin panted, trying to hold Sirius back. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There parts of it even I don't understand! And Harry - you owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"

Sirius stopped struggling, though his eyes were still on Scabbers.

"All right then," He said, unhappily. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…"

I rolled my eyes at him. Now that he had an audience he was putting up a good act.

"You're nutters, the lot of you." Ron's voice was shaking. "I've had enough of this. I'm off."

Ron tried getting up, but Scabbers was struggling too much, and Ron couldn't balance on one good leg so he ended up falling. Harry caught him and was able to get Ron on the bed this time.

"You're going to hear me out, Ron." Lupin said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."

"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron shouted, trying to get the struggling rat into his front pocket again.

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," Harry jumped in. "A whole street full of them…"

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Sirius said savagely.

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," Lupin nodded. "I believed it myself - until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's Map never lies… Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

Ron and Harry shared a look. And I made eye contact with Hermione. She knew me better than the other two did. She knew what power I had in my veins. The Black Metamorphmagus power, and the Zwart Seer blood. She glared at me, and she clearly didn't want to believe me.

"But Professor Lupin… Scabbers can't be Pettigrew… it just can't be true, you know it can't…"

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin asked calmly, as if we were in class.

"Because… because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework - the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and thing… and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list -" Hermione spoke fast.

"Did you see James Potter, and Sirius Black on that list?" I asked as Lupin started to laugh.

"Well, no." Hermione said, looking to Harry.

"Right again, Hermione!" Lupin said after I had my bit. "But the Ministry never knew that there used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus." Sirius suddenly snarled, turning to watch Scabber's every move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"All right… but you'll need to help me, Sirius," Lupin said, "I only know how it began…"

The door creaked and we all turned to look at it. I didn't know why, and my mind was blank as to why.

"No one there…" Lupin said, checking out the door.

"This place is haunted!" Ron said, struggling to hold Scabbers.

"Ron, I won't take him, but can I help?" I asked, pointing at the rat.

"No!" Ron said, trying to hold Scabbers defensively.

I rolled my eyes and with a muttered spell and quick flick of my wand I made sure Scabbers was wrapped tightly in some rope.

"He can breath, but at least he won't struggle for a bit before getting loose." I said, putting my wand back.

"It's not haunted, the Shrieking Shack was never haunted… The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me." Lupin said quickly.

"That's where all of this starts - with my becoming a werewolf. None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten… and if I hadn't been so foolhardy…" Lupin pushed his greying hair out of his eyes.

Ron made a noise but Hermione, "Shh!" him.

"I was a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week preceding the full moon. I keep my mind when I transform… I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again.

"Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a full fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me.

"But then Dumbledore became Headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school…" Lupin sighed and looked directly at Harry.

"I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house -" he looked miserably around the room, " - the tunnel that leads to it - they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous."

My heart broke to hear that, and Sirius must've known because he looked away for a second to look at me. He made a motion to comfort me, but couldn't find an appropriate place since I was nearly naked.

"My transformations in those days were - were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor… Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it…

"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black… Peter Pettigrew… and of course, you father, Harry - James Potter.

"Now, my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her… I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, worked out the truth…

"And they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."

"My dad too?" Harry asked astounded.

"Yes, indeed." Lupin nodded. "It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong - one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. Peter needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"But how did that help you?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"They couldn't keep him company as humans." I said, getting irate.

"They kept me company as animals." Lupin gave me a 'calm down' motion. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed… Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."

"Hurry up, Remus." Sirius growled.

"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there… well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we call all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did… And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."

"What sort of animal -?" Harry began but Hermione cut in.

"That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?"

"A thought that still haunts me," Lupin answered heavily.

"And going down the third floor corridor past a three-headed dog, Devil's Snare, catching a key to get past a door, playing an over sized game of chess, getting past not one, but two trolls on two separate occasions, and then going through flames with some potion was not dangerous?" I asked incredulously.

Hermione flushed when I brought up our first year.

Sirius and Lupin both shared a look at that.

"There were near misses, many of them." Lupin took over the conversation again. "We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless - carried away with our own cleverness.

"I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course… he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed…"

I finally sat down next to Sirius and he pressed his arm against mine. I let out an involuntary shiver, not realizing how chilly it was in the Shack.

"All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led other along with me… and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it… so, in a way, Snapes been right about me all along."

"Snape?" Sirius asked, taking his eyes off Scabbers a second time. "What's Snape got to do with it?"

"He's here, Sirius." Lupin said heavily. "He's teaching here as well."

"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reason… you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me -"

Sirius made a noise of disgust.

"It served him right," Sirius sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to… hoping he could get us expelled…"

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month," Lupin told us. "We were in the same year, you know, and we - er - didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field… anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be - er - amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it - if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf - but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life… Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore not to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was…"

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Harry said slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"That's right." Sneered a cold voice from the wall behind us.

I stood up and Snape pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointed at Lupin. He gave a quick glance at me and sneered.

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY WE'RE GETTING CLOSE! Y'all have NO idea how excited I am!

Shout out to AlexisHard for adding me to your favorite and following list! And for adding this story to your favorite and following list!

Shout out to lostit02 for adding this story to your favorites list!

Shout out to Pamela Hutchins and Awritingbookworm for leaving a review!

Pamela Hutchins: I figured that it's supposed to be her nickname so better start using it! And she and George still need to work through what they're going through.

Awritingbookworm: Thank you! I'm trying to keep a balance of what she should know and what I know and sometimes it gets tricky. But I hope this chapter was not disappointing!