"Severus..." Lupin tried again and Snape pointed the wand back at him.
"I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this... He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... a tame werewolf."
"You fool," said Lupin softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"
Snap sliced the stick through the air and there was a loud popping noise. Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape's stick and twisted themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles. Lupin overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.
"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."
Black stopped dead. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred.
Granger took an uncertain step toward Snape and said, in a very breathless voice, "Professor Snape- it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w - would it?"
"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat. "You, Potter, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."
"But if- if there was a mistake-"
"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black's face. Granger fell silent.
"And just as an added precaution," Snape said with a sneer. He slashed his stick through the air again and this time, the ropes shot straight at Edward and started to encase him. Edward winced internally as the ropes sliced through his clothes and gripped him like a vice. He fell to the ground and whatever feeling he had regained initially was lost again. "That will keep you out of my hair for once."
Edward wanted to add that with Snape's greasy hair, it was very easy to keep anyone from it but he could not speak or move.
"Hey Edward! Are you ok?" Weasley shouted and tried to crawl towards Edward but Snape stopped him with a glare.
"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed at Black. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."
"The joke's on you again, Severus," Black snarled. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle" he jerked his head at Ron. "I'll come quietly..."
"Up to the castle?" said Snape 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... I-"
"You -you've got to hear me out," Black croaked. "The rat- look at the rat."
But there was a mad glint in Snape's eyes. He was beyond reason.
"Come on, all of you," Snape said. He clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin and Edward both flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf and the boy. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for them too-"
Edward felt a sharp tug and soon he was being dragged across the floor like a ragdoll.
There were three dull thuds against the wooden panels as Harry crossed the room and blocked the door.
"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled Snape. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin-"
"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," Harry shouted. "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," hissed Snape. "Get out of the way, Potter."
"YOURE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "AND YOU THINK EDWARD IS A MURDEROUS KILLER TOO? 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, looking madder than ever. "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!"
Before Snape could take even one step toward him, Harry had raised his wand. But there was not one voice but three that shouted in unison.
"Expelliarmus!"
There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out.
From his position on the ground, Edward saw Snape's wand soar in a high arc and landed on the bed next to Crookshanks.
"You shouldn't have done that," said Black, looking at Harry.
"You should have left him to me..."
"We attacked a teacher... We attacked a teacher..." Granger whimpered, staring at the lifeless Snape with frightened eyes. "Oh, we're going to be in so much trouble-"
Lupin was struggling against his bonds. Black bent down quickly and untied him. He untied Edward and cocked his head when Edward did not respond.
"Impedimenta," Black said with understanding. He took out his stick and tapped it on Edward's head.
Edward gasped in cool, cleansing air. He felt like he just emerged from cold icy water.
"Thanks!" Edward said, between gasps.
"Thank you, Harry," Lupin said.
"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry told Lupin.
"Then it's time we offered you some proof," said Lupin. "You, boy. Give me Peter, please. Now."
Weasley clutched the rat closer to his chest.
"Come off it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean..." He looked up at Harry and Granger for support, "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," said Lupin, turning to Black and frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"
Black put one of his clawlike hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smoothed flat and held out to show the others.
It was the photograph of Weasley and his family that had appeared in the Daily Prophet the previous summer, and there, on Ron's shoulder, was the rat.
"How did you get this?" Lupin asked Black, thunderstruck.
"Fudge," said Black. "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 back to Hogwarts... to where Harry was..."
"My gosh," said Lupin softly, staring from the rat to the picture in the paper and back again. "His front paw..."
"What about it?" said Edward.
"He's got a toe missing," said Black.
"Of course," Lupin breathed. "So simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?"
"Just before he transformed," said Black. "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?" said Lupin. "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, right-"
"Twelve years, in fact," said Lupin. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"
"We- we've been taking good care of him!" said Weasley.
"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said Lupin. "I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again..."
"He's been scared of that mad cat!" said Weasley, nodding toward the fat cat, who was still purring on the bed.
"This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked the cat's fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognised Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me... Finally, I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me..."
"What do you mean?" breathed Granger at the same time Edward said,
"You can talk to cats? COOL!"
"He tried to bring Peter to me, but couldn't... so he stole the passwords into Gryffindor Tower for me... As I understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table..."
"But Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it." croaked Black. "This cat- Crookshanks, did you call him?- told me Peter had left blood on the sheets... I supposed he bit himself... Well, faking his own death had worked once."
"And why did he fake his death?" Harry said furiously. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"
"No," said Lupin, "Harry-"
"And now you've come to finish him off!"
"Yes, I have," said Black, with an evil look at the rat.
"Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted.
"Harry," said Lupin 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. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"