The next morning, when the rest of the school was at breakfast, Fred and George went poking through Percy's dorm, pulling blankets off of beds and overturning pillows. "Here, Scabbers, Scabbers, Scabbers. Come out. We know you're in here somewhere," Fred said.
"We don't want to hurt you," George added. "We're just going to take you down to breakfast with us. Won't that be nice." He flipped over the pillow on what must have been Percy's bed, revealing a fat brown rat trembling in terror.
George picked Scabbers up. The rat squeaked and wiggled a bit, but didn't turn into a full-grown man and curse George so he figured they were doing pretty well so far. "Got him," George announced.
"Good," Fred said. "Now we just have to take him down to the Great Hall and put him in Livia Cohen's bag."
Scabbers stopped struggling and laid placidly in George's hand. If George hadn't already been suspicious, he might have thought that the rat had given up and resigned himself to whatever fate the twins had in store for him. As it was, George considered his suspicions confirmed. Peter Pettigrew had probably decided that being stuck in a girl's bag wasn't too bad of a fate.
"I blame you," Fred continued, as the twins headed out of Gryffindor Tower and down towards the Great Hall. "This is probably the lamest prank ever, but you insisted on doing your stupid Transfiguration thing-"
"It's not stupid," George said. "It's really cool. And McGonagall might give me extra credit if it all works out. Speaking of which, we've got to go see McGonagall before breakfast."
"But I'm hungry," Fred whined. "Can't it wait until after breakfast."
"You can go to breakfast first if you want to," George said, even as he took the turn down to the Transfiguration classroom. "I'm going to talk to Professor McGonagall."
"Fine," Fred said. He made a grab at Scabbers, but George pulled the rat close to his chest where Fred couldn't get him. "Give me Scabbers so I can pull the lame prank you came up with."
George narrowed his eyes. "You said you would rather put him in one of the pitchers of pumpkin juice."
"That was a joke," Fred said. "I wouldn't really do that. Scabbers might drown and then Percy would never forgive me."
Scabbers wiggled closer to George, obviously distressed. "Oh, don't worry," George cooed. "I won't let Fred hurt you."
Fred rolled his eyes. "So what are you going to do if McGonagall is still eating breakfast? We're not going to wait for her, are we?"
George stopped in his tracks. In all their planning it had not occurred to him that Bill might fail to convince McGonagall to have a chat with him before classes started. "Well, I..."
Fred rolled his eyes. "We've probably already missed breakfast," he said, "and McGonagall always leaves before it's over anyway, so she's sure to be there."
Sure enough, when they reached the McGonagall's corridor, they could quite clearly hear McGonagall saying, "I understand your concern for your brothers, Mr. Weasley, but can't this wait until the end of the day? My first class is going to be here in ten minutes."
Fred snickered. "D'you think she knows how far her voice carries?" he whispered to George, even as Bill said, "Professor, if the twins are wrong, this won't take ten minutes and if they're right..."
"Then it would be worth worth my third years missing a class," McGonagall said, "but suspect that your brothers have pulled one over on you, Mr. Weasley."
"In which case we'll have to laugh at ourselves for falling for such a stupid prank." Scabbers began to wiggle and squeak, like he did when he wanted to be put down, but George did not let him go. Instead he gripped Scabbers tightly with both hands, making him squeak even more. "Professor, I didn't come to you just to make sure. I believe them."
"Really?" McGonagall said, and George could practically see one of her eyebrows arch a silent question.
"Yes, Professor, I do." There was a pause, and George could hear the rustle and thumps of someone looking through a stack of books. "You don't need more time to look it up, do you?"
Fred opened the door, holding it so that George could go through without needing to bother with his hands. "Thanks," George muttered.
"You're the one with the rat," Fred said. He walked several paces into the room, George following him, before he looked over to where McGonagall was sitting at her desk. Bill was looking over her shoulder as she flipped through a book. "D'you want us to wait outside or something?"
"That will not be necessary, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said. "I'm merely checking that the spell I wish to use will not harm your brother's rat, assuming that he is actually a rat."
Scabbers bit George, causing George to yelp and grip him tighter. "Can we hurry up, please," George said, his voice tight with pain. "I'm not sure I- OUCH -can keep hold of him if-"
Bill hurried over to George, as Fred backed off to guard the door "Put him down on one of the desks," Bill said. "I'll stun him."
"Don't!" McGonagall said, rising from her seat. "Rats are too small to use stunning spells on, you're likely to kill him." Scabbers stopped wiggling.
"That did the trick, Professor," George said. "He's stopped struggling." George held Scabbers up at eye level, far enough from his face that he wasn't risking a bite. "In fact, I think he might have fainted."
McGonagall paused halfway between her desk and the boys, evidently torn between a desire to go back and double-check the spell she was going to use and a desire to get this over with before anyone got any more hurt than they already were. "Scabbers took a couple of chunks out of his hand," Bill said, and that decided the matter.
McGonagall stepped forward, until she was standing in front of George. "When I tell you to, put the rat down on the floor and take a couple of big steps backwards."
"Yes, ma'am."
McGonagall took her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the rat in George's hands. "Mr. Weasley, it may be best if you are prepared to stun." She waited half a moment and said, "Now."
George flung Scabbers on the floor, not really caring if the fall injured him, and backed up as quickly as he could. Scabbers appeared to be too disoriented from his fall to run away and before George had reached Fred, McGonagall had hit the rat with a bolt of blue light from her wand.
The transformation was not instantaneous, rather Scabbers swelled up like a balloon being inflated until he was almost as tall as McGonagall and a good bit wider. Pettigrew, he couldn't be Scabbers now that he definitely wasn't a rat, looked around the room with an expression of pure terror. McGonagall looked like she might faint.
Bill did not even look surprised. "Stupefy," he said and Pettigrew dropped back down to the floor. Bill smiled apologetically at McGonagall. "Better safe than sorry. Besides, he's been living as Percy's pet."
"Right." McGonagall sounded a bit like she had just had something go down the wrong pipe. "Mr. George Weasley, I think it would be best if you had Madam Pomfrey look at those bites. Fred can go up to the hospital wing with you. I forbid either of you to tell anyone what happened-"
"What if Percy-" Fred began.
"Don't tell anyone," McGonagall repeated, "I'll speak with you both about this once I've got things sorted out with the Ministry, but until then keep it to yourself. I don't know if any of you know who this man is, but he's supposed to be dead."
"We know who he is," George said. "What's going to happen to him? Is-"
"That is up to the Ministry, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said. She gave the twins a stern look. "I would not be surprised if both of you were called into the Ministry for questioning in the next few days. Be prepared for it."
A/N: Due to the shift in focus at this point, I have decided to end the story here and post Sirius's trial as its own story, Interested Parties, the first chapter of which has been posted. Also a special thanks to all who had reviewed. Your words warm my heart.
