REVISED 7/27/2013.

Soft fluff brushed past Kirsten's face, the motion continued to trail along her body. It stopped at her leg an—

"Ow!"

Her body instantly shot up and she clutched her stomach quickly at the raw and painful feeling. Short breaths escaped her lips, wincing at the painful throbbing of a headache. She could taste the blood in her mouth and grimaced at the iron taste.

Hell, she felt as if she was beaten from head to toe.

Grey eyes surveyed the darkened area, only to realize that she was most likely in the Forbidden Forest.

What the hell—

Her eyes widened as everything flooded back to her and narrowed as they looked down at the ginger fur ball on her lap.

"Thanks for biting me," she muttered sarcastically, but her eyes warily looked around her surroundings.

What exactly was she doing in the forest...?

Hadn't the tree knocked her close to the forest?

It was then that her ears picked up something rustling a bit further in the forest and her eyes widened at what her ears picked up in the dark next.

"Crookshanks!" the voice breathed. Her eyes snapped in the direction of the voice. It took all her effort not to settle back on the ground with the pain rushing through her body as she stood up. But the whisper made her curious.

Her mind flashed back to the oddity of seeing herself jet towards the forest with Harry and Hermione.

"Kirsten! No!"

Kirsten rolled her eyes at the voice.

How much more noise could Hermione make?

But her question went unanswered as she saw a figure walking towards her, followed by two others and the large outline of a hippogriff.

"This has to be the oddest thing I've ever witnessed..." she said trailing off. She couldn't stop eyeing herself for the longest time as she marveled at what was happening before her eyes. The black haired witch was itching to lift her finger and poke the same caramel skinned cheek that adorned her own face.

A smirk made its way onto "Kirsten's" face as she stood at the same height as her and Kirsten's gaze landed on who looked like she was about to have a heart attack, muttering "oh my God" over and over again.

"She used it," her double told herself.

Kirsten nodded her head in understanding and was about to ask her how she ended up in the outskirts of the forest before "Kirsten" answered her. "Had to bring you in here before anybody actually saw you."

Well, that explained it.

"I see you saved Buckbeak," Kirsten said, nodding her head in the hippogriff's direction.

"That's not the only life we're saving."

Her grey eyes landed on grey, eyes hardening with those words. The smirk slipped from "Kirsten's" lips as her jaw locked.

"What?" she asked "Kirsten" who in turn shook her head.

She wasn't even going to tell herself a thing.

Her mind raced to what occurred earlier by the Whomping Willow before she was knocked out. Sirius came out and practically dragged Ron to God know's where, Harry and Hermione were evading the branches...

Scabbers was in Ron's hand.

"Please don't tell me Peter gets away?" she asked "Kirsten."

"Kirsten's" eyes moved from her double to Harry and Hermione, who were now looking at them with their mouths dropped open in shock.

"How— how do you know?"

It was Harry who asked, eyes watching her in curiosity and shock.

"You need to go to the Whomping Willow. Now," "Kirsten" told her, nodding her head at the swaying outline of the tree. "Kirsten" moved closer towards her, face brushing against her own cheek and lowering her voice so the others wouldn't hear. "Kill him."

Kirsten didn't realize how awfully dangerous her tone of voice could be. If she were somebody else, she truly would be frightened.

Kill him?

She couldn't kill him. Let alone anybody else for that matter. She was just fourteen years old. She was just a kid. And she didn't want to kill anybody.

Never had the intent to kill...

Okay, so that had to be the biggest lie.

"Go."

She didn't have to be told twice as she hurried from the outskirts and into the clearing where the Whomping Willow stood, creaking as its tree branches swayed. As she neared the tree, Kirsten realized that the tree stopped moving all together.

From the base of the tree, Crookshanks stood with his yellow eyes peering at her. The feline skulked into the what was a large opening at the base of the trunk. With a flick of his bottle-brush tail, Crookshanks slid into the hole.

Kirsten crawled in after him only to find herself in a very low tunnel. It felt like hours with her body pushing forward as she gritted her teeth in pain. Maybe it was the oddity and curiosity of seeing herself that made her forget at the moment, but she damn well remembered that she got hit by a large tree branch now.

"Holy shit," she breathed out as she pulled herself from the hole.

Her eyes scanned the room before her in curiosity. Broken pieces of furniture littered the floor of the dusty room. Blotchy stains covered the floor in and paper was peeling from the wall. She noticed that the windows were boarded up with wood and she realized where she was.

The Shrieking Shack.

Walking forward towards a broken mirror, Kirsten's jaw dropped at her reflection. Even in the dark she could tell that she looked like absolute hell. Running from the her left temple down to her chin was an enormous cut, that was still bleeding. A trail of dried blood ran from the side of her lips.

BANG!

The sudden noise caused her to jump in alarm and she cautiously walked in the direction of the sound. As she crept closer, the fourteen year old could hear voices and made her way down the shadowy hallway. She stopped several feet in front of the doorway as she caught sight of the back of a very familiar man. A curtain of black hair hung from his head.

"But—if there was a mistake—"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" the man in front of her shouted. Kirsten narrowed her eyes at the Slytherin Head of House. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

From where she stood, she saw sparks fly from his wand as it was pointed somewhere within the room.

"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed, staring in the direction where his wand was pointed. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you…"

"The joke's on you again, Severus," a man's voice snarled. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle I'll come quietly…."

Kirsten's heart practically stopped at the voice but frowned in confusion.

"Up to the castle?" Snape said silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black…pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay…."

That definitely broke Kirsten's confusion. She had to bite her already bruised lip to keep back from saying anything to the unaware man.

"You—you've got to hear me out," Sirius croaks, and I hear how weaker his voice got. "The rat—look at the rat—"

"Come on, all of you," he says and I hear a clicking of fingers. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too—"

Her ears caught the heavy footsteps moving in the room.

"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," Snape snarled. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin—"

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," she heard Harry say. "I've been alone with him loads of times having defense lessons against the dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," Snape hissed. "Get out of the way, Potter!"

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN—"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked. Kirsten moved forward making sure to not alert the hysterical potions master. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black—now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

As she made her final step behind him, her foot sunk into the floorboard creating the loudest creaking noise she has heard so far.

"Stu—"

Kirsten didn't hesitate as the red light began to form. Her left hand instinctively wrapped around his wrist and she twisted it causing him to drop the wand, while her right hand formed into a fist. Her knuckles collided against his face as hard as she could.

If Kirsten wasn't so pissed her jaw would have dropped at the fact that she practically made her potions master fly across across the room after slugging him. His body collided against a dusty dresser. She strode into the room to make sure he was still breathing.

"Bastard," she mumbled, staring down at his limp body and grabbed his wand.

"Kirsten!"

She ignored the shocked voice that belonged to Hermione as she continued to fret. "You attacked a teacher...you attacked a teacher..."

"Bloody hell..."

Rolling her eyes, Kirsten couldn't help the tug of her lips at Hermione's antics and Ron's comment, and looked up at the occupants in the room. There in the room staring at her with wide eyes were Harry, Ron, Hermione, Remus, and Sirius.

Hermione's gasp was loud as hell.

"What happened?" she questioned. "Where were you? Are you all right?"

"Whomping Willow," Kirsten replied shortly. Her eyes landed on Remus to see him struggling to get out of ropes. She didn't waste a second as she pulled out her wand and released him.

"How'd you get here?" Harry asked, his eyes watching hers carefully.

Kirsten tilted her head as she looked at the green eyed boy in front of her. Not too long ago, she assumed that he would go bat shit crazy if she were to bring up her father in front of him. And here he was in the same room as him, not doing a single damn thing.

"Crookshanks," the fourteen year old answered.

"Thank you, Kia," her godfather said. His eyes traveled from hers and Kirsten followed his gaze to another similar pair of steel grey eyes that was staring right at her.

Her heart twisted in sorrow and in anxiety at the sight of man.

She knew the truth about him now.

She didn't know whether she should go and hug him.

Or shake his hand.

How sad was that?

The sound of a mattress groaning under weight caught her attention and she looked at the bed Ron was on. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she really saw Ron's condition. The redhead's leg was sprawled in an abnormal position while Hermione helped him sit up.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked slowly, observing everyone around her.

"They're saying that Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew."

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded Harry until they landed on Ron.

Or rather the squirming rodent in his hands.

"You want to find out?" she asked. Her eyes landed on Ron as she continued, "Why don't you hand him over?"

"You too? Come off it," Ron said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean… Okay, say Pettigrew could turn into a rat—there are millions of rats—how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he was locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," Remus said, turning to Sirius and frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"

The former prisoner pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from inside his robes and smoothed it out before holding it up.

On the paper were the Weasley family's smiling faces on their trip to Egypt.

"How did you get this?" Remus asked, thunderstruck.

"Fudge," Sirius said. "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me his paper. And there was Peter, on the front page…on this boy's shoulder…I knew him at once…how many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy would be going to back Hogwarts…to where Harry was…"

"My God," Remus said softly, staring from Scabbers picture in the paper and back again. "His front paw…"

"What about it?" Ron asked defiantly.

"He's got a toe missing," the professor breathed. "So simple…so brilliant…he cut it off himself?"

"Just before he transformed," Sirius confirmed. "When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself—and sped down into the sewer with the other rats…."

"Didn't you ever hear, Ron?" Remus asked the redhead. "The biggest bit of Peter they found was his finger."

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages—"

"Twelve years, Ron," Kirsten spoke up. All five pairs of eyes landed on her, three of them in shock. "Around the same time Pettigrew was so called dead. Haven't you ever wondered why he's been living so long?"

"Don't tell me you're siding with them now?"

Her eyes landed on Ron before regarding her three fellow Gryffindors all together.

"For a while," she told them truthfully, ignoring the shocked look on Ron and Hermione's face. She trained her gaze on Harry, who looked torn. "I can explain some things. I— Sirius has had plenty opportunities to kill you, Harry. But he hasn't. And he never will. I won't let anyone harm the people I care for, and that includes the three of you."

The torn look in Harry's eyes disappeared as he nodded his head. Ron, Hermione, and Harry gave her contemplative looks.

"First off, you should know that Peter Pettigrew was your parents' secret keeper," she informed him. His eyes widened at the revelation. "That's why he's been hiding all these years—"

"And why did he fake his death?" Harry asked suddenly. She could hear the dangerous tone in his voice and narrowed her eyes at him. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"

Didn't he just agree to listen?

"No," Lupin said, trying to calm him down. "Harry—"

"And now you've come to finish him off!"

"Yes, I have," Sirius admitted, eyes glazed with a maniacal glare at the rodent.

"Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted.

"Harry," Lupin interjected hurriedly, "don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down—but it was the other way around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father—Sirius tracked Peter down—"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry yelled, furious.

Kirsten couldn't help but look at the boy incredulously.

His anger and let's-blame-the-scapegoat was clearly showing once again.

"Peter Pettigrew was your parents' secret keeper," the fourteen year old repeated loudly before Harry decided to go mad at them. The look on his face gave away that he probably went momentarily deaf at the time.

Her eyes landed on Ron and gave him a pleading look that she hadn't given to anyone in years.

"Ron can we please see Scabbers?" she asked, holding her gaze on him. A moment passed before Ron nodded his head and Remus went to grab the rodent from his fingers.

It didn't take long for Ron to hand the rat to Remus, the little rodent now in his hands was squealing and squirming ferociously. "Ready, Sirius?"

"Here," she said, catching the former prisoner's attention. She held out Snape's wand and he accepted it, a small smile on his lips before heading to Remus.

"Together?" he asked quietly.

"I think so," Remus replied, holding out his wand with his unoccupied hand. "On the count of three. One — two— THREE!"

A flash of blue-white light erupted from both of the wands and Kirsten's mouth dropped slightly as she witnessed the rat's transformation who was now on the floor. It was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree, but instead it was a rat turning into a man.

Or more a rat turning back into a man.

It was only a moment later when said man was standing where Scabbers landed on the floor, cringing and wringing his hands.

He was much shorter than Kirsten that was for sure. The man was practically sobbing and Kirsten would too if she had large bald patch on top of her head at such a young age. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. His eyes darted to Kirsten before looking at Harry and then the door.

The fourteen year old's eyes narrowed at the man quivering before them.

If he even thought about running...

"Well, hello, Peter," Remus greeted pleasantly. Kirsten watched her godfather's face and watched in admiration at how light and casual this all seemed to be, but she knew he was furious. "Long time, no see."

"S—Sirius...R—Remus..." the man's voice was squeaky. His eyes darted toward the door again. "My friends...my old friends..."

She spotted her father's wand arm rise but Remus stopped him, turning back to Peter.

"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily, James, and Alicia died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed —"

"Remus," the rat-like man gasped, beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you ...? He tried to kill me, Remus..."

"So we've heard," her godfather commented, his voice taking on a cold edge. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'll be so —"

He was yet again interrupted by Pettigrew and Kirsten wanted nothing more than to punch him like she did with Snape. It took minutes for the conversation to carry on to the rat's betrayal. This lead to more of Pettigrew's pathetic whimpering, with a mix of how Sirius escaped Azkaban which ultimately led to Harry believing Sirius fully.

"Kirsten! Beautiful Kirsten! You—won't let them…please, help me…" Pettigrew cried out, crawling towards her and flinging his arms around her legs.

She hadn't exactly expected him to throw himself on her and with her injuries and fatigue, Kirsten fell back. Before her body could make contact with the ground, she found herself secured in warm arms. Looking up, the fourteen year old found her godfather looking down at her with concern in her eyes.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER OR I WILL KILL YOU!"

The absolute ferocity in her father's voice made her flinch, but she didn't feel bad when Sirius kicked the traitor away from her.

"Harry…Harry…you look just like your father…just like him…."

The man's hopelessly pathetic.

Remus helped her steady herself on her feet but didn't leave her side as he kept his arm around her shoulders in support.

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY!" Sirius roared. "HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"

"Harry," Pettigrew whispered, shuffling toward her friend with his hands outstretched. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed….James would have understood, Harry…he would have shown me mercy…."

Kirsten had enough, pushing herself away from Remus' hold. She strode up to the Pettigrew and gripped the scruff of his neck and shoved him away. It didn't take long for Sirius and Remus to seize their former friend by the shoulders and threw him further away from her.

"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort," Sirius said, shaking with rage. "You sold my wife and daughter to him. Do you deny it?"

Pettigrew burst into tears.

"Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord…you have no idea…he has weapons you can't imagine….I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen….He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me—"

"DON'T LIE!" Sirius bellowed. "YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE THEY DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!"

"He—he was taking over everywhere!" Pettigrew gasped. "Wh—what was there to be gained by refusing him?"

"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?" Sirius said, completely furious. "Only innocent lives, Peter!"

"You don't understand!" Pettigrew whined. "He would have killed me, Sirius!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" Sirius roared. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

The two men stood shoulder to shoulder as they raised their wands at their former friend.

"You should have realized," Remus said quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good-bye, Peter."

"NO!" Harry yelled.

Kirsten's eyes landed on the boy who was racing toward them, only to end up in front of Pettigrew. She narrowed her eyes as she looked between the four.

"You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. "You can't."

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Sirius snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"I know," Harry panted. "We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the dementors….He can go to Azkaban…but don't kill him."

"Kill him."

Those words echoed in Kirsten's mind as she saw the scene before her. Something was going to happen. He was somehow going to escape.

She needed to stop him.

And that would only happen, if she killed him.

She didn't want to have that blood on her hands and even if she did how would she even kill him?

Kirsten looked down at her hands and realization dawned on her and she shivered in disgust at the thought.

She needed to use her power.

"Harry!" Pettigrew gasped, flinging his arms around Harry's knees. "You—thank you—it's more than I deserve—thank you—"

"Get off me," Harry spat. He threw the man's hands off him in disgust. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because—I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers—just for you."

She watched on in silence as Sirius and Remus lowered there wands.

"You're the only person who has the right to decide, Harry," Sirius said. "But think…think what he did…"

Kirsten narrowed her eyes at her father.

He was the only person who had the right? Harry's life wasn't the only one he's ruined!

Her mother died because of him too.

She didn't miss the look that Remus sent her. He opened his mouth, and Kirsten knew that he was going to point it out to Sirius but she shook her head.

There would be no point in arguing right now. The moment she got the chance...she'll take it.

"He can go to Azkaban," Harry repeated. "If anyone deserves that place, he does…"

"Very well," Remus told him. "Stand aside, Harry."

Harry looked hesitant to oblige.

"I'm going to tie him up," Remus informed him. "That's all, I swear."

It didn't take long to round up the group and head through the tunnels. As Kirsten walked beside Hermione, she couldn't help the questions that formed in her head.

Why did her double-self-thing tell her to kill him?

Or when exactly was she supposed to kill him?

When were things going to go terribly wrong?

Dozens of scenarios swam through her mind until she froze, rooted to the spot.

The words of her self resounding in her mind. "That's not the only life we're saving."

Kirsten looked around her to see that she was the last one in the tunnel as everyone else had possibly gotten out. She hurriedly climbed out of the hole, looking around desperately in dark at the outlined figures.

She needed to warn them.

Opening her mouth, Kirsten shut it when a light illuminated all of them. Her eyes traveled up to look at the sky and her eyes widened.

Full moon.