Author's Note: All right, you caught me. I'm not really J.K Rowling. What gave it away? Hmm…maybe the fact that I OWN NOTHING? Just a thought…By the way, this chapter contains information from my prequel Remembering the Past: A Marauder's Tale. If you haven't read it and aren't going to, there is a quick summary of what you need to know in my A/N at the bottom of the page. Okay, I'm done now. Enjoy!

Chapter 17 Truths Are Made Known

Hermione let out a small yelp. Black and Alex stood up quickly, the latter swaying dangerously but holding onto the bedpost.

"This is turning out to be a very good night, for me that is," said Snape, his eyes glowing with revenge, "I was up in your office Lupin, to give you your potion, and I found a map on your desk, a very familiar map. I saw you running to this house and followed. I also found this near the tree, I thank you Potter."

Snape held up Harry's Invisibility Cloak and threw it over toward him. Harry caught it and looked at Snape angrily.

"Ew Harry, don't touch it," said Alex coldly, but so Snape couldn't hear, "It might have some of his grease on it."

"Severus," said Lupin, "Let me explain-"

"I told Dumbledore that you were helping an old friend into the castle," said Snape over Lupin, sounding maniacal, "But he defended you, trusted you, thought you were a tame wolf. I can't imagine what he'll say when I tell him what happened.

"Why don't you listen to him?" said Alex impatiently, "Get the story straight before you go to the Headmaster."

"Miss Ratcliff, you and your friends are in enough trouble already," said Snape wickedly, his eyes never leaving Lupin, "You are all out of bounds, past curfew, and in the company of a murderer and a werewolf."

"But sir," said Hermione quietly, "They were just explaining to us-"

"Miss Granger, for once in your life, hold your tongue!" snapped the Potions master.

"I can't believe you," said Lupin, shaking his head, "All of this over a school grudge."

BANG! Thick, black cords wrapped themselves around Lupin's body and his mouth, causing the man to fall to the ground. Alarmed, Alex began hobbling over to Lupin to see if he was unharmed. Snape pointed his wand at her and caused her to trip. She twisted her body so she landed away from her injured leg and let out a small groan of pain as she hit the hard wooden floors. Black roared with rage and advanced on Snape, who turned his wand to Black, an evil grin spread across his face.

"Vengeance is sweet," he whispered, "I wished I would be the one to catch you and here I am. The dementors will be happy to see you Black, so much that they might give you a kiss."

Alex let out a, "NO!" and put her hand to her mouth quickly, trying too late to stifle the noise. The dementors kiss was when the dementor sucked out your soul, causing you to be one of them: a shell of your former self, walking the earth without one happy memory to your name. And yet, didn't Black deserve this punishment after all he did? Something told Alex that she should hear the rest of his story before she judged.

Snape and Black turned to Alex when she spoke. Black looked at her, hope and longing in his eyes while Snape looked from Black to Alex, comprehension dawning.

"I don't believe it. How could I have not seen it before? She has the Black family eyes," he said, still looking between the two, "Tortelli actually had a child with you. This is just keeps getting better and better! I'm sorry to disappoint you two, but it's time we headed back to the castle. You can do your father-daughter bonding later. I'll drag the werewolf, maybe the dementors will have a kiss for him too."

As he turned for the door, Harry stepped in front of him, barring the way.

"Get out of the way, Potter," snarled Snape.

"Not until I hear the story," said Harry, his wand raised.

"Like father, like son, Potter. I save you from this man," he poked his wand hard into Black's ribs, "Extinguishing your pathetic life as well as the lives of your fellow classmates and, while others would be thanking me, you stand there and argue. Get out of the way or I…will…make…you!"

But Snape never had the chance. Alex, who was behind Snape now, raised her wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" just as Ron, Hermione, and Harry shouted the same spell. Snape went flying, hit the wall, and slid down, blood in his greasy hair.

"We attacked a teacher…we attacked a teacher," said Hermione in a panicky tone, "Oh, we are so going to be expelled."

"No, we're not," said Alex sternly, but she was smiling, eyes alight, "We did it in self-defense." She slid over to Lupin and began untying the bonds, Black coming down to help her.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said, "I was fine."

"Oh yeah, you were great up there! Being held at wandpoint to be kissed by a dementor is exactly my definition of "fine". Anyway, I've wanted to do that for ages," said Alex, not looking at the man she just saved, "There was no stopping any of us."

Once Lupin was untied, he helped Alex up and over to the bed. He then turned to Ron.

"Ron, the time has come for proof. Give me the rat."

"What does Scabbers have to do with anything?" said Ron, his voice higher than normal.

"Everything," said Black suddenly, "That's no ordinary rat, he's animagus. He's Peter Pettigrew."

"You're mad!" said Ron, "Scabbers has been in our family for ages, we'd have known!"

"And how is it that your rat, Scabbers you said, has lived this long?" asked Lupin, "Most rats only live about five years."

"We've taken good care of him!" said Ron defensively as Scabbers scratched at his hands.

"He's not looking too good now, I'm guessing he's been like that since news of Sirius Black's escape reached his rat ears."

"He's like this because of that stupid cat," said Ron, "Crookshanks has been scaring the living daylights out of him."

But Alex remembered seeing Scabbers sickly-looking when Ron got back from Egypt, just after the news of Black became public. That was before they had even met Crookshanks.

"This cat is not stupid," said Black, petting the cat as he purred loudly, "When he met me, he knew I wasn't a dog. Animals are smarter than people give them credit for. Even Hagrid's dog knew I wasn't what I seemed."

"Hold on," said Alex suddenly, "You're Fang's friend from the forest? But that means…"

"I was there when the dementors attacked you," said Black solemnly, "You had dropped your wand so I quickly changed back with enough time to say the spell powerful enough to drive them off, and returned to my dog form. They never realized it was me."

Alex tried to comprehend what she just heard but found herself struggling. Black cleared his throat loudly.

"Crookshanks, I believe you said his name was," continued Black, "Has been helping me try and get into the castle. When I couldn't get in, he brought me the passwords and, at first, tried to bring me Peter."

"His name's Scabbers!" said Ron angrily.

"No Ron," said Lupin gently, "It is Peter. You see his missing toe? People have said the largest part they ever found of Pettigrew was his finger. I guess he must have cut it off before he transformed."

"Everyone saw Pettigrew killed," said Ron and pointed his finger at Black, "He killed him!"

"They only saw what Peter wanted them to see!" said Black, "When I cornered him, he shouted for all the street to hear that I had killed my friends and then he blew the street up, changing into a rat and going down the drainage system."

"Professor Lupin?" asked Alex, "There are millions of rats in the world, how could someone tell the difference, especially from Azkaban? I highly doubt Scabbers has been in there for Black to see him."

"Actually, that's a good question," said Lupin, turning to Black, "How did you know where Peter was?"

Black pulled out an old newspaper and Alex saw the Weasleys on the front, waving happily with pyramids behind them. Black pointed at Ron's shoulder with a bony finger and Alex saw little Scabbers.

"I knew it was him the moment I saw this," said Black, "We saw him transform so many times. Fudge gave me this when he visited," he added, seeing the look on Lupin's face, "It said the boy went to Hogwarts…where Harry and Alex were. I knew that if one breath of a rumor were to reach him that Voldemort was back, he'd finish the job that sent Voldemort into ruin."

There was silence except for Scabbers squealing, which Alex could hear now. "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me! Let go of me for the love of Merlin!"

"He's scared," said Alex quietly and everyone turned to her, "Scabbers, he keeps saying the same thing over and over again: "He's going to kill me"."

"Yes I am, little Peter," growled Sirius.

"Ron, give us the rat. I promise I won't let Sirius hurt him if it isn't Peter," said Lupin.

"What will you do to him?" Ron asked.

"We're going to force him into his human form. If it's really a normal rat, nothing will happen."

Ron looked down at Scabbers and slowly handed him over to Lupin. Scabbers began flaying his little paws more than ever and Alex had to cover her ears as he screamed louder than ever. Lupin held the rat in one hand, his wand in the other, and both men pointed their wands at the rat. A blinding white light erupted and the rat fell to the floor.

But the thing on the floor was much too large for a rat, it was a short man, shorter than anyone in the room. Alex immediately recognized him from the photograph of her mother's friends as Peter Pettigrew. She also noticed how nervous the man looked, how his eyes always strayed toward the boarded up windows and the door.

"S-Sirius? R-Remus? My friends!" the man said in a squeaky voice. He turned to the others and smiled, "Hello Ron, my owner. And Hermione, it's so nice to see you at a normal height! Harry, you look so much like your father, James. And Alex, you are turning into a fine young lady, just like Alana."

"Don't you dare talk to Alex and Harry like that!" said Black angrily and Pettigrew cowered in fear.

"Peter," said Lupin calmly, giving Black a sharp look, "We were just discussing the night Lily, James, and Alana died. You may have missed most of it while you were squealing."

"Remus, you don't actually believe him, do you?" Pettigrew said, his eyes wide, "I didn't kill any of them! They were my dearest friends!"

"Don't give us that!" shouted Black, his eyes filled with fire, resembling Alex's eyes when she was extremely angry, "You sold them to Voldemort, you might as well had said the killing curse!"

"ENOUGH!" Alex shouted before Pettigrew could respond. The room fell silent and Alex took a deep breath before saying, "Look, from what I can gather from my mum's old photos, you Marauders were all extremely close. They say that Black became a traitor because my mum left him for a Muggle man and it drove him into insanity. Why would Pettigrew want to sell his old school friends to Voldemort?"

"Exactly! Thank you, Alex!" the little man cried out but he was silenced by a look from Professor Lupin.

"I've given this a lot of thought while I was locked up," said Black darkly, "It wasn't well known but Peter was a double-agent when we left Hogwarts. He wanted to help a girl, Lindsay O'Riley, break free of Voldemort's grip and free her parents. James and I were in charge of keeping Lindsay safe when we planned to break her parents out of the Malfoy Manor. That was where they held them. We had appointed the two best Aurors to guard her that night but the Death Eaters decided that the O'Riley's were of no further service to them. They were dead when we arrived.

"James and I realized that Lindsay was in danger so we raced back to the safe house. The entire place was burned to the ground; there were no survivors," Black continued with a bowed head, "When we told Peter, he was furious with us for weeks. It wasn't until after the funeral that he said he had forgiven us. But he was never the same afterwards, we all thought that he was grieving. Little did we know that he was planning his revenge."

Black's head shot up and he glared at Peter, who shrunk away from his stare.

"You loved her, Peter. James and I understood that. But you didn't want our understanding, did you? You wanted us to suffer as you had suffered. So you decided to kill us, physically or emotionally. You knew that if you took Alana and Alex from me, that I would die inside. I would be as dead as James was!"

"Remus, you can't be buying this!" said Pettigrew, his voice hysterical, "I'm innocent!"

"Then why did you spend all those years as a rat, hiding from the world?" said Lupin coldly.

"I was scared," said the short man, "Scared that he would come and find me and try to kill me again!"

"You thought that Sirius would escape from Azkaban," Lupin said with raised eyebrows, "When no one has ever done it before?"

"He was You-Know-Who's spy! His loyal servant!" squealed Pettigrew, his eyes bulging as they kept looking toward the door, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must have taught him Dark magic!"

Black let out a bark of laughter, "Voldemort, teach me?" Pettigrew flinched at the name and Black continued, "My whole family was a bunch of pureblood maniacs who sided with Voldemort!"

"So you were on his side!" Harry shouted.

"No," said Black, his voice full of hatred, "I hated the whole lot of them. I never understood why, just because we had an all-Wizard background, we could walk over everyone else. If anything, I would be the last person Voldemort would try to bring over to his side. My family made up most of his Death Eaters, they would have killed me the moment I walked in."

Black ran a hand through his long dirty hair and turned his stormy eyes on Peter, anger and disgust filling them while the portly man shuddered under the intense stare.

"But you Peter, you were always looking for people who were more powerful than you for protection," the ex-prisoner whispered dangerously, "Before, it was me, Remus, and James. Now, it's Voldemort. You even had access, pretending to double-cross them when you were really double-crossing us! I should have known it was you from the beginning; you were never the same after we told you about Lindsay. You told my family about Alana and I, didn't you? We all thought you were working for us, but you were really one of them, weren't you?"

Pettigrew kept mumbling things under his breath and his eyes were darting toward the door more than ever. However, there was one question that was in Alex's mind.

"Hey buddy," said Alex, unsure yet how to address Black. He turned to her and Alex asked, "How did you manage to get out of Azkaban?"

"I'm not sure," Black said, frowning in thought, "I knew I was innocent, which wasn't a happy thought the dementors could take away from me. I could transform into a dog when it became too much for me to bear. The dementors don't have eyes you see, they feel their way around by emotions. They could tell my thoughts were less complex when I was a dog but, after being in there for so long, they must have thought I was going insane like the other inmates.

"But then I saw Peter on the boy's shoulder, saw that he would be at Hogwarts…where you and Harry were, waiting for any word of Voldemort's return. If anything were to reach his ears, he would finish the job and no one would say he betrayed his master. I couldn't let that happen, I was the only one who knew Peter for what he was. A fire burned inside me that the dementors could not diminish. It wasn't happiness, it was obsession.

"One night, I slipped through the bars as a dog while I was given food. I was so skinny then. I managed to swim to the mainland and journeyed north. I was very sick and needed to eat when you found me." At this, he looked into Alex's identical stormy grey eyes and smiled, "You nursed me back to health and I was grateful. A few days after you left, I ran away and stayed in the Forbidden Forest, only leaving when I tried to get Peter."

Alex tore her eyes away from Black's stare and looked at Harry. He seemed to be wavering slightly, but said aloud, "You said to Alex and me, before Professor Lupin came up, that you killed them. You admitted to it!"

"I as good as killed them," Black said heavily, "I told James and Lily to change their Secret-Keeper to Peter, I suggested that Alana go into hiding with your parents. But Harry, believe me, James was my best friend. Lily was also my friend. I would never have done anything if I had known what would have happened."

Harry seemed to be thinking then nodded. Black gave him a half-smile and turned to Alex, taking a deep breath.

"If you are my father, which I'm not saying you are," said Alex before Black could speak, "Then why didn't you take me with you when my mother died?"

"I tried," Black said his voice catching and he cleared it, "I asked Hagrid for me to take both you and Harry. But Hagrid said that Dumbledore had a plan for you two and I knew there was nothing I could do. Once Dumbledore makes up his mind, there's not much you can do and Hagrid was bound to Dumbledore to follow those orders. So, I gave Hagrid my motorcycle so he could travel faster.

"A day hasn't gone by that I haven't wondered what you were doing, what you looked like, if you even knew the truth." He stopped and took a calming breath as his voice trembled, "Alex, I loved your mother with all my heart, I still do. I haven't stopped blaming myself since that day and I'm sorry, so sorry, that you lived in a lie for these last twelve years. But you have to believe me, I'm your father and I never, ever, sold your mother to Voldemort."

Alex looked up at him. She felt a lump rise in her throat and her vision blurred with tears. She wiped them away and took a step forward.

"I believe you, Dad," she managed to say and she threw her arms around his very skinny waist.

It took a few seconds for him to react, but he did. He held her close to him as she sobbed. She had a father, a real father who would look after her. She didn't even notice that Pettigrew had begun going around to each person in turn and begging them to save him from Sirius' wrath. Finally, he came to the two teary-eyed people and began sobbing too.

"Alex, you beautiful girl, your mother wouldn't have wanted your father to kill me. She always liked me. Please don't let him kill me!"

"SILENCE!" roared Black, his wet, grey eyes enraged, "Don't you dare get within five feet of her!"

He pushed Alex behind him, pulled out his wand, and advanced toward the blubbering man, Lupin along with him.

"You should have known, Peter," said Lupin, his eyes blank, "That if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would."

They raised their wands together but Harry and Alex cried, "NO!" together and they looked behind them.

"Alex," said her father, "This man, this filthy son of a giant squid, is the reason you only have one parent. He's also the reason that Harry has none."

"We know," said Harry, "But let the dementors take care of him, he belongs in Azkaban."

"And anyway," said Alex, seeing the hopeful look in Pettigrew's eyes, "Isn't it true that the dementor's kiss is worse than death?"

Pettigrew whimpered and the two men lowered their wands a little.

"All right then," said Lupin in a business-like tone, "First things first, can you two walk?" He directed this question at Ron and Alex, both pale and a little green.

"I have these crutches," said Alex, holding them up.

"Then Ron, you, Peter, and I will walk down together," Lupin conjured chains out of thin air and put then on his wrists and Ron and Peter's too. "We'll need someone to take Severus up to the castle."

"I will," said Sirius. He raised Snape's wand and the Potions master rose into the air, invisible strings keeping him up.

Everyone left the room and went down into the hole. Alex, who was the last one out, found the sight before her darkly comical. There was the chained trio in the front, Peter whimpering the entire way, followed by Hermione and Harry with Snape hovering above them. Sirius didn't seem to notice, or care, that Snape's head would occasionally scrape the roof of the tunnel.

As they walked, Sirius turned to Alex and waited for her to catch up. They walked side-by-side in silence.

"What's going to happen now?" Alex asked.

"Well, we should take Peter to Dumbledore and tell him the truth," said her father, "Peter will probably go to Azkaban and I'll be free."

"Where will you go?"

"I have a house in London," Sirius said and turned to his daughter, "I was wondering, if you wanted to that is because I know you love where you are, if you wanted to live with me. Harry would be there too of course, he is my god-son after all, but we would have plenty of room for Elian too."

"Are you joking?" asked Alex, stopping to look up.

"You don't have to," said Sirius quickly, "I just thought we could catch up on things that I've missed."

"Of course I want to live with you!" said Alex, breaking into a huge grin, "You're my father for Merlin's sake!"

Her father smiled, the first true smile of the night. He didn't even see that Snape had run into one of the walls of the tunnel. Alex, however, did and pointed this out to her father.

"I'm trying to give him as much pain as possible for when he wakes up," said Sirius as they walked.

They reached the end of the tunnel and Sirius helped Alex out. She looked up at the castle and smiled at the twinkling lights. She was going to live with her father, the father she never knew she had. She turned to him and Harry and smiled, this was the happiest moment of her life.

"ARGH!" Ron yelled.

Alex spun around and saw Lupin on his knees, his whole body convulsing in the light of the moon. The moon! Alex looked up and saw it, that full celestial body shinning its cursed light down on them. She saw Hermione's terrified face as Harry ran to get Ron away. A black blur got there first and Alex saw, with horror, Sirius in dog form breaking the chains and landing on the transforming professor. Pettigrew picked up a wand and raised it at the dog.

"Don't move!" Alex shouted, pulling out her own.

Pettigrew looked at her, gave a small wave, and transformed into a rat, running off into the night. Alex let out a stream of curses but it was no use. Pettigrew was gone. She heard a whimper and saw that Lupin had thrown Sirius off. The pale, kind professor had turned into a full-fledged werewolf. The beast sniffed the air and turned to the four students, his hazel eyes glowing.

"Humans" Alex heard him growl, "So long since I've had human blood."

"Professor Lupin," said Alex shakily, "Please, it's us, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Alex. I know your in there sir, this isn't you. You're a good person, trapped inside a monster's body."

The werewolf Lupin stopped and looked at her. Something flickered in his eyes and Alex took a limp forward.

"Alex, no!" Hermione sobbed but Alex ignored her.

"Please sir," she said, taking another shaky step, "You know this isn't really you."

The beast opened its mouth and gave out a howl that sent Alex stumbling back into Hermione.

"This is me," the beast said, "And nothing you can say will change that."

He lunged at Alex who cowered, waiting for the bite. Instead, she saw Sirius leap in front of her and tackle the werewolf. The two animals rolled down a hill and towards the forest.

"SIRIUS!" shouted Harry and he tore after the dog, Hermione running after him.

Panting, Alex dragged herself over to a tree and leaned back.

"Things are going from bad to worse," said Alex, but Ron didn't say anything so she continued, "Pettigrew ran off, Lupin's a dangerous werewolf, and we can't move. Ron, are you listening to me? Ron?"

She saw Ron lying on the ground and hobbled over to him, turned him over, and saw his eyes were open unblinkingly. She slapped his face, but he didn't move. Suddenly, she heard a noise behind her and looked around. Something was amiss, where was Snape?

"Hello?" Alex called out.

A figure stepped out from a tree and Alex saw Snape pointing his wand at her. Before she could do anything, he shouted, "Stupifey!" and Alex was knocked unconscious.

Author's Note: Hello readers! I know I was gone for so long and I apologize sincerely. It wasn't my intention to leave you for that long. FanFiction wouldn't let me post this for some reason, but I'm back now! I'd like to dedicate this chapter to LoneFairytale because she told me how to fix this so I could update for you all. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! ;D So what did you think of this? For those of you who haven't read Remembering the Past: A Marauder's Tale, you probably didn't understand the whole part about Lindsay and Peter. Here is what you need to know:

Basically, Lindsay was forced to work for the Death Eaters and must get to Dumbledore through the Marauders and company. The Death Eaters had come to her house in order to convince her parents to join and when they didn't, the Death Eaters were going to kill them. To save her parents, Lindsay said she would take their place. As the story goes on, Lindsay manipulates Peter into thinking that his friends hate him but ends up falling in love with him and his quirkiness. Eventually, Peter leaves Lindsay after witnessing the torture of Alice Lenns, later to be Alice Longbottom, and says that it is better to have friends who don't appreciate him than friends who torture for the fun of it. One night, he finds Lindsay crying and she confesses to him that she is being forced to work with the Death Eaters and that all she told him was a lie. His friends are really good friends to him. Peter says he'll go undercover in order to free her parents. In the epilogue, you read that the Death Eaters eventually kill her parents and burn down the house where Lindsay is staying. Peter is visibly upset but later says he forgives Sirius and James for shouting at them. As you've read, he hadn't forgiven them and sold the Potters and Ratcliffs to Voldemort out of revenge.

Hopefully that helps explain things a little. The reason I wrote that in was because Peter practically worshipped his friends. Something big must have had to happen for him to want to sell the Potters to Voldemort, and what's bigger than the people you considered friends allowing the woman you love to die at the hands of the very people they said they would protect her from?

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, put me in their favorites, and put me on alert. Your support is overwhelming, in a good way, and I literally can't thank you enough because this A/N is already far too long. So, I shall end it now by asking anyone who hasn't reviewed to please do so. ;)