"Let's go," I said, my voice hoarse.

We covered ourselves with the Invisibility Cloak, and hurried downstairs. We were fortunately undetected. We walked out onto the grounds silently, and as we got closer to Hagrid's, we heard loud howling.

"Hagrid!" Hermione gasped.

Ron sighed. "They really did it, then." Then, Ron rubbed his eyes, and yelled, "LOOK! SCABBERS!"

Hermione, Hagrid, and I looked over where Ron was pointing frantically at. Ron scrambled over there and picked up a fighting, squirming Scabbers.

"It's really him!" I exclaimed, pointing at Scabbers' signature missing toe.

That's when something hit me.

Scabbers was missing a toe. The only thing they found of Peter Pettigrew was a finger. The Marauder's Map claimed that Peter Pettigrew was right by me in the hallway that one night, but I tripped over a rat.

A rat that could have been Scabbers that was really Peter Pettigrew?! But wait, Peter's 'death' was twelve years ago.

"Ron," I said suddenly, "how old is Scabbers?"

"We've had him for…let's see…eleven, twelve…about twelve years," he said, shrugging.

My jaw dropped. Just when I was about to tell them my insane theory, Scabbers got loose from Ron's fingers.

"Scabbers!" Ron exclaimed, and pelted after him.

Ron wasn't the only one. Hermione and I watched in horror as Crookshanks appeared out of the bushes and chased after Scabbers as well.

Hermione and I broke into a run after him. We chased him all the way into the woods. "Ron!" we hissed through the trees, not wanting to cause a ruckus.

Finally, we saw Ron, standing with his back to us. We caught up to him. His hand grasped a struggling Scabbers, and Crookshanks was standing nearby.

We looked to see what he was staring at, and my heart dropped.

An enormous, black shaggy dog was standing ten feet away. It look eerily familiar, of course. The dog pelted towards me while my heart spluttered spastically.

It knocked the wind out of me and as it jumped into me, and landed on top of me. It stared at me, its tongue out, and I realized with a jolt it looked rather friendly.

It gave a surprisingly happy bark and then it moved on to Ron. I stood up, feeling dizzy, and saw it dragging Ron by his arm.

"Hey!" I called. "Stop that!"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, something big and heavy hit me on the back of my head, knocking me down.

Opening my eyes, I saw that Hermione was in the same position as me. "It's the Whomping Willow!" she cried.

The dog was gone, and I saw a flash of Ron's shoe before it disappeared. "How did he get in there?" I yelled, while the branches swiveled around us.

Suddenly, Crookshanks darted through the tree trunks, and placed its paws on a knot on the trunk. The branches ceased their fighting at once.

We stood up shakily. "How did you know?" Hermione cooed at her cat.

Crookshanks purred as Hermione pet him, and them darted through the gap in the roots. We followed him into a low tunnel, and began to crawl as fast as we could.

"I've seen this tunnel on the Marauder's Map," I explained as we crawled. "It goes into Hogsmeade!"

Finally, we reached a small opening. Crookshanks disappeared through it once again. We lit our wands, and edged through it soundlessly.

We were in a dark, old dusty room. It was very tattered and shabby and the windows were boarded.

"Haile…this must be the Shrieking Shack!" Hermione exclaimed.

We hurried to the only door, and opened it, fearlessly. We had to find Ron—quick.

The door led us to a foyer. An old staircase led to an upstairs. Suddenly, a low moan escaped from the upstairs.

"We have to go," I whispered.

We hurried upstairs, adrenaline beating in my head, and Hermione was right behind me. We hurried down the hallway, and saw a room with light.

We ran full speed towards it, and since I reached it first, burst the door open.

The first thing I saw was Crookshanks, curled up next to Ron, who was on the floor, clutching a clearly broken leg.

"Ron!" Hermione and I squealed, and ran over to him.

Ron was obviously in a lot of pain. He moaned. "It wasn't a dog," he gasped. "It's a trap!"

"What?" Hermione asked, confused.

I turned around, and there stood the man that everyone had been looking for. The man that had been looking for me. The man that betrayed my parents.

The reason they were dead.

His filthy hair was long and shaggy, his pale skin stood out brilliantly against his yellow teeth that were shown in a grin.

"Expelliarmus!" he exclaimed in a hoarse voice. Our wands shot out of our hands. He caught them.

I backed up, and he moved closer. "YOU!" I screamed at him, unable to control my anger longer. "You! It's all your fault! Everything!" Tears sprung to my eyes, and I wiped them angrily. "You're the reason they're dead!"

I had forgotten my theory about Scabbers being Peter Pettigrew. All I remembered was that Sirius Black murdered my parents.

"Haile, listen to me, please," he pleaded, and I was taken aback.

"Listen to you? Why don't you just kill me and get it over with? Isn't that what you've wanted for the past thirteen years?" I shot at him, fearless now, stepping closer.

Sirius Black stared at me. "Of course not. For the past thirteen years, I've wanted to kill that rat, not you!"

"What do you want with Scabbers?" Ron asked, nervously.

"The rat?" I asked, and then I remembered about my theory.

Footsteps approached the door. "HERE!" Hermione screamed. "WE'RE IN HERE!"

A second later, Professor Lupin came bounding into the room, looking pale and weak. "Where is he?" he demanded.

Hermione, Ron, and I looked confused, but Black answered. "Ron's holding him."

"Not my rat again!" Ron groaned.

"What's going on!?" I screamed.

Black took a long look at Lupin. "It wasn't I, Remus. We switched."

Lupin's eyes widened, and I knew Black was going to get it now. However, when Lupin approached Black, instead of cursing him, he seized him around the middle and embraced him.

"NO!" Hermione and I screamed.

"I've been covering for you!" Hermione screamed while I yelled, "To think I trusted you!"

"No, please," Lupin said, turning towards us.

"He's a werewolf!" Hermione spat.

Lupin looked taken aback. Ron gaped. My jaw dropped. "A werewolf?" I repeated blankly.

"How long have you known?" Lupin asked Hermione, startled.

"Since the beginning of the year," she said proudly. "When the boggart changed into the full moon, and how you're always ill at full moon, and the symptoms, of course."

"Clever girl," Lupin said, smiling wanly.

"Does Dumbledore know?" I asked Lupin.

"Of course. When I was boy, Dumbledore let me in, good man. He planted the Whomping Willow for my benefit, my transformation. When I finally got around to telling your dad, Haile, and Sirius and Peter…they accepted me. They even learned to change in animals as well. They were all Animagi. That's how we all got nicknames…Padfoot, Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail."

"Hey!" I exclaimed suddenly.

"Yes, the creators of the Marauder's Map," Lupin said, with a dance in his eye.

"That old thing!" Sirius barked.

"Haile, Ron, Hermione," Lupin said, tossing all of our wands inside, including his and Sirius'. "Look, we're not armed. Will you give us a chance to explain the truth?"

We nodded although still suspicious.

"Look, I was watching the map tonight, and you three were accompanied by someone else. May we see the rat?" Lupin asked.

"Why?" Ron demanded. "What does Scabbers have anything to do with this?"

"He has everything to do with this. Hand him over. That's no rat. That's an Animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew," Sirius growled. "And he's the reason your parents are dead, Haile."

I gaped. "Wait. Before you say anything else," I said loudly. "Just before we came here, something dawned on me. Scabbers…this rat…he's missing a toe." Ron looked at it quickly.

"So?" he said anxiously.

"Well…all they found of Peter Pettigrew was…a finger."

"So!" Ron protested. "They both have—had—a missing finger!"

"And…you've had Scabbers for twelve years," I pressed. "Peter Pettigrew 'died' twelve years ago."

Sirius let out a hoarse laugh. "Haile, you have your mother's brains! You're exactly on the dot!"

"Well done, Haile," Lupin said, surprised. "I'll even prove your theory is correct. But first, let us explain the truth."

We nodded, but not letting our guard down.

"Like I said, at school, I had to take the Wolfsbane Potion to keep me under control. My transformations were the most terrible thing. However, my friends were the most accepting. They learned illegally how to become Animagi. James was a stag, Haile. Anyway, I refused to tell Dumbledore this year about Sirius being an Animagus because I was ashamed to betray his trust. Snape tried to convince Dumbledore I was helping Sirius…"

"Snape?" Sirius barked.

"He's teaching here," Lupin explained. "Snape was at school with us," he told us. "Sirius played a trick on him. He told Snape about the Whomping Willow which nearly got him killed when he tried to follow us one night. Always jealous of James, Snape was. However, when James heard what Sirius told him, James saved his life, risking his own. Snape saw me though, and he's known ever since."

"Two more for Azkaban tonight," came a cool voice behind us.

I whipped around. Severus Snape stood in the doorway, smirking. "You forgot to take your potion tonight," he continued. "I brought it to your office, but you had left that fascinating map out."

Snape snapped his wand immediately, and cords twisted themselves around Lupin. He fell to the floor, bound, and Snape pointed his wand directly at Black's forehead.

I quickly grabbed three wands from the corner, and handed two to Ron and Hermione.

"No!" I shouted suddenly. Everyone's eyes looked towards me. "Don't do anything! Please!"

Sirius gave me a weak smile.

"You foolish girl," Snape hissed at me.

"Expelliarmus!" I shouted, and Snape's wand flew out of his wand, and he slammed backwards into the wall, unconscious. However, I wasn't the only one that shouted it. Ron and Hermione were standing with their arms raised. "Thanks," I muttered.

"We attacked a teacher!" Hermione gasped mortified. "We're going to be expelled!"

Lupin was free once Black united him. "Thank you," Lupin offered. "Now, let's offer you some proof."

"Here's what happened," Sirius started, his hoarse voice croaking. "I cornered him, I admit. He yelled that I betrayed Lily James. I was about to curse him, but behind his back, he blew apart the whole street, transformed, and scampered away as a rat.

"I befriended this brilliant cat," Sirius continued easily. "He recognized what Peter truly was at once. He brought me the passwords to the Gryffindor tower, and tried to steal him for me. Crookshanks, right? Well, Crookshanks told me that Peter faked his own death."

"So what about my parents?" I demanded, my voice shaking. "How are you going to 'explain' that you didn't kill them? I WANT THE TRUTH!"

Sirius looked at me solemnly. Slowly, he said, "I as good as killed them. At the last minute, I told them to switch to Peter, as their Secret Keeper."

"What?" I hissed. "It wasn't…you….How do I know you aren't lying?"

"Give us the rat," Lupin answered, holding out his hand. Ron tentatively handed Scabbers over.

Both Sirius and Lupin pointed their wands at him. Blinding light shot out from their wands, and Scabbers dropped to the floor, squirming, trying to run…

And then, miraculously, before our eyes, was a small, ugly man.

"Hi, Peter," Lupin said, happily. "We were just talking about you."

Peter spoke in a high squeaky voice, and he started to sweat. "P-please, R-Remus! He tried to kill me!" he said, pointing at Sirius. "Help! He'll try to again!"

Sirius barked a laugh. "You stupid man. You haven't been hiding from me. You've been hiding from your old master. His other followers…they think you're dead, they're all in Azkaban."

"Don't know what you're talking about!" Peter squealed. "Remus, you don't believe him, do you?"

Lupin didn't answer.

"Tell Haile here," Sirius hissed. "Tell her that you betrayed her parents! Tell her you're the reason they're dead! I thought I was doing the right thing, having them switch! He'd come after me, and never suspect you! How'd it feel, selling out your best friend?"

Peter muttered under his breath.

Hermione addressed Sirius next. "Sirius…" she said, shyly.

"Yes?" he said, turning to her.

"Well…how did you escape from Azkaban?" she asked.

Black answered after a second. "I didn't lose my mind. Do you know why? It's because I was innocent. The dementors still affected me, but I kept my head. I transformed into a dog, and just…slipped by the dementors. Dogs have less feelings, so that's why the dementors didn't sense me. I lived in the forest this whole time, and watched the Quidditch games. You fly just like James, Haile…"

Sirius stepped closer to me, and I didn't flinch or look away.

"Believe me. I would have died before I betrayed Lily and James."

"I believe you," I said, my voice breaking, and Hermione jumped to my side, holding me while a single tear streamed down my cheek.

"NO!" screamed Peter Pettigrew. "Please!" He ran over to me, and Hermione jumped back, frightened. He grabbed the hem of my robes, kneeling. "Please!"

Sirius growled threateningly, but Peter wouldn't let go.

"Haile…please…your father wouldn't them to kill me…he would have saved me…your mother…your beautiful, kind mother…you have her same beauty….she wouldn't want you to let them!"

"HOW DARE YOU!" Sirius yelled. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF THEM TO HER WHEN YOU BETRAYED THEM!"

I stood tall, wiping my face clear of tears, towering over Peter Pettigrew. "Do you deny that you betrayed my parents which caused them to die?" I asked, in a regal voice I didn't recognize. "Do you?"

Peter burst into tears. It was a horrifying sight, but I didn't show mercy. "What could I have done? He would have killed me!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" Black roared. "James would have died for you."

Lupin stood next to Sirius, wands raised. "Goodbye, Peter," Lupin said quietly.

"Wait!" I cried, stepping forward. "Wait, don't! We'll hand him to the dementors. Don't kill him…I don't think my dad would want you to—to become murderers."

"You're right," Lupin said, lowering his wand.

"As long as you realize what he did," Sirius said, looking a bit disappointed.

"I do. He can rot in Azkaban," I muttered. It's what he deserved, after all.