Chapter 13: Some Things Never Change

Harry was stunned to find himself on the Hogwarts grounds, near the lake and a bit too close to the Whomping Willow. He was in the exact same position as he had been in the Riddle House; himself (still in a body- bind), the death eater who had been holding him upright (although they were now all toppled onto the ground), and Snape, looking paralyzed and grabbing on to him with his wand clutched in his left hand.

For a moment, all three were completely still, Harry looking dazedly at Snape's bulging eyes. The death eater behind Harry drew himself up, and looked around as if he did not know what to do. Harry, if he hadn't been in the body-bind, would have widened his eyes in horror at the sight of a shimmering, metallic hand that was in place of the death eater's left hand. Wormtail reached out his hands to pry Snape off of Harry, but stopped as a thick, knarled something slashed through the air at his head.

Wormtail ducked the first blow from the Whomping Willow, but was not so lucky the second time when a thinner branch knocked him to the ground. He scrambled up to the trunk of the tree and groped around for the knot that would freeze it.

Pointing his wand at Snape, Wormtail then whispered, "Petrificus Totalis," although it seemed that Snape was already too petrified to move.

Hearing hushed voices near the front of the castle (which brought a substantial relief to Harry), Wormtail hurriedly dragged Snape and Harry to the base of the Whomping Willow and carelessly shoved them into entrance of the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, with their feet sticking out.

The footsteps and voices grew nearer, and from the dark of the tunnel Harry could hear a commotion outside. After a minute or two, there was silence, and then clear voices:

"Look! More death eaters in the tunnel in the tree! Come out, whoever you are-"

"Now, now, Cornelius, we don't have any proof that they are death eaters."

"Come out, at once!" The voice, obviously that of Cornelius Fudge, was evidently directed to Snape and Harry. "By the order of the Minister of Magic, come-"

"They're both in a body bind, Cornelius. They can't come out themselves."

Presently, Harry felt a pair of hands extract him from the tunnel, and to his great relief, the curse was finally lifted. He breathed heavily as he thankfully looked at Professor Dumbledore and Minister Fudge, and a few others behind them. To the the side lay a stunned Wormtail with his hood still drawn.

Harry managed to say a word of thanks, but was interrupted as Snape crawled forward and clutched the bottom of Dumbledore's robes.

"Please..." rasped Snape, looking up at Dumbledore with bulging eyes. "Take off... lift...please..."

"He's a madman, that's what he is," Fudge said scornfully, looking at Snape. "A killer madman."

Snape's stare sharply averted to the minister. "No...not madman... take off curse... please..."

To Harry, it certainly looked like Snape had gone mad. But something inside of him clicked, and Harry suddenly remembered that this was the very image of Mr. Crouch in the forest last year.

"No!" Harry said as realization swept over him. "It's the-"

"Finite incantatem," Dumbledore said, and Snape fell to the floor, exhausted. "On the contrary, Cornelius," Dumbledore continued, "It takes extraordinary willpower to be able to break through the Imperius curse in this manner."

Snape, breathing heavily, stood up and regained his posture. "Albus, thank you so much."

Harry stared at Snape, amazed at the sudden change in manner. His head was brimming with questions. "Professor, how did we get out of there? Were you under the curse the whole time? What was Voldemort-"

Dumbledore turned to Harry and laid a calming hand on his shoulder, smiling. "Why don't you tell us everything, Severus. That is, I'm assuming that you can remember everything clearly?"

"Yes, of course, Albus. Today was the first time for many weeks that You- Know-Who called us- at least, the first that he had called me."

Fudge grew red with fury. "You're really a death eater, aren't you?" He said, pointing accusingly at Snape. Snape just scowled at the minister.

"Cornelius, I can assure you that Severus's loyalties lie with us. Please don't interrupt him."

Fudge looked annoyedly at Dumbledore, but at least kept quiet.

"Anyway, the Dark Lord had discovered, from the newspaper article, that I had been spying for you the whole time since I had 'rejoined' him. He was about to kill me, when he evidently came up with a better plan. He gave me a chocolate frog portkey and placed the Imperius curse on me.

"Following this, under the Dark Lord's instruction, I took the portkey here and came to your office. I apologize for my manner there; I do not remember what he said that made me act like that," Snape said, smirking

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, you were a bit overexciteded. But I still think that it had a positive impact on Sirius, at least."

Snape scowled at the memory. "No, I don't know what made me call Black by his first name, either."

"Now just wait a minute," Fudge said harshly. "What's this about Sirius Black?"

Snape glared at the minister. "I would just never call him by his first name. That's all. Anyway, as I was saying," Snape continued, throwing an irritated glance at Fudge, "I took Harry down the stairs and to a room... I think I remember him saying something about me being an axe murdurer..."

"No, I didn't!" Harry said indignantly.

"Yes you did, I don't know what it was about, but anyway, I pulled him into an empty room and practically shoved the chocolate-frog portkey into his hands. This was all under the Imperius, of course, but I was beginning to fight it and I was trying to stop myself from giving Harry a portkey that led right to You-Know-Who."

"Call him Voldemort, Severus. There really is no harm in a name," Dumbledore said.

"Ah, you've told me, Albus. Anyway, I ended up giving the portkey to Harry, which ended up taking us to You-Know- Voldemort's- main room in his father's old house. He was planning to kill both of us, and he was about to kill Harry when I couldn't stand it any longer. I finally broke through the curse and managed to push You-Know-Who to the ground. And then- I don't know what I was thinking, but I had made up my mind to make some sort of transportation device in the few seconds we had. I took out my wand, to at least transfigure some floo powder or to summon the portkey, but instead I ended up doing some sort of apparition. It couldn't have been a true apparition, because it took us past the Apparition wards, but it was something related. A death eater was touching Harry, so he was transported we got here, I had run out of energy, and couldn't do much else. The death eater put the body-bind on both of us and slid us down the tunnel when he heard you coming."

"He only put the body bind on you, Professor," Harry said. "Voldemort'd already put it on me."

Snape sighed exasperatedly. "Whatever, Harry. I wasn't looking properly. And please don't interrupt."

"I thought you were finished!"

"Oh, no, I wasn't-"

Dumbledore silenced them. "Please, no more bickering, you two," he said. "Are you finished, Severus?"

"That's all there is to tell, as you know what happened from then. But I am certain that I have reason to believe that the death eater you stunned is Wormtail."

"Wormtail- who is this Wormtail?" said Fudge. "I have heard of him before. But that can not be his real name, can it?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, you are right on that one. Wormtail is only a nickname because his real name would not be believed by many people."

"Well then, what is his real name?" Fudge said, annoyed.

"That," said Professor Dumbledore, "Is something best left unsaid for the moment, Cornelius. However, you were only a year or two higher than Wormtail in school. Perhaps, if this truly is Wormtail, you would recognize him."

"Professor," started Harry, looking at Wormtail, "That is Wormtail. He has the same silver hand that Voldemort gave him last year."

"Precisely what I noticed," added Snape.

Dumbledore reached down and drew back Wormtail's hood.

"Now, Dumbledore," Fudge said hurriedly, "We Hufflepuffs never payed any attention to the Slytherins- I wouldn't recognize one from twenty years ago- "

"Not Slytherin, but Gryffindor," Dumbledore corrected.

"What? Preposterous! All death eaters are Slytherins!"

"On the other hand, there have been many from other houses. For instance, young Barty Crouch was a Ravenclaw. You cannot assume one thing about such a large group of people."

"Barty Crouch was a madman, not a death eater. The only deatheater who wasn't in Slytherin is Sirius Black, and if this one right here wasn't in Slytherin, then he would have to be Black, and he isn't."

"Look carefully."

"What-" Fudge peered over the death eater. "It can't be! I refuse to believe it! Absolutely outrageous! Peter Pettigrew is...dead!"

"No," said Dumbledore. "He's simply Stunned." Dumbledore took a little sparkling object out of of his robes, shaking it a bit. Harry blinked, wondering if Dumbledore carried Veritaserum with him all the time (before remembering the year before, in which he had to ask Snape to get some for Barty Crouch). Dumbledore poured two drops down Wormtail's throat.

"Ah, good," Fudge said, casting a suspicious eye at Harry and Snape. "I think there are also some others who need Veritaserum."

Harry's eyes widened. "Why does he need to question me?"

"Sh," Snape said. "Listen."

"Ennervate," Dumbledore said. Wormtail's eyes flickered open. "What is your name?"

"Peter Pettigrew." Fudge gasped.

"And your nickname is Wormtail?"

"Yes."

"Are you a death eater?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been a death eater?"

"Seventeen years, ever since I realized that my friends did not care for me anymore."

Fudge had a look of rage on his face. Harry secretly thought he looked uncannily like Uncle Vernon when he was mad.

"So, if you weren't dead all this time, where have you been?" Fudge said.

"Many different places. I was in hiding for many years, pretending to be a boy's pet rat. Two years ago, when I heard that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban, I fled and found my master. I was sure that Black had escaped to commit the crime that he was imprisoned for; to kill me. I brought my master back to life last year and have been his faithful death eater since then."

"Rat? How can you pretend to be a pet rat?" Fudge continued.

"I am an animagus. My form is a rat."

Fudge seethed and glanced at Dumbledore, who had a calm countenance. "If Sirius Black didn't kill you that night, then what did he do?"

"He didn't do anything. He had tracked me down for revenge when he heard that I had handed the Potters to Voldemort. He intended to kill me for it, but instead I shouted for everyone to hear that he was the one who betrayed the Potters, not I. He was about to kill me with his bear hands, so I sent the Killing Curse at him. The curse missed and hit the street, which blew it up and killed some muggles passing by. It also blew off my finger. I was scared, so I transformed into a rat and ran off. Sirius started laughing because the curse missed him and because I was cowardly enough to run away. I quickly found my way into a pet store, and a wizard boy bought me as a pet."

Fudge fumed with fury. "Preposterous!" He said. "Ridiculous! Absolutely absurd! The potion can't be right, Dumbledore!"

"I assure you it is," Dumbledore said.

"Then I'll have no more of it! We'll test him with potion from the Ministry, not a potion that was probably made by that death eater there!" Fudge said wildly, pointing to Snape.

"He's not-" began Harry, before Snape laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, I am," Snape whispered. "But I'm a spy at the same time."

The tense conversation carried on, Dumbledore finally managed to convince Cornelius Fudge of Severus Snape's loyalty to him, after many recounts and memograms and assurances.

As the baffled minister huffed off down the road to Hogsmeade, Harry- from his sedentary position on a root of the still-frozen Whomping Willow- watched Snape and Dumbledore talk lowly between themselves. Intruiged, he stood up and moved closer, only to hear them abruptly stop when he got within hearing range.

"Harry," Dumbledore said, "I want you to go straight to your dormitory, and I don't want you telling anyone what happened tonight."

"Alright, Professor."

Dumbledore and Snape accompanied him up the hill to the castle. When they reached it, Snape said, "Did you hear Albus? Straight to your dormitory."

"Okay, Professor."

Heavily, Harry climbed the stairs to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, only to be faced with a snoring Fat Lady. He still didn't know the password.

It seemed so long ago that he had gone to Professor McGonagall for the portrait-hole password.