A/N: Reminder of the warnings. Murder and mayhem committed by children. There will be sexual relations (though not until the children are quite a bit older). There will be unpopular pairings (sorry, but I'm not really sorry), and there will be slash relationships. This is an ensemble fic, told by several POVs. If any of this sounds like it's NOT your cup of tea, you've been warned now.
Shamione, brownlark42, and Erikaxtc helped with alphabeting this work. I should also mention this is based on a popular Tumblr prompt that was going around several years ago, so if it seems familiar, that may be why.
And the lovely Zorak23 made a gorgeous cover for this story. You can see it on my facebook at Shan Crochetaway, or on the AO3 version of this story.
I'm total trash for such a long update, apologies to you all who have been waiting! And also, thank you for those of you who have liked, favorited, reviewed, commented, kudosed, etc. Truly, I love seeing them!
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Petti-who?
October 1993
The trio didn't get a chance to try the Dementor spell until the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Harry had taken one look at the permission slip and signed on his aunt's behalf. There was no way he was going to miss going to Hogsmeade weekends just because his family was awful. After the incident with Aunt Marge, he knew Aunt Petunia would never sign it herself.
"So how are we going to get a Dementor alone?" Harry asked as he walked down to the village with Hermione and Ron.
"We should lure one out to the Shrieking Shack," Hermione said. "Hogwarts: A History has a map of Hogsmeade in it, and the Shrieking Shack is on the outskirts of the village."
"Well, that has the place taken care of, but not the actual luring of the Dementor," Harry said sarcastically.
"Will it really be that hard?" Ron asked. "Let's just find one and get close enough to get it alone."
"That might actually be the tricky part," Hermione said. "They seem to rove in packs, and if the spell doesn't work, well, we'd be in a world of hurt if we got our souls sucked out."
Ron snorted. "We wouldn't feel a damned thing. Our souls would be gone!"
Harry laughed along with his friend just as they were crossing through the gates of Hogwarts.
"Shrieking Shack is on the other side of the village," Hermione murmured, "but the Dementors are ringing Hogwarts."
"There have to be some in the village, too," Harry said back. "No way would they let us all go to the village with Sirius Black on the loose and not also plan to have Dementors guarding it."
Hermione nodded, and they continued along the short path to the village proper. Harry smirked when he found out he was right. There were Dementors hovering around the outer edges of the village, just like they hovered outside of Hogwarts.
It was a dull day, and the wind picked up speed as they hurried through the village to the far edge and where the Shrieking Shack stood.
"Why is it called the Shrieking Shack anyway?" Harry asked as they approached the building.
"It's supposedly one of the most haunted places in Britain," Hermione answered absentmindedly.
"Looks like just an abandoned building to me," Ron said.
"There!" Harry pointed toward a Dementor that was hovering a bit off to the side, almost by itself. "How do we lure it, though?"
"Oi! Dementor! Over here, you bag of bones!" Ron shouted, waving his arms wildly. "Got some tasty souls over here!"
"Ron!" Hermione hissed, pulling his arm down as the Dementor began floating closer.
"You got your practice in, right?" Ron asked, gulping as it floated closer.
"For Salazar's sake, Ron," Harry admonished, whipping out his wand. "What's the spell?"
"Elenchos!" Hermione shouted, waving her wand in a complicated figure-eight pattern. Harry copied her the best he could, but the Dementor didn't seem affected.
"Er, guys?" Ron called as the Dementor came upon him. "We going to get this thing under control or?"
"I'm trying, damnit!" Hermione snapped. She shouted the incantation again, subtly changing the movements of her wand.
"It's not working!" Ron shouted.
"Shit," Harry muttered. He switched to the Patronus, trying to conjure up a happy memory, but all he could think about was the high-pitched screaming he heard in his head.
"Harry!" he heard Hermione shout, and then he collapsed. He thought he saw a huge, white dog, like a Patronus, out of the corner of his eye before they shut for good.
"Harry, wake up!" Hermione hissed.
"Come on, mate," Ron insisted, shaking his shoulders.
When he came to, he was lying on the cold ground outside of the Shrieking Shack. The Dementor was nowhere in sight.
"What happened?" His voice sounded slurred, and he took off his glasses to rub his eyes as Ron helped him to sit up.
"Someone cast a Patronus and drove it away," Hermione said. "No idea who. There's nobody even over here."
Woof! Woof-woof!
"Is that a dog?" Harry asked, pointing behind where Hermione and Ron were crouched. Hermione whipped her head around and stared.
"I've never seen a dog near Hogwarts before," she muttered.
"Well, technically, we're in Hogsmeade. Maybe he's someone's pet?" Ron suggested. He stood then and helped Harry to his feet. "Alright, mate?"
"Yeah," he coughed and brushed the dirt off his clothes. "We need to work on that spell."
"I don't know why it didn't work," Hermione shook her head. "Thank Salazar, someone saw, though. But why wouldn't they have stuck around?"
Woof! The dog barked again and turned around in a circle. It looked over its shoulder at the trio and then took off further out of town.
"Where's it going?" Ron asked.
"I think it wants us to follow it," Harry said, taking off after the dog.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted, catching up. "You can't just go chase after strange dogs! Have you seen the size of that thing? It's huge!"
"It's just a dog, Hermione," Ron said. "Let's follow it for a bit, see where it goes."
"It's leading us out of the village. What if it's a trap? What if Sirius Black is out there?" Hermione replied.
"It's not like we can't defend ourselves," Harry said.
"Against Dementors, we can't," Hermione muttered. But she relented and followed him and Ron, although Harry knew she was scowling the entire time.
The dog walked down the path out of the village for a bit before turning off onto a smaller trail that led to some caves. It barked happily and then ducked into a cave.
"We should definitely not go in there," Hermione hissed as they approached the cave.
"It's just a dog," Ron said. "It'll be fine. Hey, boy, this your home?" Ron approached the cave, disappearing inside. Harry followed him to see a small bed of leaves. The dog turned around on the bed three times.
"Except when it's not a dog," Hermione said darkly from behind them just as the dog turned into a man. "When it's a freaking Animagus!" She stuck her wand between Harry and Ron, pointing it at the man. "Who are you?"
"Are those Slytherin ties?" the man demanded, his voice hoarse. He was in Azkaban robes.
"Sirius Black," Harry said quietly, pulling his own wand out.
"You're a Slytherin, Harry?" Black looked confused at the three teenagers, seemingly uncaring that he had three wands on him.
"How do you know who I am?" Harry asked. Gooseflesh broke out across his skin as the man peered into his eyes. He was filthy looking and appeared to be too thin for his own good. His hair was dark and scraggly, hanging in his gaunt face, which was covered with an equally scraggly beard that went halfway down his chest.
"You have your mother's eyes," Black whispered.
"But look just like my father, I know," Harry snapped. "Now tell me how you know who I am?"
"We should just go, Harry," Hermione urged, trying to pull on his arm.
"No!" Harry shouted. "I want to know how he knows me!"
"I was best mate's with your dad," Sirius said quietly. He held his hands up as if just realizing they still had their wands pointed at him. "I'm your godfather. I broke out because I'm trying to track down their killer."
"Voldemort is gone," Ron said plainly. "That's who killed Harry's parents."
"He may have been holding the wand, but James and Lily were betrayed by someone. By a rat."
"Who?" Hermione asked.
"Peter Pettigrew. He's an actual rat, an Animagus, like me." Black turned to Ron. "Did you never wonder why you had a common garden rat for so long?"
"You mean, Scabbers?" Ron asked, his brow furrowed and his wand dipping.
Black turned his back on them and rummaged next to the bed of leaves for a moment before pulling out an old copy of the Daily Prophet. "Him," Black said, pointing to a picture of Ron and his family when they were in Egypt over the summer. There was a rat on Ron's shoulder. "See how he's missing a toe?"
Ron nodded. "He's always been missing that toe."
"Because he cut it off himself when he was a human and framed me for killing all of those Muggles. He only left the finger behind to make it look like he was dead too," Black spat.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Hermione asked. "You could have just lured us here to kill us."
"I haven't even pulled my wand on you," Black said. "I just want justice for Pettigrew. And I want to raise my godson."
Harry didn't want to get his hopes up; he had been disappointed a lot in his life, but an image of him living with Sirius Black instead of his aunt and uncle took hold, and suddenly, he wanted it too.
"Sirius?" Harry said, taking a step forward out of Hermione's clasped hand.
"Who can corroborate this story?" Hermione asked sharply as Harry stepped closer to his godfather.
"Remus Lupin," Black said. "He was your father's friend too. He was my friend, but…"
"And if he tells us differently?" Ron asked; he walked forward with Harry, and Harry wasn't sure why.
"Wormtail will tell you too, I'm sure," Black said.
"Wormtail?" Harry asked.
"Peter Pettigrew, Wormtail was our nickname for him. There's a spell—"
"I know it," Hermione said. "To change an Animagus back to their human form and make them stay that way."
Black looked impressed at that. It was then that Harry reached his side, and Black held out his arms. Harry found himself enveloped in a hug, and he couldn't help but cling to the older man. There was a lump in his throat, and Harry closed his eyes tightly as a wave of hot tears poured out of him. Black smelled terrible, but Harry didn't care. There was an adult who seemed to care about him, and for that, Harry cried. He'd never had that before.
"Harry," Hermione said quietly from directly behind him. He felt her hand on his shoulder, and he only cried harder. He didn't want to think about his emotions, he didn't want to identify them, but this was the first time he could remember getting a hug from an adult. And it was cathartic, to say the least. Ron stood at his other shoulder, looking uncomfortable, but he too had a hand on Harry's arm.
It felt like ages before Harry's emotions were under control, but when they were, he stepped back out of Sirius's embrace. Sirius placed a kiss on the top of his head just as he moved out of his arms, and Harry ducked his head in embarrassment. He didn't even remember the last time someone had kissed him.
"We need to do something about Pettigrew," Sirius said, bringing the conversation back around to the rat.
"I have an idea," Ron said, looking at Hermione.
"We'll take care of it," Hermione said.
"Shit," Ron muttered, glancing at his watch. "We have to be back up at the castle in twenty minutes."
"I'll come back the next Hogsmeade weekend," Harry promised Sirius as the three teenagers made their way out of the cave. The last he saw of Sirius, he was transforming back into a dog.
"Do it now, or should we wait?" Hermione asked as they climbed the stairs to the front doors of the castle. She shivered when the wind blew harder from behind as if pushing them inside the castle.
"It's three hours until dinner," Ron said. "Should be plenty of time for what I have planned. We should do it in the ritual room."
"Let's do it. I want to see that rat punished," Harry said angrily. He was practically stomping his way down to the Slytherin common room.
"If you don't cool it, you'll attract the wrong sort of attention," Hermione hissed, grabbing for Harry's arm.
Harry stopped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. Hermione could see anger and hurt, but beneath it all was something like hope. For his sake, she hoped that Black was right. That Ron's rat was an Animagus in the form of Peter Pettigrew.
"We should confirm with Professor Lupin," Hermione said, suddenly remembering what Sirius said. "How will we even know it's Pettigrew?"
"I have some photos. Hagrid gave me a photo album my first year, remember?" Harry said. "I bet he's in one of those."
"Grab it," Hermione told him. "Then go up to Professor Lupin's office and ask him who the people are in the photos. Especially if he is in some of them, it'll give you an excuse."
"Sucks, I'm going to lose my familiar, though," Ron said poutily, changing the subject as they entered the common room.
"I'll buy you a new one. It's the least I can do," Harry replied as the boys split off for their rooms and Hermione went to hers.
She had just checked out a book on Animagi the other day and knew it held the spell she was looking for. After the disaster with the Dementor controlling spell, Hermione was feeling a little nervous about her capabilities and wanted to make sure she had a chance to review it before actually casting it.
"Alright, I'll hurry back," Harry said, with the photo album tucked under his arm once the three met back up in the common room.
"Oi, where are you three off to?" Malfoy spat from across the common room.
"Library," Hermione snapped and flipped her hair as she turned back around and followed Harry and Ron out.
She and Ron made their way through the secret passageway that was just outside the common room and ended up several corridors away near the ritual room they had cleaned out.
"Think it'll still be like it was?" Ron asked as he approached the doorway and began taking down the wards they had placed over it.
"Can't see why not. Unless the house-elves discovered it, but this part of the dungeons has a particularly abandoned air about it, doesn't it?"
Ron hummed his agreement, and with a final wave of his wand, the door clicked open. Hermione lit the sconces that lined the walls and smiled. "There's not even any dust!"
"Think that means the house-elves cleaned it once they figured out it was being used?"
"Maybe?"
Hermione hauled the book on Animagi out and sat down, leafing through it as Ron put the cage with a sleeping Scabbers on the floor at the center of the pentagram.
"What spell do you plan to use on him?" Hermione asked absentmindedly as she flipped through her book.
"Well, there's a ritual that allows you to subsume someone else's magical core," Ron said slowly.
Hermione looked up at him with a shocked expression.
"I mean, I don't have to use that one if you think it's too creepy—"
"No!" Hermione interrupted. "It's not that. It's just I hadn't ever considered that possibility. That's fascinating. What does it do? Give you a power boost? Give you his affinities? Would it be easier for you to become an Animagus because he was one?"
Ron shrugged. "I'm not sure, actually, but I figured I would try it and see. If it worked well, it's a good one to have in the arsenal."
"Alright. Well, what do you need for setup?"
"I have most of it here," Ron mumbled, digging through his bag and pulling out a few things. He handed Hermione a stick of chalk, and she went around, transcribing the pentagram on the floor. When she was finished, Ron handed her a sheet of parchment that looked as if it had been copied from a very old book and enlarged. It showed a pentagram with specific runes at each point.
"They need to be drawn in order," Ron said, pointing them out to her. "And a candle," he indicated the small pile on the floor next to his bag, "needs to be lit after each second rune."
Hermione nodded and set to work. Ron tended to be lazy in his schoolwork, especially in the subjects that didn't interest him, but Hermione had found that Ron was never lazy when it came to the rituals he was so fascinated with. It felt like one of the few times Hermione could actually cede some control in the group and know that everything would be fine.
When she was finished with the runes and the candles, Hermione peeked back at the book on Animagi, making sure she not only had the spell but the wand movements down. She was still practicing when Harry came panting through the door.
"All set?" Hermione asked. Harry shoved a photograph under her nose. It held four men, one who was clearly Harry's father, as it looked just like him, and a much younger-looking Professor Lupin. She could just make out Sirius Black; despite having just met him, he looked nothing like he had as a young man. Azkaban had wretchified him.
"There," Harry said, pointing at the shortest man of the three. "That's Peter Pettigrew," Harry spat.
Hermione looked up at him sharply. "Are you sure?"
Harry nodded, recounting the conversation he had with Professor Lupin. It aligned with what Sirius Black had told them this afternoon, except for the fact that Lupin, along with everyone else, believed Sirius to be the betrayer and Pettigrew dead.
"Ward the door," Hermione said to Ron as she pointed her wand at Scabbers. He was racing around the cage, clearly looking for a way out but not finding one. "I think our rat knows his time is about up."
"He's certainly not the lazy, fat rat that I'm used to," Ron agreed with a frown.
"That's because he's a liar and a murderer!" Harry added. His hands were clenched, and his hair stood on end as magic cackled through it.
"Get yourself under control, Potter," Hermione barked. Harry took a few calming breaths as Hermione practiced the wand movements once more.
Then she pointed her wand at the rat and said the incantation. A blue light was emitted from her wand and wrapped around the fat, grey rat.
The cage exploded around him as he grew and grew into a fat, short, middle-aged man. Even as a man, he looked like a rat.
"Ron! My dearest master Ron!" Scabbers said, falling to his knees and shuffling closer to the three of them.
"Get away from me!" Ron shouted in horror, kicking at the man.
"It's him," Harry confirmed. "Peter Pettigrew. Looks just like the picture."
"Incarcerous," Hermione hissed.
Rope shot out of the end of her wand and wrapped around Pettigrew. He fell to the floor with a wail, and Hermione was glad they were in a little-used dungeon corridor. Ron banished the remnants of the cage.
"Harry, we have to confirm that Black is telling the truth," Hermione said.
"He's not! Always a liar, Sirius Black is," Pettigrew pleaded. "You can ask anyone! The Blacks are habitual liars."
"Shut up," Hermione snapped.
"Were you the secret-keeper for my parents?" Harry asked, pointing his wand at Pettigrew's heart.
"You have to understand, Harry, the times we were living in! Voldemort was everywhere! You couldn't trust anybody! I didn't know…" he trailed off after taking in Harry's hard eyes.
"Nobody could know what Voldemort was going to do next. Who he was going to attack next. I had a sick mother; I was trying to protect her," he had turned to Hermione to plead his case, but she sneered at him.
"Ron, please, you have to believe me!"
"Harry asked you a simple question, Pettigrew," Ron snapped. "Were you the Potter's secret-keeper?"
Pettigrew looked amongst the three of them, his nose twitching just like a rat's would, as if he were trying to find which of them would be the least upset when he told his long-held secret.
"I...I was," he said after a moment.
"Let's do it," Harry said, his voice cold and hard.
Ron nodded and directed Hermione and Harry where to stand in the pentacle. The candles flickered low as he started chanting. Pettigrew whined and protested the whole time, and Hermione wished she would have gagged him. But she couldn't do it now. She had to stay in her spot and help Ron hold the magic of the ritual.
The magic flared in her, and she pushed it, helping Ron shape it into what they needed. She had a million questions she wanted to ask but knew that Ron would answer what he could when they were finished.
He stopped chanting after several minutes and pointed his wand at Pettigrew. Shallow cuts sprung up all over his body, and blood pooled beneath him, running through the grooves of the pentagram. Pettigrew howled and howled, and Hermione wished more than ever that she could shut him up.
Once the blood filled each groove of the pentagram, Ron swished his wand in a complicated dance before pointing it straight up. The blood rose up, staying in its pentacle formation until it was above their heads. Then it began to spin, slowly at first, before moving faster and faster. With a hard swish downward, the blood swooped and sank into Ron's chest.
He gritted his teeth under the onslaught, and Hermione thought for sure he was going to fall, but he managed to stay on his feet. Once the last of the blood had entered his body, he shuddered.
Then opened his eyes. They were blood red, and Hermione was pretty sure that meant the ritual had worked.
"You can kill him now, Harry," Ron said quietly. Hermione could feel the power in his words, he was practically brimming with it.
Pettigrew whimpered. "Harry, please! I was your father's friend! I was—"
"Diffindo," Harry intoned, cutting him off. Hermione shivered as Harry flicked his wand upward, making the cutting charm lethal. The cut that appeared at Pettigrew's throat started small and then grew and grew as the rest of his blood left his body for good. The blood ran around the grooves of the pentagram and seemed to sink into the stones of the castle. At last, Pettigrew lay still.
She knew they would have to get rid of the body, but first, she had to know. Turning to Ron, she said, "Tell me everything."
His grin and his blood-red eyes should have been creepy, but they weren't.
Severus cursed as one of his wards went off. It dinged impatiently in his ear, and he had to sort through them all to figure out which one it was. He scowled when he realized it was the dark magic ward he had set up around Potter, Granger, and Weasley. Just what in the hell had they gotten themselves into now?
He hurried from his rooms, thankful that dinner had begun and most of the corridors were empty. Stalking through the dungeon, he didn't know quite where they were, but the ward at least helped with that. It dinged louder the closer he got.
His ears were ringing when he finally stumbled along a very little used corridor. The doors that lined the hall were all closed, and Severus was pretty sure they were all storerooms anyway. What could they have possibly gotten into?
He paced along until he came to one that was practically brimming with magic. A slash of his wand took down the primitive wards. They were only third years, after all, even their power was limited. He pushed the door open, and it crashed into the wall.
"What the fuck?" he breathed, his eyes catching on the dead body at the center of the room. It wasn't that the person was dead that shocked him. It was who the person was. Peter Pettigrew was supposed to have died twelve years ago. But this was a fresh corpse. Of the right age as well.
The trio had frozen when he came in, and he looked at them each in turn. Weasley's eyes were bloodshot in that tell-tale way. He'd seen it often enough in his Death Eater days. It was a popular ritual among the pure-bloods.
"What have you three done?" he asked, waiting for them to try and come up with an excuse.
"He murdered my parents," Potter said stiffly. "So I—"
"Shut up, Harry," Hermione muttered. "Our ritual went wrong, Professor. We didn't try to kill him."
"Save me the act, Granger," Severus said with a sigh. "Dinner has started already. Get going."
"But—" Weasley said before Granger grabbed his arm.
"Yes, sir," Granger said, holding both boys' arms and dragging them from the room.
Severus sighed again. To tell Dumbledore or not? Not would certainly be the easier option. What would Dumbledore do about it anyway? He didn't think the headmaster would do anything about it. Except make Severus dispose of the body. Something he was going to have to do anyway.