So! Where have the updates been this year? Well, partly it's been writer's block, partly it's been that I've been busy with other things, and partly it's been… well, a few incidents that I'm not going to go into detail here.
This is the last "proper" chapter of Secrets of the Past, but the story isn't quite over; there'll be not one but two epilogues that wrap up a few things before the third and final story in the trilogy. See the author's notes at the end of the chapter for details!
And now, without any further ado...
WEASLEY GIRL: SECRETS OF THE PAST
Based on the Harry Potter stories by J. K. Rowling
CHAPTER TWENTY:
The Tale of a Rat
ABUSIVE MUGGLE DEAD; DUMBLEDORE BLAMES MURDER VICTIM AND TEENAGE YOU-KNOW-WHO
Albus Dumbledore (111), Headmaster of Hogwarts, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, is no stranger to controversy, but this time he may have topped himself with his outrageous claim that Harry Potter's abusive Muggle Aunt has been murdered by a teenage version of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, aided by long-dead murder victim.
After Harry Potter's abusive relatives went missing back in September, speculations ran rampant as to what had happened to them, rumours that some wizard had found them and dealt out some much-needed retribution running rampant, but nobody had expected the abusive Muggles to be finally discovered at Hogwarts — one dead and one irrevocably insane. Neither had anyone anticipated Albus Dumbledore's statement that the culprit was one Peter Pettigrew, who was last seen on November 1st 1981 when he along with twelve Muggles was killed by notorious mass murderer Sirius Black. Pettigrew, whom Dumbledore now claims faked his own death, supposedly acted on the orders of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who used an enchanted Muggle diary to communicate with him. Allegedly, You-Know-Who and Pettigrew used the Muggles in a ritual that brought You-Know-Who back to life, albeit in a teenage body.
Conveniently, when asked Dumbledore couldn't say where Pettigrew or You-Know-Who were at the moment, leading to some questions as to whether he was just making it up.
A Ministry insider tells our Special Correspondent Rita Skeeter that "Dumbledore's story seems awfully convoluted and hinging on too many contrivances. Seems more likely to me that someone simply took it upon themselves to teach those Muggles a lesson by treating them the way they had treated Harry Potter, but forgot how ridiculously fragile Muggles are. Now Dumbledore's just covering for them. The same way he covered up Professor Quirinus Quirrell's death last year, by saying it was You-Know-Who."
While rumours that Dumbledore orchestrated the entire incident himself are currently unfounded, readers might want to ask themselves: If he is covering up for whoever delivered what they no doubt viewed as well-deserved retribution, does this perhaps mean that in light of new events, even Albus Dumbledore is reconsidering his well-known love for Muggles?
Ronnie put down the paper, deciding that she'd read enough. That was the last time she'd ever pick up a discarded Daily Prophet, no matter how much people left it behind in the Gryffindor common room.
"This is so stupid," she complained.
"It's Rita Skeeter," said Harry, who'd had a serious grudge against anything from the Daily Prophet, and especially anything written by Rita Skeeter, ever since August. "What had you expected?"
"I don't remember," said Ronnie. "But it wasn't this. Look, not even a word about my memory of Wormtail! I know Dumbledore showed it to the Minister for Magic! What's that idiot doing, not even mentioning it to the Prophet?"
Harry made a grimace. "Does it say anything about Sirius Black?"
"Doesn't look like it — oh, wait. Sirius Black, still imprisoned in Azkaban, has been unavailable for comment."
"How's he been unavailable for comment?" said Ronnie. "What, they called on him, but he'd gone out shopping or something?" She shook her head in disgust. "I can't believe they turned this into another anti-Muggle tirade!" she fumed. "You-Know-Who is out there, and Wormtail is out there, and all this Rita Skeeter woman wants to talk about is how Muggles are scum and Dumbledore secretly hates them? What time is it, anyway?"
Harry glanced at his watch. "Quarter to six. It'll probably be another hour before anyone else wakes up."
"Yeah… even Hermione was asleep when I left the dormitories," said Ronnie. "Lucky."
It wasn't often Ronnie was awake anywhere near this early. She was more a night person, really; stay up all night and then sleep until noon, that was her ideal lifestyle. But the last couple of days, sleep had been difficult. Especially when she knew Dreamless Sleep potion wouldn't work on her, and Crookshanks wasn't there to soothe her with his purring.
In the end, having woken up from yet another bad dream about people disintegrating in front of her eyes, she had given up on sleep and gone down to the common room. Where, not too surprisingly, she had met Harry, who seemed to have similar problems sleeping.
It had been two days since the events down in the Chamber of Secrets. Two painstakingly long days.
Life at Hogwarts was slowly starting to return to some approximation of normal. Sure, Lavender, Lockhart and the ghosts were still out of action, and none of them would be revived until next year, when the Mandrakes were finally ready — and Defence Against The Dark Art was cancelled again, until Dumbledore could find a substitute teacher for Lockhart — but the terror that had threatened to spread after Lockhart's Petrification had faded, now that Slytherin's monster had finally been discovered and an abridged version of the events down in the Chamber of Secrets had been told to the general student body — and, it seemed, to the press.
To their credit, nobody at Hogwarts had crowded Harry with condolences or expressions of how sorry they were about his Aunt; everyone in Gryffindor knew Harry well enough now to realise how much he would have hated that, and the word had spread to the other houses. Even the Slytherins had been tactful… or possibly they were just too angry that their monster had been neutralised to think of any insults…
Ronnie didn't know what Dumbledore had done with the basilisk, and she hadn't wanted to ask. Perhaps he'd followed Percy's advice and taken a dozen roosters down into the Chamber of Secrets… all right, maybe not.
All she knew was that he'd said that the basilisk "would never threaten Hogwarts again."
Was she weird for secretly hoping that the Headmaster had found some way of rendering the basilisk harmless without killing it? Basilisks were dangerous and vicious monsters, they killed with a look and without any hesitation, they couldn't be tamed and, let's face it, the only reason nobody had died these last few months were sheer bloody luck. The basilisk would certainly have killed both her and Harry, and eaten them too.
And yet…
The image of Petunia Dursley flashed before her inner eye again, turning grey and crumbling to dust.
Ronnie grimaced. Maybe she just didn't feel like wishing death on anyone after having seen it up close.
"Any sign of Crookshanks?" she asked, forcing her thoughts away from their current direction.
Harry shook his head, motioning to the Marauder's Map, which was lying on the table in front of him. "Can't see him anywhere. He's not in any of the corridors, at least. No sign of Wormtail either."
"He's never been gone this long before," Ronnie muttered. She'd only seen Crookshanks once since their trip to the Chamber of Secrets; he'd stopped by the Gryffindor table at lunch the previous day to beg table scraps, but hadn't wanted to return to Gryffindor Tower with her. It was clear that he was trying to track down Wormtail.
She wasn't too worried about her cat; he'd encountered a basilisk and was fine. But Christmas holidays were coming up, and there was talk of Harry and the Weasleys being allowed to leave a few days sooner so that Harry could attend his Aunt's funeral — and if Crookshanks didn't show up before then, they might have to leave him behind.
"They have to be somewhere the Map doesn't register," said Harry. "Like the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement, maybe?"
"Probably not there," said Ronnie. "That rat has to know those were the first places we'd look."
"There are probably other places the Map doesn't show," said Harry. "The Marauders were great at exploring, but I don't think they found all the secrets of the castle. Looks like they never found the Hufflepuff common room, for instance."
"Really?" Ronnie looked again. The Map was hard to get a full overview over even at the best of times.
"Yeah, if you see here…" Harry pointed. "Here's Gryffindor Tower, that's clear enough. And then the Ravenclaws are here, in the Western tower. And I think this is the Slytherin common room, just next to this secret passageway in the dungeons…"
Ronnie followed his finger with her eyes. "The Slytherins live in the dungeons? Don't even know why I'm surprised."
"It does suit them, doesn't it?" Harry agreed. "As for Hufflepuff… no idea. I still haven't been able to find it on the Map."
"We could ask Luna where it is," said Ronnie. "Bet she'd tell us!"
"Probably not such a good idea," said Harry, looking over the Map again. "She might take it the wrong way if we asked. I still can't figure her out…"
"I don't think anyone can," said Ronnie. "Hey, isn't that Hagrid?" she suddenly exclaimed, motioning to the two lone dots on the map she'd spotter moving across the grounds, close to the Forbidden Forest. And just as she'd thought, the two dots were marked 'RUBEUS HAGRID' and 'FANG.'
"He's up early," said Harry, peering at the dots.
"I suppose a gamekeeper needs to be up at all sorts of odd hours," said Ronnie. "Maybe he's been tending to some of the animals in the Forbidden Forest. Maybe he's been talking to the centaurs, I heard there's an entire herd of them in there."
"Mischief Managed." Harry tapped the Map with his wand, leaving it a harmless-looking piece of blank parchment again. "Up for a walk? We really should go apologise to him for running out on him the day before yesterday."
"Yeah, all right," said Ronnie. "Better than just sitting around, anyway, since we're not finding anyone on this Map. If he's busy we can always go back to the castle. Just let me get my winter cloak."
"I don't see why you students keep waking me up at these inappropriate hours," the Fat Lady grumbled as her portrait swung aside to let Harry and Ronnie out. "It's more than two hours until breakfast, and I was having a nice dream!"
"Lucky!" said Ronnie, wrapping her winter cloak around herself. After the nice warm dormitory and common room, the corridor felt chilly. "Haven't seen my cat, have you? Big ginger tom, long fur, looks sort of grumpy?"
"I may see him in my dreams if you let me sleep," said the Fat Lady, sinking back down onto the background of the painting and closing her eyes.
"Bloody helpful paintings we have here at Hogwarts!" Ronnie muttered.
"Better than some people I've met," said Harry philosophically.
It wasn't quite as eerie to walk through Hogwarts before sunrise as it was to walk through it after dark. There was this almost comforting feeling that the school was just about to wake up and start the new day. In only a couple of hours, before the sun decided to grace them with their presence, students and teachers would be walking through the hallways and up and down the various staircases (jumping over the vanishing steps of that one tricky staircase without even thinking about it), heading for breakfast in the Great Hall.
But as if yet, everything was peaceful. It was almost enough to make you want to make a habit of getting up earlier, to be able to experience something like this more often; being the only ones awake in a world of sleeping people.
They reached the ground floor — taking the last two steps in one jump — and headed for the main entrance.
The grounds were dark and cold, covered in a heavy blanket of snow. Winter in Northern Scotland meant short days and dark mornings, and now in December the sun was an infuriatingly late riser, usually not bothering to show itself before classes were almost ready to start at nine.
"D'you know if rats ever burrow through snow?" Harry asked, looking at the white grounds.
"They can," said Ronnie. "Don't really like doing it, though. If you're asking me what Wormtails do, I have no bloody clue."
Snow crunching under their boots, they set out towards Hagrid's hut. The Forbidden Forest was looming in the distance, looking even darker and more forbidden than usual in the winter landscape, but there was a light in Hagrid's hut; the windows glowing in a friendly and inviting way. Either Hagrid was in, or he wasn't too far away.
Ronnie had just thought this when she thought she caught a strange movement further ahead. She turned her head to look, but by then it was gone.
She squinted as she pulled her cloak a little tighter around herself. Was there something moving there, by the trees? In the dark, it was hard to make out… Yes, there had been something there — a small movement of something too big to be a cat or a rat — but now it was gone again.
For a moment, she stiffened. She remembered all too well how she and Harry had met You-Know-Who in the Forest last year; and knowing that right now, a teenage version of that same monster was out there…
"Are you all right?" said Harry.
"I —" Ronnie took another look to make certain, but still there was nothing ahead except hut and forest, ground and snow; none of which looked inclined to start moving anytime soon. "Did you see something just now?"
"Er… apart from a lot of snow, no." Harry sounded a little uncertain. "Why, did you see something?"
"I…" Ronnie suddenly felt silly. "I thought I did, but..." Was this something like when Harry had heard the basilisk? No, couldn't be… Her Warning Fang had grown hot every time the basilisk was near, and it was still quite cool against her skin.
A sense of relief washed over her as she saw something else emerge from the Forest, something much more familiar and welcome.
"Oh, there's Hagrid! And Fang!" She raised her hand to wave.
Fang let out a happy bark when he saw them, and before she knew it the huge boarhound was at her side, tail wagging furiously as he tried to place his paws on her shoulders and lick her face.
"Hi, Fang — ack — yes, I'm happy to see you too — not the face!" Ronnie squealed as she tried getting the overenthusiastic dog to calm down a little.
"Down, Fang, c'mon!" Hagrid was only a few strides behind his dog; the huge man had frost in his beard and a long, striped scarf around his neck that was almost certainly home-knitted (probably by Hagrid himself, considering the clumsy job). "What're you two doin' out so early? Can't even be six o'clock yet!"
"Couldn't sleep," said Ronnie, as Fang reluctantly gave up on his project of jumping up on her, in exchanged for her scratching his ears.
"We kind of wanted to apologise to you for the other day," said Harry. "For running out on you and everything."
"Oh, that?" Hagrid smiled. "No harm done, Harry. Bit of a shock yeh had. 'Sides, Dumbledore was over at me hut yesterday, tol' me some of what you had been through…" His smile faded, and he looked at them both with sympathetic, beetle-black eyes. "Awful story. Was thinkin' o' droppin' by later today to see how yeh were doin'. How are yeh holdin' up?"
"Would have been better if I knew where Crookshanks was," said Ronnie. "You haven't —"
"Haven't seen 'im, sorry," said Hagrid. "Fang woulda sniffed 'im out if he was anywhere near."
"He wouldn't have tried to chase Crookshanks, would he?" said Ronnie, looking at Fang with some concern — though she was fairly certain if it ever came to a confrontation between Fang and Crookshanks, Crookshanks would win without even trying.
"Hah! Run away from 'im, more like," said Hagrid fondly and patted Fang on the back. "Mos' cowardly dog I've ever had, aren' yeh, boy?"
"Woof!" said Fang enthusiastically, probably responding more to the fondness in Hagrid's tone than to his actual words.
"Bit of a shocker, what Dumbledore tol' me," said Hagrid. "Sorry ter hear abou' yet Aunt, Harry. I on'y met 'er once, of course, an'… er…. Migh' not have made the best impression. Still…"
"Still," Harry agreed. "I don't think Uncle Vernon's going to be able to attend the funeral. They transferred him to St. Mungo's yesterday." He shook his head. "I still can't believe that Wormtail would have convinced Tom Riddle to go after my Aunt and Uncle."
"Not like he'd care what happened to a coupla Muggles," said Hagrid. "Not if he killed twelve of 'em jus' ter fake his own death." He frowned. "He fooled me, all righ'! Coulda sworn he was dead! I did swear he was dead, come ter think of it… Poor Sirius, can't even imagine how it musta been like for him."
"You believe that Sirius Black is innocent, then?" said Harry. "The Daily Prophet doesn't."
Hagrid looked surprised. "Dumbledore says he is, 'course I believe it! I'll take his word over those ruddy idiots in the Prophet any day! That Skeeter woman haven' got half the sense she was born with! Besides, I know you two — yeh said yeh saw Pettigrew, an' yeh wouldn' lie about summat like that!"
"They haven't exactly asked us," said Ronnie. "Don't know what they're even thinking. Dumbledore still has my memory of Wormtail! He was showing it to the Minister and everything!"
"Yeah, but they're claimin' it's too easy to create a fake memory," said Hagrid. "Codswallop, if y'ask me. No — Pettigrew's the murderer, all right. Jus' wish I'd seen it sooner." He clenched his fists. "Eleven years, I've bin so angry at Sirius Black. Bin even angrier at meself for not jus' punchin' his lights out when I had the chance. Now I find he's bin innocent all this time…"
"Good thing you didn't punch his lights out, then!" said Harry, trying to smile.
"Mitghta bin kinder if I had, really," said Hagrid. "Eleven years in Azkaban… they'll be lucky if they can get a sensible word outta him. All down ter Pettigrew! If I'd known — he was right there, all along! "
"How much did Dumbledore tell you?" said Ronnie, forcing herself not to think about how Wormtail had been right there in her home (even in her room) all this time.
Hagrid calmed down a little. "Mos'ly the basics," he said. "Yeh could say I had a bit of an interest in Slytherin's monster from old."
"Oh?" Harry looked curious.
"Well…" Hagrid looked a little reluctant to say anything more. "Yeh see, it was like this…"
"Wait!" Ronnie interrupted. "What's that?"
Just for a moment, like before, she had seen something move in between the trees. Something weirdly formless, as if someone under a Disillusionment Charm was moving about, but then it had vanished again.
"What's what?" Harry turned to look in the same direction she was staring.
Then, to their surprise, Hagrid (possibly thankful for the distraction) said in the same tone of voice he used when talking to Fang: "Aw, Ten! What have I tol' yeh about followin' me outta the Forest?"
"Ten?!" said Ronnie, squinting to try and see who it was Hagrid was talking to. There was nothing there, that she could see… now there wasn't even a movement…
Wait!
Just at the edge of the Forest, some of the snow was shifting about, as if something invisible was stepping on it — then, plain as day, hoof-like footprints started forming on the white ground, right next to Hagrid's and Fang's, as a soft snorting sound signalled the arrival of the unseen creature.
Harry looked at the ground, green eyes widening behind his classes. "Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing hoof-prints appear in the snow."
"Hagrid!" Ronnie exclaimed, once again remembering their unplanned journey into the Forest last year. "Is that a Thestral?!"
"Oh!" said Harry, understanding dawning on his face. Of course, he too remembered the trip to the forest, and the invisible horses that Neville had seen, but which had been invisible to him and Ronnie.
"Tha's a Thestral, all righ'!" said Hagrid proudly, then looked concerned. "Can't see him yet, can yeh? It'd be too soon…"
"I thought I saw something, but…" Ronnie trailed off.
"Well," said Hagrid. "This here's Tenebrus. He's mine — well, belongs to the school, really, him an' his herd. It's me job ter look after 'em. I reckon we have the on'y large herd o' trained Thestrals in the whole of Great Britain, and Tenebrus here was the firs' one born at Hogwarts — Now, Ten, behave! Don' worry, he's a big ol' softie!"
This last part came just as Ronnie felt something invisible pressed against her — Tenebrus was clearly expressing affection the same way Fang did.
"Oh, hey… yes, hello, Tenebrus!" she managed to say. Bracing herself, she blindly tried to stroke his muzzle, which was a little awkward when her eyes told her she was only stroking thin air but her hand told her it was stroking something soft and warm.
Once more, for a moment could have sworn she saw movement in the air, as Tenebrus arched his head against her hand, but then it was gone. However, Fang was wagging his tail, looking like he knew precisely where the Thestral was… of course, dogs relied much more on the sense of smell than the sense of sight. It wouldn't matter too much to Fang whether or not he could see Tenebrus; he'd be able to smell him just fine.
"Beau'iful animals, Thestrals," said Hagrid. "Dead clever too, always know exactly where they're goin'. Ridiculous, really, how people still think they're bad luck."
"Yeah — ridiculous," Ronnie agreed, deciding not to mention that she herself had thought exactly that until last year. "Really nice to meet you," she said, stroking the invisible creature. "Sorry, I can't really see you, but — oh!"
Startled, she fell backwards, landing on her arse in the snow.
For a very brief moment, she'd been staring into a black, elongated face that looked slightly like a horse, slightly like a dragon, and a lot like a walking animal corpse — with purely white eyes staring at her without pupils or expression.
"What happened?" Harry helped her back onto her feet.
"I — saw him!" She gasped and squinted, trying to get another look, but Tenebrus had gone invisible again.
"You did?" Harry squinted, clearly trying to see if he could spot Tenebrus as well.
"Takes yeh by surprise, don' it?" said Hagrid sympathetically. "Remember my firs' time seein' a Thestral."
Ronnie struggled to get her breath back under control. "It's true then — you can see Thestrals — if you've watched someone snuff it —"
"Yeah," said Hagrid seriously, placing one giant hand on her shoulder and another on the invisible Tenebrus. "Not straight away, mind. Death's an awf'ly big thing ter grasp. Yer mind's gotta work it out first, really understand an' accept what it's seen. Surprised yeh've started ter see already, really… usually it takes weeks, sometimes even months..."
"I saw… I saw Harry's Aunt die," said Ronnie, with a quick glance over at Harry. She could hear how small and helpless her own voice sounded. "She just… crumbled to dust… right before my eyes."
Hagrid patted her on the back, unusually gently. Fang was licking her hand, and even Tenebrus was snorting in what sounded like a sympathetic way, pressing his invisible head against her.
"Well," said Hagrid. "Over time, yeh'll be able ter see the Thestrals more clearly… It's gradual. Yeh'll be seein' glimpses, like movements or shadows, or yeh'll catch 'em through the corner of yer eye… then, one day, they're right there, plain as day, an' yeh see 'em as clearly as any other animal. That's when yeh know it's really sunken in."
"I know Neville can see them," Ronnie admitted.
"Shouldn't I be able to see them?" said Harry, as if something had been bothering him. "I did see my parents die when I was a baby, and I definitely know they're dead..."
"Yeah, but I don't think that'd count," said Hagrid. "Not fer a baby. Yeh'd have bin too young ter know what was goin' on. Don't remember seein' it, do yeh?"
"No," Harry admitted. "Well, sometimes I think I remember a flash of green light, but that's all."
"There yeh are, then," said Hagrid sympathetically. "Awful thing ter live through, but it wouldn' make yeh see the Thestrals. Neville, I didn' know he could see 'em, but there aren' many kids yer age who can. Thank goodness."
"You can see them, can't you?" said Ronnie, looking up at him. "Who —?" She stopped, suddenly uncertain if she really wanted to ask.
"Too many people," said Hagrid gruffly. "But the firs' one… the firs' one was me Dad."
"Oh!" Ronnie winced. "Sorry."
"S'okay. It was more'n fifty years ago. It gets better."
"I'm not even that upset!" Ronnie blurted out. "I mean — I didn't like her! She was awful! I mean, I'm sorry, Harry, but she was!"
"I've said the same thing often enough," said Harry dryly.
"Yeah, but — But I can't help but think — if I hadn't been such an idiot, she wouldn't have died! If I'd just gone to Dumbledore with that bloody diary straight away — or if I'd bothered to think about why Scabbers was still alive after twelve years — or if I hadn't decided to break you out from the Muggles in the first place —"
"Ronnie," said Harry. "Don't do this to yourself. It's not your fault, okay? You didn't know!"
"He's righ'!" said Hagrid. "Thinkin' like that won't get yeh anywhwere. Same as me startin' ter blame meself fer the deaths o' those thirteen people, really… well, twelve people, since Pettigrew wasn' dead. But still, if I hadn' let Sirius go, he prolly wouldn'ta cornered Pettigrew like that, an' those twelve Muggles wouldn'ta died. But you were the one who tol' me I shouldn' blame meself, remember?"
"But…" Ronnie said helplessly.
A slight, vaguely horse-like whinny close to her ear signalled Tenebrus's agreement, or possibly that he wanted her to pet him a little more. Just to be safe, she obliged — really, thinking back at the brief glimpse she'd got of him, he hadn't looked that scary. Sort of cute, really, in a weird corpse-dragon type of way. In a strange way, she was almost looking forward to getting another glimpse.
Before that happened, though, Hagrid spoke again. "C'mon," he said, motioning to his hut not too far off. "It's freezin'. Best get inside an' warm up a little. Least I can do is get a cuppa hot tea in yeh before walkin' yeh back ter the castle."
Hagrid's hut was as charmingly cluttered and homey as always; from the oversized chairs to the various cured meats and assorted items hanging from the ceiling, to the brass kettle steaming over the happily burning fireplace. A comfortably warm Ronnie sat in one of the chairs, holding a steaming mug of tea with one hand and stroking the top of Fang's head with the other, with Harry at her side and Hagrid opposite her.
"Always knew he'd be back," Hagrid finally said. "You-Know-Who, I mean. 'Specially after last year, what with that episode with Quirrell an' all. Knew then that it was jus' a matter o' time… Leastways this time we're forewarned. Didn' really expect that part about a diary, or about Tom Riddle, min' yeh. But I dunno why I'm surprised. Never liked that Riddle bloke."
"You knew Tom Riddle?" said Harry in surprise. "I mean, while he was still Tom Riddle?"
"Didn' know him afterwards, that's fer sure," said Hagrid. "But yeah, he was a Prefect for Slytherin when I was a student. Didn' have much ter do with him, not before he… but that was a long time ago, no use draggin' it up again," he added hurriedly.
"Do you know everyone, Hagrid?" said Harry. "You knew the Marauders, and the Malfoys, and you know Rita Skeeter, and you knew You-Know-Who when he was a student…"
Hagrid shrugged. "Bin here at Hogwarts for a long time," he said. "Anyway, yeh want ter talk about who really knows everyone, yeh don't need ter look any further than Dumbledore. He's got a lotta friends, and a lotta contacts out there. Guessin' he'll be contactin' mos' of them before the week's over. Tellin' 'em ter keep a watch out for Riddle. He was hintin' that he migh' have some job fer me as well… we'll see. Great man, Dumbledore. Long as we've got him, I'm not too worried abou' what's gonna come — here now, who could that be?"
This last part was in response to an erratic knock on the door, just as Fang tore himself away from Ronnie and ran up to the door while barking loudly.
"Don' usually get visitors at this hour," said Hagrid, raising himself. "It's not Dumbledore, I know his knock —back, Fang!"He grabbed the barking Fang gently, but firmly by the collar and held him back with one hand as he opened the door with the other.
A familiar orange streak darted in, running between Hagrid's legs and headed for the chair Ronnie was sitting in. Fang managed to twist out of Hagrid's grasp, barking at the orange streak like mad — only to stop when the cat turned around to give him a very stern, disapproving, yellow-eyed look.
The staring contest lasted all of two seconds before Fang lowered his head and slinked off into a corner with his tail between his legs. The victor of the contest gave a nonchalant flick of his own bottle-brush tail and leapt up onto Ronnie's lap.
"Crookshanks!" Joy and relief flooding through her, Ronnie took her cat in her arms and held him close as he started to purr up a storm.
"When'd he learn to knock on doors?" said Harry, looking about as relieved as Ronnie felt.
"He hasn't, at least not yet," came a familiar, dreamy voice, from the entrance. "That was probably why he asked me to do it for him."
It was Luna Lovegood, with snow in her hair and what looked like a small box under her arm, and looking even smaller and frailer than usual next to the enormous Hagrid. "Hello, Mister Hagrid," she said, looking up at him.
Hagrid, who had been calling over to the still-cowering Fang with a mix of concern and mild exasperation ("It's jus' a cat, Fang, yeh're five times bigger'n him!") turned to Luna with a warm smile. "Ah, jus' call me Hagrid," he said. "If yeh go around callin' me 'mister,' I won't know who yeh're talkin' to. So, what can I do fer you?"
"That's a good question," said Luna solemnly. "I don't know yet. I don't really know you all that well, so I'm not certain what you can and can't do. Oh, wait, I do know something you can do!" she suddenly said, her face lighting up in a smile. "Could you let me in?"
"Er —" Hagrid blinked, in the way people usually did when they weren't certain if Luna was making fun of them or not.
"It's really important," said Luna. "I have something for Veronica. Hello, Veronica! Hello, Harry!" She stamped the snow off her boots as Hagrid finally moved aside to let her in.
"Hi, Luna." (Ronnie had long since given up trying to get the younger girl to call her 'Ronnie.') "What're you doing here?"
"Crookshanks told me to come! Oh — I'm sorry," Luna added, looking at the cowering Fang and then at Hagrid. "Is your dog allergic to cats?"
Despite himself, Hagrid had to chuckle. "Nah, he's just a ruddy coward," he said. "Mind yeh, cats make me start sneezin' summat awful, but I can manage half-Kneazles all righ'… just so long as I don' have ter pick 'im up or anything. But I reckon Ronnie's got that 'un covered."
"Absolutely," Ronnie promised, giving Crookshanks another hug before looking over at Luna. "But what d'you mean, he told you? Did you do the Animal Talk Charm or something?"
"No, what's the Animal Talk Charm? Oh, wait — never mind, I think I just guessed," said Luna.
"Yeah, it's pretty obvious," said Ronnie dryly.
"Yes, but I didn't do anything like that," said Luna. "But when a cat moves around you and keeps looking back at you to see if you're following him, then it's pretty obvious that you're supposed to come with him, isn't it?"
"Can't argue with that logic," said Hagrid. "Lemme get yeh a cuppa tea while yeh're here, the kettle's on…" He moved over to the fireplace.
"Thank you!" said Luna politely. She moved up to the table and placed the box she'd been holding down between Ronnie and Harry. "I think Crookshanks wants you to see this," she said.
"Er — what's this?" Harry looked at the box, then at Crookshanks, then at Luna.
"This," said Luna dramatically, as if she was about to deliver an Earth-shattering revelation, "is the proof that Gabriel Truman was wrong!"
"What?!" said Ronnie. "Luna, I know it's a lot to ask, but could you at least try to make sense for once? Who's Gabriel Truman?"
"Oh, he's one of the Hufflepuff Prefects," said Luna. "He was the one who made the welcome speech to the first-years, told us where everything is and things like that. He also told us that no outsiders had ever seen the Hufflepuff common room or dormitories for more than a thousand years. But that was wrong, and the proof is right here in this box!"
Ronnie was just pondering the merits of losing her temper completely with the silly girl, when Crookshanks lightly bopped her nose with his paw and stared meaningfully at the box on the table.
It was made of metal, its lid filled with air holes so that its content wouldn't suffocate — and small scratching noises came from inside as if whatever was inside the box was desperately trying to get out.
"Harry!" Ronnie gasped, grabbed his arm and pointing to the box. "The Hufflepuff common room! Get it?"
Harry looked at the box as well. "The Marauders never found the Hufflepuff common room…" he said, understanding dawning.
"…but he must have!" Ronnie finished.
"Are you all right?" Luna looked at them both with concern in her eyes.
"Luna!" said Harry. "D'you realise what you've done?!"
"…did I do something I shouldn't have?" said Luna in a small voice.
"You've bloody well gone and caught a murderer!" Ronnie exclaimed. All of a sudden, it was like she was seeing Luna for the first time all over again. How could she ever have thought that she didn't like this amazing girl?
Almost impossibly, Luna's eyes had grown even bigger than usual. "A murderer?" she repeated. "I didn't mean to catch a murderer! I got up early to see if any of the plants in the Hufflepuff common room were really Skelps in disguise — they like to pretend to be plants, you know," she added as if this should be common knowledge. "But instead I found this rat hiding among the plants. I knew it couldn't really be a rat, so I caught it in this box!"
Now it was Harry's turn to blink. "Wait — how did you know it wasn't a real rat?"
"Because there aren't any rats in the Hufflepuff common room," said Luna, as if this should be obvious. "If one shows up, it's either badly lost or it's not a rat at all. This rat didn't look lost, so that meant it wasn't a rat! I was planning to show him to Professor Sprout, but then your cat showed up and got me to follow him instead. It seemed very important that I did."
Hagrid, who had clearly been listening from by the fireplace, had joined them by the table again. "Illegal Animagus!" he said. "Wouldn'ta thought he coulda done it. Jus' goes ter show, yeh shouldn' underestimate people. So!" He added, glaring at the box. "Best get this thing ter Dumbledore right away! He'll know what ter do!"
"No, wait." Ronnie suddenly felt strangely calm. She placed Crookshanks down on the table next to the box and fished her wand out of her pocket. "I have to make sure. I'm not barging into another scene without making certain there isn't another detail I've missed. Luna, open the box."
"What?!" Harry protested. "He'll just get away!"
"Not with Crookshanks right there, he won't," said Ronnie. "And there's a spell Dumbledore taught me that I'm going to try out right now. I know I can do it, especially after all the time we spent learning Untransfiguration in McGonagall's class. If we're right, we'll know."
"That sounds very logical," said Luna, picking the box up. "Besides, Crookshanks took me to you and not to the Headmaster's office. I trust you, Veronica."
With that, she opened the box. And all at once, a very familiar-looking grey rat sprang out and landed on the table.
Scabbers looked awful. If Ronnie hadn't known now just what a dirty bastard she had in front of her, she might have felt pity; the rat was thinner than when last she'd seen him in this form, and looked to have lost a lot of fur. There was nothing wrong with his agility, though; as soon as his little paws touched the surface of the table he was off like a grey streak, scampering across the table to try and get away.
He didn't even get halfway before Crookshanks was on him, pinning him down to the table.
The rat screamed and squeaked, desperately trying to get loose, but Crookshanks had him pinned so that he couldn't even turn his head around to try and bite.
"I told you," said Ronnie, smiling sweetly at Harry. "Best cat in the world!"
"That's definitely Scabbers," said Harry breathlessly. "Which means…"
"Homorphus!" Ronnie cried, pointing her wand at the fleeing rat just as he jumped off the table. A flash of blue-white light erupted from the wand, striking at both Scabbers and Crookshanks.
Crookshanks didn't even react, but Scabbers let out an ear-piercing squeak before starting to twitch and convulse violently under the cat's paws.
There was another flash of light, and then —
Luna let out a soft squeak of surprise.
The transformation had happened so fast that it was almost like seeing the small, twitching rat explode into the fat, balding man in shabby robes who was not lying on his belly on the table — and with a somewhat agitated Crookshanks on his back.
Wormtail slowly lifted his head. His face was almost as grey as his fur had been. "D-don't hurt me," he stammered. "P-please — this, this, this is all just a terrible, terrible misunderstanding —"
He didn't get any further before Hagrid, with an angry snarl of "YOU!", grabbed him by his robes and lifted him up into the air, just as Crookshanks leapt off him to land on the floor. "TRAITOR!"
"I'm not a traitor!" Wormtail yelled, struggling in Hagrid's grip. "It was Sirius! It was all Sirius!"
"DON'T EVEN TRY!" Hagrid cut him off. "DUMBLEDORE TOLD ME! YEH SOLD OUT LILY AN' JAMES AND YEH FRAMED SIRIUS FOR IT!"
When Hagrid let the small man come to rest again (though without easing his grip on him), Wormtail was breathing heavily, looking close to tears. "It's all just a terrible misunderstanding," he repeated, looking at Harry. "Harry — Harry, you have to believe me… your parents, they were my friends… you look so much like your father, Harry… he wouldn't have wanted you to do anything to me!"
Harry was breathing heavily. "It's a little late to start pleading," he said. "Not after you kidnapped me and took me to the Chamber of Secrets! Not after I pleaded for help and you ignored it! Not after I found out you were the one that convinced Tom Riddle to go after my Aunt and Uncle! Not after you sold my parents out to Voldemort!"
Luna gasped and hid herself behind Hagrid at the mention of the name. Even Wormtail cringed in Hagrid's grasp, though Hagrid himself seemed too agitated to react.
"And especially not," Harry continued, "after you put my best friend under the Imperius!"
"That, that wasn't me!" said Wormtail feebly. "I mean — You-Know-Who had me under the Imperius! He was making me do thing I didn't want, I couldn't help it! I swear, I never wanted to hurt you!"
"Did he have you under the Imperius when you betrayed my parents?" said Harry. "Or when you stole the diary from Ronnie on the Hogwarts Express?!"
"A-all a misunderstanding!" Wormtail turned his head to look at Ronnie. "Y-you know me, Ronnie, I'm not a murderer — I lived in the same house as you for more than ten years, and I never did anything to anyone, did I?"
"You lived in my room! Ginny let you sleep in her bed, you —!" Ronnie had to pause to think up a nasty enough name to call him.
"I didn't enjoy it! —actually, that came out wrong, I mean —"
"Shut up!" Ronnie took a deep breath. "Luna? Since you haven't been properly introduced — This is Peter Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail, also known as Scabbers, also known as a disgusting creep."
"How d'you do," said Luna politely, peeking out from behind Hagrid. " That's a lot of names."
"Didn't read the Daily Prophet yesterday, did you?" said Ronnie.
Luna shook her head. "Daddy says the Daily Prophet is full of lies to cover up conspiracies and scandals. They haven't even written so much as a word about the cover-up involving Arglebargle the Fourth —"
"Who? Never mind." Ronnie shook her head. "If you had read the Daily Prophet yesterday, you might've read some lies about this bloke. Like the lie about him being dead."
"You don't look dead," Luna told Wormtail. "Oh! Unless you have the Resurrection Stone?"
"He doesn't have the Resurrection Stone, he never died to begin with," said Harry, to whom the Resurrection Stone was a bit of a sore point after last year, when he'd mistakenly believed that said Stone was hidden at Hogwarts. He was, however, a lot calmer as he continued: "Stop me if this is wrong, Wormtail — eleven years ago, my parents went into hiding because a certain Dark Lord wanted them dead. They decided to hide their location with a Fidelius Charm, which meant that only one person, the Secret-Keeper, could reveal where they were. They told everyone that Sirius Black was the Secret-Keeper, and so when the charm was broken and my parents murdered, everyone knew that Sirius Black was the one who had sold them out."
"Yes, yes!" Wormtail nodded nervously. "Just as I said — Sirius, everyone thought he was a good person, nobody suspected him, but he'd actually been You-Know-Who's spy for over a year! When I heard Lily and James had died I knew what must have happened…" His voice grew a little stronger. "I've never been strong or skilled or brave, but I knew I couldn't let Sirius get away with it. I tracked him down, I tried to take him down myself… but he was much too strong for me. He knew all sorts of Dark magic, I didn't have a chance. I only survived by turning myself into a rat at the last moment, so that he'd believe he had killed me."
"Except," said Harry, "that's not what happened. Dumbledore figured it out when he found out you were alive. Sirius Black wasn't my parents' Secret-Keeper — you were!"
"No!" said Wormtail feebly. "Everybody knew it was Sirius! Ask anyone!"
"That was the ruse, wasn't it?" said Harry. "Everyone was supposed to think it was Sirius! But you switched Secret-Keepers, without telling anyone! That's why you faked your own death, wasn't it? Can't question a man who's dead! And if twelve Muggles happen to die at the same time, that just makes it more convincing…"
"No, no, no, that's not what happened!" Wormtail screeched. "I'm innocent, you have to believe me!"
"ARE YEH CALLIN' ALBUS DUMBLEDORE A LIAR?!" Hagrid roared, shaking him furiously.
"I'm just — No! No! I didn't mean it like that, Hagrid! Stop — stop shaking me!"
"I MOURNED YER DEATH, YEH SNEAKY, GOOD-FER-NOTHIN' DEATH EATER!" Hagrid did not stop shaking him, not until Harry stepped up to place a hand on his hip (the only part of the man Harry could comfortably reach).
"Hagrid, he's not worth it." Harry's surprisingly quiet voice cut through the air and made Hagrid stop shaking Wormtail — who just let out a small groan as he went limp in Hagrid's grip.
For a moment it looked like the man had fainted, but then he made a soft whimper and opened his eyes again.
"I just want to know why," said Harry, looking at him. "Why did you do any of it?"
For a moment, Ronnie thought Wormtail was going to start protesting again. But after a long moment's silence, he looked down. "I didn't want to do any of it. You don't know what it's like — I've seen you all. You're brave and noble and strong… you couldn't possibly know what it's like to be small and weak, in a world of big, strong people who could kill you as soon as look at you… I never wanted to hurt anyone, but I didn't want to die."
"Bollocks," Ronnie snorted. "If you'd cared who got hurt, you wouldn't have sold out Harry's parents! And you wouldn't have stolen bloody You-Know-Who's diary!"
"I… that wasn't my idea," said Wormtail. "It was Lockhart. It was all his plan…"
"What?!" Hagrid looked like he wanted to shake Wormtail again, but managed to control himself. "First yeh try ter blame Sirius, now it's Lockhart's fault?! That ruddy idiot couldn' plan a picnic!" His voice lowered to a growl as he effortlessly lifted Wormtail up so they were face-to-face. "Yeh better start tellin' the truth, righ' now, or so help me, I'll —!"
"Okay! I'll talk! I'll talk!" Wormtail screamed. "Just don't hurt me!"
Hagrid flung him down to the ground, where he ended up half-sitting, half-lying, breathing heavily. For a moment, he looked like he was going to try running, but apparently thought better of it when he saw that both Harry and Ronnie pulled out their wands and pointed them at him
"Talk!" Hagrid snarled.
"Yes, yes…" Wormtail cast nervous glances at them all, flinching when Crookshanks hissed at him. "I've never been strong, and that's the truth. Really… it really was Sirius's fault, back then. I didn't — he was the one who suggested that I'd be James and Lily's Secret-Keeper."
"He was?!" said Harry. "But —"
"He'd worked it all out," said Wormtail. "Tell everyone that he was James and Lily's Secret-Keeper, so that the Death Eaters would target him, while I, the real Secret-Keeper could go into hiding. I was the least likely person, nobody would expect it was me… 'Everyone thinks you're just a pathetic weakling,' he said. 'Here's your chance to prove everyone wrong.' I couldn't refuse, it would have looked too suspicious…"
"Because you were the spy!" said Hagrid. "We all knew there was one in the Order!"
"I hated doing it," said Wormtail miserably. "I hated myself for being so weak, for spying on my friends, but I didn't have a choice… You-Know-Who would have killed me! I tried using my rat form to spy on the Death Eaters as well, thinking that — well, maybe I could send some anonymous tips, sort of make up for what I was forced to do…"
"We didn' see a lotta that, far as I remember!" Hagrid growled.
"Couldn't find out much," Wormtail admitted. "That made it worse… and then Sirius had the idea about the Secret-Keeper, and then I didn't have a choice! I was too deep in it, You-Know-Who wouldn't only have killed me, he'd have tortured me… I'm not strong, I can't take it! I tried not to betray Lily and James —"
"Didn't try very hard, did you?" said Ronnie.
"Harder than you could imagine," Wormtail insisted, "but it was no use. But it did work out, didn't it?! You-Know-Who vanished and the war was over! That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't gone to kill Lily and James! He'd never have met Harry, and —"
"Are yeh tryin' ter take credit for endin' the war?!" Hagrid snapped.
"No, no!" Wormtail squeaked. "I was just saying… never mind, never mind!" He took a deep breath. "After You-Know-Who vanished… I went mad for a bit. I admit it. All I could think was that both sides were going to come after me… I was mad with terror. It's almost like I was acting in a dream… I went to find Sirius. Of course he was looking for me; he was the only one who knew I was the Secret-Keeper, and he was angry. It was like I saw the solution… fake my own death, and nobody would know… nobody would believe Sirius, he'd made certain everyone thought he'd been the Secret-Keeper…"
There was a long silence. Hagrid was fuming silently. Ronnie, Harry and Luna were staring at Wormtail, with Crookshanks looking upon with clear disdain for the man. Even Fang was observing the scene from his place in the corner, even it it was anyone's guess how much he understood of it.
"I couldn't go back to live as a man after that," said Wormtail. "Not after what I had done. It would have been easy to go abroad, get a new identity and live as a different person… but I didn't deserve that. I only deserved to live as a rat. A lowly rodent. I fended for myself in the wilderness for a few weeks… then I happened to come across a young boy named Percy Weasley. He was upset because his four brothers and two sisters were taking up all his parents' attention… I figured, I hadn't been much good as a man, but perhaps I could do some good as a rat… I became his pet, his confidante…. He was very happy that an animal had chosen him for once, and not Charlie or Ronnie."
"And so you stayed with us for eleven years!" Ronnie wasn't able to keep the disgust out of her voice.
"I promise, I never did anything that a normal pet rat wouldn't have!" Wormtail squeaked. "I was a good pet… I would have stayed a rat until I died, but… but then you got that cat."
"Mrrrrow!" said Crookshanks proudly.
"He knew at once I wasn't a real rat… and I knew I couldn't stay in the same house at him. And then came the commotion at Flourish & Blotts. I was in Ginny's pocket at the time… I heard Lucius Malfoy's voice. And when he came close… that' then I felt it. Rats have really sharp instincts, you know… I could sense that he had something evil with him. Something familiarly evil…" He took a deep breath. "I told you I tried to spy on the Death Eaters in rat form… well, I didn't fid out much, but I knew that feeling… a small book that used to belong to You-Know-Who. I didn't know what it was, but it — it reeked of evil. You don't forget something like that. And now Lucius Malfoy had it!"
"That was why you ran away?" Ronnie exclaimed. "You knew he was giving me the diary, and you —"
"I panicked!" Wormtail wailed. "I didn't know what he was going to do, but it couldn't be anything good! The cat was bad enough, but that book… I just had to get away!"
"But if you just wanted to get away from the book, why did you steal it?" Ronnie demanded. "Crookshanks saw you! You were the one who put a sleep spell on us at the Hogwarts Express so you could steal the diary from me!"
"Well… that's where Gilderoy Lockhart comes in," Wormtail sighed. "I… he found me in the backroom of Flourish & Blotts, and he knew that I belonged to the Weasleys… he was right there when I escaped, after all! He'd seen me in Ginny's pocket! He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he notices things! He was all set to send me back to the Burrow… I had to take on human form to convince him not to!"
"Was that when you infected him with Wrackspurts?" Luna, who had been silent all through Wormtail's story, suddenly piped up.
Wormtail blinked. "Was that when I did what?!"
"Hey, that's right!" Ronnie exclaimed. "You had Lockhart under the Imperius too, didn't you? That was you!"
"Knew he couldn' be such an idiot on 'is own," Hagrid grumbled.
"I — no!" said Wormtail hurriedly. "It wasn't like that! Lockhart was in on it from the start! You know he's a complete fraud, right? All those books he wrote about those heroic deeds — pure bluff! He never did any of it! But, well, when he heard about the evil book, he insisted I get it for him… I think he wanted credit for finding and destroying it! He didn't even know what he was up against…"
Ronnie couldn't help but feel a slight sense of vindication. Lockhart had been up to no good from the start. Maybe this information would finally make Hermione and the other girls stop swooning over him.
"The diary… it didn't want to be delivered to Dumbledore," Wormtail continued. "It was really angry with Lockhart for some reason… accused him of stealing it. Said that Draco Malfoy had told it as much…"
"Bugger," Ronnie muttered, biting her lip.
"So the diary put Lockhart under the Imperius?" said Harry, sounding dubious.
"Yes!" Wormtail said hurriedly. "That was exactly what happened! That diary had all sorts of Dark magic on it… It was stronger than both Lockhart and me together, there was nothing I could do… It was… it was horrible. You-Know-Who… He made us both do things… I tried all I could to resist, but… I'm weak…"
"And you wasted no time in telling him what a great friend and loyal servant you were," said Harry. "You even delivered him the perfect victims to drain the life-force out of: My Aunt and Uncle!"
"Y-you don't understand… he was going to do it to someone, no matter what. Lockhart was too high-profile, people would notice, and I was — I-I wasn't a good choice. You-Know-Who wanted me to kidnap some student or a villager from Hogsmeade, but I couldn't, I just couldn't do that to someone innocent. But I'd heard about how awful the Dursleys were to you… if You-Know-Who was going to drain someone's life anyway, why not those two? They were bad people! Better them than some innocent student or villager… Besides," he added. "They were Muggles and never quite got the hang of Parseltongue, so You-Know-Who couldn't use the basilisk as he wanted… he wanted to set it on Muggle-borns, start a killing spree, but that didn't happen."
"It got Lavender!" said Harry. "And she's not even a Muggle-born!"
"It was an accident, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time… but she didn't die, did she? She can be revived! The ghosts can as well, we just needed — he just needed them out of the way for a while. Even Lockhart isn't dead! Even after he started fighting the Imperius and had to be dealt with! I — I was the one who said the basilisk should attack him in his office, I was hoping that the mirrors would mean he only got Petrified. I really, really didn't want anyone to die!"
"A real friend to humanity, aren't you, Wormtail?" said Ronnie.
"Well, I —" Wormtail must have caught the sarcasm in her voice, because he averted his eyes. "I tried. I really did. I was in a horrible situation, everyone was forcing me to do things I didn't want to do, the only thing I could do was try to make sure people didn't die…"
"What about the twelve Muggles?" said Harry.
"Wh-what?" Wormtail looked up again.
"The twelve Muggles you killed when faking your own death," said Harry.
Wormtail swallowed. "They were just Muggles…" he murmured.
There was another long pause.
"You know, for a while there I was actually starting to feel sorry for you," Harry finally said.
"Right!" said Hagrid. "I think that's enough o' that!" Without any further ado, he picked up the yelping Wormtail and hauled him over his shoulder, as easily as if he'd been a sack of feathers. "We're takin' this piece o' trash ter Dumbledore! Better come along, you three."
"Meow!"
"You four. Sorry."
"Should I come too?" said Luna, looking from one to the other with an uncertain expression on her face. "I don't really know the Headmaster. We've never talked, apart from that one time at the Sorting."
Ronnie placed a hand on her shoulder. "C'mon," she said. "You don't want to miss the chance to tell him how you caught a murderer, do you? It'll be fine."
Luna looked at her and nodded. "If you think I should, Ronnie," she said.
"Yes, I —" Ronnie cut herself off with a surprised gasp. "You called me Ronnie!"
"Yes, I did."
"I've asked you to call me Ronnie loads of times before, but you never would!"
"I hadn't earned it then." Luna smiled brilliantly. "Now I think I have."
Ronnie felt a warm feeling spread from her chest. Weird… she had never noticed just how pretty Luna looked when she smiled…
Then she blinked and shook her head. Where had that come from?
"Are you coming?" Harry was already by the door so he could open it for Hagrid, even as Crookshanks padded over to him with his bottle-brush tail held high.
"Er — yes!" said Ronnie, pulling herself together. "Let's go!"
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author's Notes: Yeah, you probably already guessed that Wormtail wasn't being completely honest in his confession. While the story was correct in broad strokes, he did — when finding that denying his guilt wasn't getting him anywhere — try to play on everyone's sympathy by presenting himself as having nobler motivations, and being more of a blameless victim of circumstance, than was really the case.
As I told you, this was the last "real" chapter, but there'll be two epilogues to this particular story, as there are still a couple of things that need to be addressed before we move in to the third and final novel of the Weasley Girl trilogy: War of the Prophecy.
The good news is that I have both epilogues half-finished already (the second epilogue will be the first chapter in this series to be from the POV of someone other than Harry or Ronnie) so my initial goal of finishing this story within 2017 looks like it's going to happen despite the massive schedule slip.
I also have planned at least two more, shorter, stories from the Weasley Girl universe.
One will be a one-shot short story called Moaning Myrtle's Party, which will describe the party that Ronnie promised to throw Moaning Myrtle.
The other one… is a secret for now, but it's something I've been wanting to do for a while. Can't tell you how long that'll be yet, but I'm thinking it'll probably be about novella-length. Five or six chapters, maybe.
Final note for now: Gabriel Truman was the Prefect that held the "welcome to Hufflepuff" speech at the old Pottermore site — yep, I'm a Hufflepuff on Pottermore! My initial reaction to the "no outsiders have ever seen the Hufflepuff common room" bit was pretty much like Luna's, so there's a good reason why you shouldn't hire me as a security consultant.