* Chapter 25! So proud... Anyway, I'm hoping to have the story finished as soon as possible since I'm going to Guatemala early July. Also, don't listen to Adele while reading fanfiction. It makes everything so much more sad...
"Quite right, Mr. Smith," the unmistakeable voice of Snape drawled. In an instant, Clara's professor threw the Invisibility Cloak off of him, and letting it drape aside. Clara bit her tongue, as Snape had his wand pointed toward Professor Lupin.
His lip curling, Snape says, "Found the cloak at the base of the Whomping Willow. It was quite useful… quite useful…"
Clara eyed her professor carefully. He was covered in grime, from no doubt having to crawl his way in. Though, the glint in his eyes were dangerous. Clara had a feeling that there was something more deep-rooted to Snape's anger toward the Marauder's than a simple prank gone wrong…
"You may be wondering how I knew of your location. Well, well, it had just so happened that I was about to hand you your potion, which you had forgotten to take tonight, when I noticed a certain map on your desk… One glance, and I saw you running off."
"Severus-" Lupin warned.
If possible, Snape's face contorted into one of even more of a sneer! "Time and time again I told the Headmaster that you had been aiding Black into the castle. I never thought you would even dare to use the childhood place as you hideout," he smiled coldly, "again."
"Severus," Lupin plead. "Please, Sirius isn't here to kill Harry, or for that matter, anyone!"
"I think that we'd better contact Azkaban, don't you think? Let them know of their two new convicts... I wonder what Dumbledore will think. After all, he trusted you so much, didn't he? Enough to make you Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"Please," Lupin spat. "Are you going to send me away to Azkaban just because I took your job?"
In a large, BANG! There were suddenly very large coils wrapping around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and legs. Professor Lupin stumbled over, no longer having an balance.
Clara had shrieked at the loud sound a bit, and back away. She felt blood in her mouth, from all the tongue-biting. She shivered slightly.
Inraged, Black lunged toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand even more fervently. "I'll do it…" Snape warned. The wand was thrusted again, into Black's direction.
"No!" Clara shouted. She tried to stand up onto her shaky legs. "I mean, we've got to let them at least tell us their side of the story! We can't just kill them!"
"Plus, killing them, would be unwise as to helping you get the DADA teaching position," John interjected.
"Miss Oswald, and Mr. Smith! Are you suggesting that I'm only doing this for a job? You are both in for detention, no suspension! You all are!" Snape snapped.
"Please, Professor," Hermione added. "But, well, at least Clara's got a point. We should let say their story… If there was any mistake-"
"KEEP QUIET ALL OF YOU! ESPECIALLY YOU, MISS GRANGER!" Snape said furiously. Clara couldn't help but notice that there was a little more venom added into his words.
Black scratched his head again. "Come one Severus. Is some silly teen quarrel going to keep you from seeing the truth? You're smarter than that, Severus!" He jerked his head toward Ron. "As long as he brings the rat to the Castle…"
"You're not getting back to the castle, I'm afraid, Black. I'll call out the dementors as soon as we're out… Be that as it may, I may have to drag you, if necessary."
Black's face paled. "The rat… the rat…"
"Sir," Clara said. "They told us that the rat-"
"I thought I said silence?" Snape retorted. "We'd better get a move-on. The dementors may want to kiss your Defense professor as well…"
Clara blocked Snape's way, along with Harry. John joined a couple seconds later, but it made the whole situation more awkward.
"Get out of the way," Snape said, through gritted teeth. "Don't forget if I hadn't been here to save your sorry skins…"
"With all due respect, sir," Clara said. "Had Professor Lupin wanted to kill Harry, or any of us, for that matter, he certainly had many opportunities to do so. He's had the whole year, basically. Why would he help Black?"
"Oswald, don't ask me how a filthy werewolf brain works!"
Clara straightened her back, hoping to add some height, "It's Miss Oswald, and you clearly don't understand how the mind of a killer works. See, had Professor Lupin wanted to kill Harry, he would've done it sometime when he was alone. Private lessons perhaps? No killer gives themselves up to the killer victim. That's stupid."
"Are you calling me stupid? How dare-"
"No. I'm merely stating the fact that there is something else going on here! And you're too stubborn to see past some teen issues from school!"
"Get out of my way-"
"No, Clara's right," Harry said. "You can't get past what happened during your time as a students in Hogwarts that you won't even listen!"
"SILENCE! NO STUDENT OF MINE SHALL SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!" Snape's face was too pale to redden, but Snape was definitely angry. "Oh, Potter… Just like your father… I saved your necks; you should be on your knees! You would have died too, just like your father! Believing in Black! NOW STEP OUT OF THE WAY!"
Clara sneered. "Like Hell. I bet James Potter died for his son at the moment, not his friend. And if you think that yelling at us is going to get us to back off, you're completely wrong-"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, cutting Clara off. But, Everyone else had cast the spell at the same time, shooting Snape into the wall, earning him a cut.
With a shaky breath, Clara made her way over to her professor. She examined him, and concluded that he was unconscious.
"He's still alive," Clara said. "No need to worry too much…"
"Oh Lord, we attacked a teacher!" Hermione whimpered. "We-we attacked a teacher! We're going to get into so much trouble!"
"I attacked like five in the Academy…" John grumbled. He quickly shook his head.
Black bent over to help Lupin from his bonds. Her professor smoothened himself out.
"Thank you, Harry," he said.
"I never said I believed you," Harry snapped.
"Then perhaps it's time for some proof?" Thrusting his hands out, Lupin asked, "I need Peter."
John held his hands up. "Why didn't we do the whole proof-thing at the beginning? Why would you tell us that fantastical story?"
"So you would understand-"
"Um, it sounds like you were buying time… That's what I would do!" John said, matter-of-factly.
"John, please!" Hermione said. "We don't have much time! Let's get this done before Professor Snape comes to!"
Ron tightened his grasp on Scabbers/Peter. "Anyway… Why are you so obsessed with Scabbers? Peter Could've turned into one of the millions of rats! How do you know which one you guys are after if Black was locked up in prison?"
"Fair question. Good one, actually," John pointed. "You're learning!"
To Clara's surprise, even Lupin didn't know.
"Yeah, Sirius. How did you know?" Lupin frowned.
Slipping his spider-hands into his coat pocket, Black pulled out a folded paper. It was a photograph of Ron and his family in Egypt from last summer. Clara had forgotten that the Weasleys had been in the Daily Prophet. There, on photo-Rom's shoulders, was Scabbers.
"How did you come across this?" Lupin asked.
"Fudge," Black answered. "He gave the paper when he came to inspect the prison. I saw Peter… on the boy's shoulder… I knew him! How? How many times had I seen him transform? The caption read that the boy was going back to school… Hogwarts, where Harry was…"
"Oh my God!" Lupin gasped, with realization.
"What? What?" Ron asked, craning his neck, trying to look at the paper.
"The rat's toe is missing!" Lupin said.
"So?" Ron snapped.
"It's so simple… and brilliant too! He cut it off himself!" Lupin exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, what?" Clara asked in disbelief, and disgust.
Black nodded crazily. "Didn't you know? When I cornered him that night, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I betrayed Lily And James. Wand behind back, he blew up the street, and anyone within a twenty-foot radius of him! The, he sped off…"
"Ron, didn't you know that the largest bit of Peter they found was his finger?" Lupin asked, surprisingly gently.
Clara immediately felt bad for Ron. The position he was in! It must've been conflicting…
"Scabbers has been in my family for ages! He probably just got into some rat fight!"
"Twelve years, Ron," Lupin reminded. "Twelve years! Why did he live so long?"
"We-we took good care of him!" Ron's voice cracked.
"Not looking so good? Is he now? Been losing his weight ever since he heard if Black's escape…"
Ron pointed an angry finger at Crookshanks, who was purring on the bed. "He's been scared by the bloody cat!"
Clara knew, however, that Scabbers had been looking sick before ever coming in contact with Crookshanks.
Black stroked the cat behind its ears. "He's not a mad cat. He's quite brilliant actually… Helped me, infact. Would steal the Gryffindor passcodes from the boy… Even tried to capture Peter for me! Crookshanks saw right through Peter's disguise!"
John cracked his knuckles. "What about the blood we found on the sheets?"
"Yeah," Ron spluttered. "What about the blood?"
Black laughed. "Peter's faked his own death before!"
"I bet it was to save himself after you killed my parents!" Harry spat.
"Harry-" Lupin said desperately. "HARRY! Don't you see? Everybody thinks that Sirius betrayed your parents, but no! It was Peter! Sirius tracked Peter down!"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry cried. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO! HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"
"Please," Black croaked. Clara felt like wrapping her arms around the man because of the hurt that was in his voice. But, she was 13. "Harry, I might've as well killed them. I convinced them to change Peter last-moment, instead of me. Then, the night your parents died, I checked on Peter. But he wasn't there… I got worried, and checked your parents' house. I saw them, dead. And I realized what Peter had done... What I had done and caused."
"I-" Harry's voice broke.
Clara walked over to Harry, and hugged him lightly. It was probably more comfort for Clara than it was for Harry, because she was really scared. Properly, and really scared.
"Enough," Lupin snapped. "Just, give me the rat!"
Ron protected the rat. "Whatcha going to do with him?"
"Force him to show himself."
Ron hesitated for very long moments. Finally, he gave up, and handed the rat to Professor Lupin. The rat was squealing uncontrollably again.
"Ready, Sirius?"
He nodded, and together, Black using Snape's wand, they zapped the rat. Clara clamped her hand over her mouth when that rat was frozen mid-air. Then, it contorted, and hit the floor.
Hermione shrieked at what they saw. Like a fast-forward film, a head, a proper head, popper out of the rat's body, Then, proper limbs, and no more tail… In five seconds, there was a full-grown man in front of them.
Clara stepped back, because the look in the man's- no, Peter's eyes, were killer.