Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they all belong to JK Rowlings. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.

– CHAPTER FIVE –

Scabbers Found

Having bought enough food for Harry to survive a few more days and an entire new wardrobe, Harry and Hermione returned to his flat to drop off the shopping bags. Waiting for them, was an owl with a letter from Ron, well Mrs. Weasley actually, as she'd interrupted Ron's response to say how she had been worried sick for him. She also wanted him to come and visit them as soon as possible so that she could make sure that he was alright.

Harry opted to check the remainder of his letters before leaving, and asked Hermione if she could take him. She agreed, but wanted to tell her parents where she was first; Harry told her to go see how they were while he read his letters, and they'd apparate to the Burrow when she returned.

There were two parcels left, one was a copy of the Daily Prophet, and the other had a seal bearing the Ministry of Magic's arms'. Intrigued, Harry opened the envelope which was addressed to Mr Potter, location unknown. Inside he found a summons to attend a reading of Dumbledore's will at the Ministry the next day, at 11 am. He put it down slowly as memories of that night up on the Astronomy Tower flooded over him. He still couldn't believe that he was gone.

Unwilling to let Hermione find him in this state again, he brushed the back of his hand over his eyes, shook his head vigorously to clear the dismal thoughts away, and looked at the copy of the Daily Prophet. For a few minutes he read in silence, shocked at the brutality that Voldemort had displayed towards the Dursleys. Finally putting the newspaper down, he thought glumly, 'Well that's one more reason to destroy him. I can't let him do this to anyone else. Now, where's Hermione?' As he processed that thought, there was a knock on the door. He jumped up to open it to a smiling Hermione,

'They said I could go, and stay as long as I wanted; so I brought a few clothes and books. I'm not sure how long Ron will want me to spend there.' Harry grinned knowingly. Reddening slightly, she ploughed ahead. 'Well are you ready or not? Aren't you going to bring some clothes?'

'I can't stay; I need to go to the Ministry tomorrow for a reading of Dumbledore's will. I'm nearer to London here.'

'Harry, stop being silly, you can Floo there from the Weasleys.'

'Oh yea,' his cheeks flushing pink, 'I forgot. I guess I just don't like the Floo network much.'

'Harry, if you want, you can take the apparition test with Ron tomorrow while you're at the Ministry. He booked himself in for the 10 o'clock test; that way you only have to Floo one way.'

'But, I've only managed to apparate once, I'm not ready!' Harry panicked, not wanting to splinch himself in the slightest. Hermione pushed on, looking frustrated for some reason.

'Twice Harry and the second time you did it carrying someone.'

'You're not annoyed that I upped you one are you?' Harry looked surprised, 'Look, that was a life-and-death situation. If I hadn't been so panicked, I probably couldn't have done it. I was practically running only on adrenaline by then; it wouldn't be the same in a test.'

'Right,' Hermione responded brightly, 'if that's the problem, I'll ask Voldemort to show up at the Ministry at 10 so that you can be in a life-and-death situation. Although you'd probably stand and fight.' She finished, muttering in exasperation. Harry grinned, knowing full well that she was right; as usual.

'Alright, I'll take the test tomorrow, but if I splinch myself and make a fool of myself, I'll hex you into next week! Now can we please go to the Weasleys before Mrs. Weasley has a panic attack?'

'Only when you've packed some clothes; unless of course if you intend to spend the next few days in those.' She added cheekily, smirking.

'Alright, I'll get my stuff; just hold on a minute.' He ran to his bedroom, and threw some of his new clothes and toiletries into a bag. Stuffing his wand up his sleeve, he ran back, 'Right, I'm ready. Let's go.'
Harry was about to lock the door, when he remembered Hedwig. He ran back in, and apologising profusely, opened her cage door and the window, telling her that he'd be back in a few days and not to go to the Weasleys. 'She's far too recognisable for her own good' he thought.

They hurried down to the alley, and Hermione was about to grab his arm, when Harry thought of something.

'Hermione, can you apparate us inside the Burrow? I know it's rude, but Voldemort might have someone watching their house in case I show up.' He looked nervous, thinking of how many things could go wrong if he was spotted there by a Death Eater.

'Sure Harry, I'm sure no one will mind if we explain the problem to them.' She smiled reassuringly, and gripped Harry's arm firmly, before spinning quickly on the spot, thinking of the Burrow.

Harry recognised the horrible feeling of compression immediately, but before he could wonder whether it would always feel like this, or whether it got better with practise, he'd landed in Ron's room.

Looking around, he saw that not much had changed since the last year, 'or all the years before that' he thought. There were still the same posters of the Chudley Cannons on the walls and ceiling, the players whirling around the pitch and waving at them. The fish-tank still housed a giant frog, and Pig was still in his small cage, hopping up and down, and twittering madly.

'Hello Pig, happy to see us I gather?' Harry murmured, stroking the small ball of fluff.

'Harry, we should go downstairs and announce ourselves. Heaven knows, Mrs. Weasley's probably going spare at the moment. Come on.' They walked downstairs, and walked into the kitchen to find Mrs. Weasley at the table with Fleur, going over bouquet designs. Looking up to see who had come down, Mrs. Weasley screeched in shock. Jumping up to embrace them, she asked excitedly,

'Harry, Hermione! What are you doing there? When do you get here? Oh, I've been worried sick about you Harry, how did you get upstairs? I didn't hear you come in.' Fleur was smiling up at him, glowing faintly.

She was about to continue pelting them with questions when Ron and Ginny ran in from the garden, brooms in hand, and brandishing their wands.

'What's going on, we heard -' Ginny saw Harry, squealed, and ran into his arms.

'Harry! Hermione! How are you? We've been waiting for you all morning, ever since your letter arrived. Where did you go? We were so worried when we read what happened in the paper this morning.' Harry cut her off at this point, and pushing her away, he pulled out his wand. 'Harry, what are you doing?' She asked, suddenly worried.

'Muffliato' he muttered, pointing at the doors and windows, before turning back to them, smiling. 'Sorry about that, I just wanted to make sure that we weren't overheard.'

'Harry, what was that spell?' Mrs. Weasley asked, 'And what do you mean overheard? We're in my house!'

'Well,' Harry started, awkwardly shifting his stance, 'I think that there's a possibility that, erm, you see, Voldemort -' Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Fleur flinched violently.

'Oh, for Christ's sake Harry, if you can't get it out, let me. Harry thinks, and I agree with him, that Voldemort,' they winced again, 'has probably stationed a Death Eater in the vicinity so that if Harry shows up, he'll know.' Ron's eyes widened, and mouthed everyone's fear.

'But then, he could already know that you're here. They would have seen you walk in. We have to leave now.'

'Well,' Harry started, 'that's why Mrs. Weasley saw us coming from upstairs. We thought it would be safer to apparate to somewhere inside the house. As for leaving, I don't think that's necessary; you two were outside just now,' he looked at Ron and Ginny, 'did you hear your mum yelling our names?'

'No mate, we heard her screech, and ran over.' Ron answered, still unconvinced. 'What if the Death Eater's inside though? He would have heard mum for sure.'

'That's a possibility Ron,' Hermione answered, 'but in all likelihood, Voldemort probably didn't want his spy found. He probably told him to stay outside and watch for us apparating in. He probably knew that Harry didn't have access to the Floo network, so -'

At that moment, Harry whipped out his wand again and pointing at the windowsill, he yelled 'Stupefy!' Instantly, three other wands were drawn and pointing at the ledge, but it was unnecessary, Harry had hit his target. Next second, they heard a dull thud, as something hit the ground outside.

'Harry, what was that?' Ginny asked fearfully, looking at Harry's face, which was etched in fury. 'Harry, are you ok?' Harry didn't reply, instead whispering in a cold voice, 'Accio Pettigrew', pointing at the window.

In flew a thin, grey rat; its right paw was silver. Harry caught it and quickly cast another Stunning Spell at it. Hermione's eyes grew wide as she realised what Harry had just done. 'Harry, is that Peter? How did you know it was him?' She asked, breathless.

He was about to answer when she said, 'Hold on a second.' She conjured a glass jar, and gave it to Harry, who immediately realised what she was about to do. He put the rat in the jar, and Hermione sealed it before casting an Unbreakable Charm on it. The others watched in silence, only Ron had fully realised what was going on.

Harry visibly relaxed when Hermione cast the Charm, and sat down, putting the jar on the table. 'Now, will one of you two just explain to me what just happened?' Mrs. Weasley asked. Clearly she had recognised the rat as Scabbers, and didn't understand why Harry had called him Pettigrew. She hadn't been told that he had been hiding in her house for twelve years, and hadn't made the connection.

Harry rubbed his eyes, thinking of how to word his answer. Finally, deciding that total honestly was the best route at this point, he answered.

'The rat I just stunned is Peter Pettigrew; I saw a flash of light reflect off his paw. He's an animagus, you knew that right?' Mrs. Weasley nodded hesitantly, but before so could ask what that had to do with it, he continued.

'Peter was the Secret Keeper for my parents and betrayed them to Voldemort. After Voldemort's disappearance, Sirius tracked him down, and confronted him. Peter blew the street open; and cutting off his finger, transformed into a rat, escaping into the sewer system. Sirius was accused of his murder and that of twelve Muggles.'

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, his face ashen. Mrs. Weasley nodded in understanding. Dumbledore had never fully explained why Sirius had been wrongfully imprisoned, just saying that he had. 'This is beginning to make sense,' she thought, 'no wonder Sirius was so protective of Harry, he still felt guilty for James and Lily's betrayal.' Harry continued slowly.

'Anyway, after escaping Sirius, Pettigrew hid here as a rat for twelve years, waiting to hear if Voldemort returned. Sirius -'

'What?' Mrs. Weasley interrupted; her face red with anger. 'Are you saying that Scabbers was Pettigrew? He was here; in my house?'

'Yea mum, Sirius and Remus uncovered him in third year,' Ron answered, 'but he escaped. He's been on the run since.' Harry was eternally grateful for Ron's timely response. He didn't want to think of Sirius anymore, the memories were still painful.

Hermione, seeing Harry's relief when Ron answered instead of him, picked up the story. 'He helped Voldemort regain his body, and must have been sent here to spy on you like we said would happen. If Harry hadn't used the Muffliato Spell, he wouldn't have had to approach the window to see if we were here. We wouldn't have caught him, and -' she hesitated.

'And we'd all be dead by now.' Ginny finished bluntly, 'Mum, it looks like Harry's just saved us all again.' Mrs. Weasley was in shock, and didn't respond. Turning to Harry, Ginny said, 'Well, mum's going to be rude, so I'll just have to thank you on her behalf. Harry, thank you for saving all our lives; again.' She winked. Harry smiled back at her weakly.

Finally coming out of her shock, probably due to her daughter's slur on her manners, Mrs. Weasley launched herself at Harry, her eyes blurred with tears. 'Oh Harry, thank you so much.' She cried, hugging him tightly, 'You've gone and saved all our lives again. I don't know what we'd do without you.'

'Probably live a much quieter life.' Harry mumbled under his breath, embarrassed by my attention. Unfortunately, everyone heard him, and burst out laughing. A few minutes later, they all calmed down, and Mrs. Weasley released Harry, who was just glad that he could breathe again.

Fleur rushed over to him too at this point, and swooped down to land a kiss on both his cheeks: his skin where she'd kissed him felt like it was on fire.

''Arry, zank you for saving my life. I know zat Bill will be very 'appy too when I tell 'im tonight!' Harry cheeks flushed at the praise (and the kisses), and could only look down at his shoes and mumble'

'It was nothing, really.' Ginny, seeing his discomfort, rushed to his aid.

'Harry, shouldn't we take Scab – I mean Pettigrew to the Ministry?' She asked pointedly, 'He needs to be arrested and put in jail doesn't he?'

'Ye, good idea Ginny. Why don't I take him to the Ministry with Ron and Hermione? Maybe Ron and I can take our apparition test early while we're there, though they'll probably want to question us. I don't know how long that'll take.' He finished glumly, knowing full well that Scrimgeour would use this opportunity to question Harry on his and Dumbledore's activities again.

'Why don't we all go?' Mrs. Weasley asked. 'After all, having some adult eyewitnesses can't hurt, and we can go tell Arthur what happened. I'm sure he'll be happy to know that Pettigrew's behind bars.' Then she added with a motherly smile, 'Anyway, you know I'd be worried sick if I let you go on your own.'

They all smiled indulgently at Mrs. Weasley's strong maternal instincts and agreed. Ron lit the fireplace, and one by one they picked up some Floo powder from the pot. Calling out 'Ministry of Magic', they walked into the fire, Harry carrying the glass jar with Pettigrew in it.

As the fireplaces rushed past him, Harry wondered if his summer could possibly get any more eventful. 'Judging by my luck,' he thought wryly, 'this is only the beginning.' He sincerely hoped that he was wrong, but deep down; he knew that searching for the broken pieces of a dark lord's soul would be anything but uneventful.