I do not own Harry Potter.

Just one chapter this week, cause it's the end of the book, but it's a longer one, so I hope that makes up for it. I hope you all had a good holiday season!

There was a knock at the door, and Lily opened it. "Remus," she greeted him with a hug. "Come in." She shut the door behind him. "I'm sorry about your job."

"I'm not," Remus replied, quickly. "Even with the wolfsbane potion, it's too dangerous. I can't risk anything happening."

Lily pressed her lips together in disapproval but didn't argue. She probably realized it would be pointless. "I'm glad you're here, Remus. James has been driving himself crazy wondering what happened that night. Both you and Harry hinted in your letters that it was more than what you were telling us."

"I asked Harry not to mention it. I didn't think a letter would be the best way to explain."

Lily nodded. "Still, this whole year has been hard on him. Ever since Sirius escaped…"

Remus made to reply, but before he could, James came pounding down the stairs. "About time!" he said. "First that prophesy, then something clearly happens, and no one will tell me anything."

"What prophesy?" Remus asked.

"It seems like Professor Trelawney made a true prediction during Harry's exam. Or at least, something that might be a real prediction," Lily explained. "In it, she said that a servant of Voldemort would go to join him before midnight and help him rise again."

Remus let out a breath softly. "Ooh. Well, that makes sense."

"What?" James demanded, looking slightly panicked. "Why does it make sense?"

"I think we all need to sit down," Remus said. "I'm going to explain everything." They moved into the living room. Lily and James sat on the couch while Remus faced them in an armchair.

"The first thing you need to know," Remus hesitated for the slightest of moments. "Peter's alive."

There was a long moment of silence. "What?" James breathed.

"Peter Pettigrew is alive," Remus repeated. "I've seen him, and so have Harry, Ron, and Hermione."

"But," said Lily, when it seemed that James was unable to speak. "How could he be alive? Why wouldn't he have come forward before now?"

"Sirius is innocent," said Remus, but before he could continue, James was on his feet.

"Don't," he said in a choked voice. "Don't Remus. I've been through this before. We tried, remember? We tried to find some way he could be innocent, but Peter… all those people…" his voice broke. Lily took his hand and leaned against him when he sat back down.

"I know, James," Remus said, quietly. "I understand. But you knew that Peter was your secret keeper. The only reason we believed Sirius was guilty was because of what Peter said, and the fact that he was dead. Judging by witness testimony, Peter blamed Sirius for your deaths. We assumed that Sirius had led Voldemort to Peter, and Peter went after Sirius, driven by guilt and rage. But Peter being alive calls everything into question. He has no reason to hide, for one. After hearing the whole story, I am convinced of Sirius' innocence. So is Harry, which is saying something, considering the scene I walked in on."

"You'd better explain everything from the beginning," Lily said.

"Well," Remus began, leaning back in his chair. "It began with Hagrid's hippogriff's execution. I thought that Harry, Ron, and Hermione might go down to visit Hagrid before it happened, so I got out the Marauder's Map to keep an eye on them. They went to Hagrid's and stayed there twenty minutes, but when they left, they were accompanied by Peter Pettigrew. I was amazed at first. I didn't understand how he could be alive, or why he would be there if he was, although I assumed he was in his rat form, due to what happened afterwards."

"Oh my," Lily breathed.

"What?" James asked, but she shook her head and nodded at Remus to continue.

"As I watched, another dot appeared labeled Sirius Black. He collided with Harry…"

James drew in a breath, and Lily tightened her grip on her husband's hand.

"He circled around," Remus hurried on, "and dragged Ron and Peter into the Womping Willow."

"Ron and Peter," James said, quietly. It wasn't a question.

"He was Scabbers, wasn't he?" Lily asked. Remus nodded. After a second, he went on.

"Harry, Hermione, and Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, followed them. At which point, I raced out of the castle and followed them down. When I arrived, Ron was on the bed with a broken leg, and Hermione was nearby. Sirius was on the floor with the cat on his chest, and Harry was threatening him with his wand." James shifted suddenly, and Lily made a small, distressed noise.

"I do not believe he would have killed him," Remus added, quickly. "You'll see why later. Not that he would know how in any case. Anyway, I disarmed them, just in case, and I asked Sirius where Peter was. He pointed at Ron. I realized that as he hadn't revealed himself before now, the only reason I could think of was if he was actually guilty. Sirius confirmed."

"And you just took his word for it?" James demanded.

"You had already explained the switch in secret keepers to me. Peter's death was the biggest evidence against Sirius."

"Just because Peter survived does not necessarily mean Black was innocent!"

Remus voice lowered even as James' rose. "I have trouble understanding why an innocent man would want to spend twelve years as a rat," he said, with the slightest trace of bitterness in his tone.

"I don't understand something," Lily spoke up. "Why are you all so convinced Peter was there at all? Couldn't the map be malfunctioning?"

Both James and Remus turned toward her with looks of incredulity. "The Marauder's Map never lies," said James.

"But you guys made it when you were teenagers... You know what, never mind," she said, exasperated. "Continue, Remus."

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione were angry, betrayed, when it seemed like Sirius and I were friends. Hermione revealed that I was a werewolf…"

"How did she know?" James interrupted. "Harry didn't..."

"No. She figured it out on her own when Severus assigned that essay," Remus said, looking slightly amused.

Lily nodded. "James was furious when Harry wrote us about that, and I can't say I was too happy myself."

Remus shrugged. "It's fine," he said, "Severus has good reason for hating me."

"That had nothing to do with you!" James insisted. "That was all Black. Another time when he was willing to sell out a dear friend's secrets to a known enemy."

"Which brings us back to the topic at hand," Remus said. "I gave them back their wands and put mine away to get them to listen to the story. I then explained how I knew they were there, and we told them that Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew. At that point, I had to convince Sirius to let me explain rather than kill Peter right then. Then I had to persuade the rest of them to listen to the story. Now that I think about it, I had to do a lot of persuading," he added to himself.

"Anyway, at that point the door to the room we were in opened, but no one was there."

"But the Shrieking Shack was never haunted," James protested.

Remus nodded. "That will be explained later. At the time, I explained our years at school and how and why you all became animagi. The topic arrived at Severus Snape when I told them how I had not told Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus, thus making Snape right about me in a way. I had just explained the prank when Severus himself arrived."

"What?!" James exclaimed. "How?!"

"Apparently, I forgot to wipe the map before I left my office," Remus explained, ruefully. "Severus had come to give me my potion and saw me running along the Whomping Willow's passage and followed. He found the invisibility cloak at the foot of the tree where Harry had left it."

James groaned.

"He believed that I was working with Sirius and was going to take Sirius to get the dementor's kiss and me to Azkaban, or worse."

"Git," James muttered. Lily bit her bottom lip.

"At that point, Harry, Ron, Hermione were convinced enough to want to hear the rest of the story. The three of them all tried to disarm Severus at exactly the same moment, and he was knocked out by the strength of the spells."

A grin flitted across James' face for an instant.

"Well, after that Ron pointed out that there were millions of rats in the world, how was Sirius to know where Peter was?"

"That's a good question," Lily said.

Remus nodded. "Sirius said that when Fudge visited Azkaban, he gave him a copy of the Daily Prophet. On the front page was the story of the Weasley's, with Peter on Ron's shoulder."

There was a scuffle and a crash as James knocked a chair over in his hurry to get out of the room. "I don't think we kept that paper, James!" Lily called after him. She must have been right, because five minutes later James returned looking disappointed.

"I realized then that Scabbers had a toe missing," Remus continued, "and Sirius told us the story of their last confrontation. When Sirius caught up to Peter, he yelled to the whole street that Sirius had betrayed you two. Then he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, cut off his own finger, and escaped as a rat."

"Sweet Merlin," Lily breathed.

"Scabbers has been in Ron's family for twelve years," said Remus, "there was no reason he should live that long if he was a common rat. He also wasn't looking so good. I imagine he was losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again, and Ron mentioned that he went through a phase like that almost four years ago, around the exact same time you two woke up."

James sucked in a breath as he and Lily exchanged glances. When they didn't seem about to say anything, Remus went on.

"Sirius explained that Crookshanks knew immediately that Peter and Sirius were animagi. After Sirius managed to gain his trust, he communicated to him what he was after. The cat tried to bring Peter to him, but when he couldn't do that, he stole the passwords to Gryffindor tower from Neville's bedside table. Peter realized what was going on and faked his death again in an attempt to escape.

"Harry lost his temper at that point, accusing Sirius of trying to kill Peter the way he tried to kill you. Apparently, Sirius had said something before I turned up about how he was responsible for your near deaths. Sirius then explained how he blames himself for persuading you to change to Peter. You've got to remember that none of us knew you were alive that night. Sirius only found out you'd survived recently after he escaped." Remus swallowed.

"Anyway, I decided that enough was enough, and Sirius and I forced Peter to show himself." A shadow passed over Remus' face as he remembered the confrontation with his old friend. "He tried to maintain his innocence for a while. The only new information that came up was how Sirius escaped from Azkaban.

"As I said before, Sirius believed himself guilty. Seeing Peter gave him the motivation to escape. He was able to slip past the dementors as a dog when they came to bring him food. They have a hard time sensing animal emotion. He swam to the mainland as a dog and headed to Hogwarts. He's been living in the forest since then. Harry was finally convinced."

Remus grimaced. "It was after that that Peter confessed."

Lily grasped James' hand tightly, and he put his arm around her, looking pale.

"In a way," said Remus, "you were right. Voldemort was too strong for him. He was unable to resist knowing his own life was at stake. Sirius accused him of working for Voldemort for a year before you two 'died', and although I don't know how he knew that, Peter didn't deny it." Here Remus hesitated.

"Did you kill him?" James asked.

"We were going to," Remus replied.

"You shouldn't have," he said, at once, and Lily nodded.

Remus' mouth twisted into a wry smile. "We didn't. Your son stopped us."

"Really?" Asked James.

"You're surprised?"

"He seemed pretty angry with Sirius when he found out he betrayed us."

"Well, he said that he didn't think you would have wanted us to become killers just for him," Remus said with a smile.

James didn't seem to know what to say to that.

"So, after that you all went up to the castle?" Lily asked. "I don't understand. Why haven't we heard about any of this before now?"

Remus didn't meet their eyes.

"It was a full moon that night," James said, his eyes on his friend.

"I didn't take my potion that night," admitted Remus in a low voice. "Peter escaped in the scuffle. Sirius kept me from the others, but," Remus swallowed. "Let's just say it was a contributing factor in my decision to resign."

Lily made as if to speak, but James put his hand on hers to stop her. He knew there was no arguing with Remus in this mood. What's done was done.

"What happened then?" he asked.

"I learned the next day that the dementors arrived."

"What?!" James gaped at him.

"How could they let those monsters anywhere near there?!" Lily exploded. "They're not supposed to be on the grounds! They could have…" She paled. "What happened?" she whispered.

"The dementors came close to giving both Sirius and Harry the kiss, but," Remus raised his voice slightly, "they were chased off by a mysterious Patronus. The good news is that Fudge is going to remove them from the entrances. The bad news is everyone was unconscious, except Severus who brought them all back to the castle."

"Git," said James again. Lily smacked him lightly.

"Yes, well," said Remus, smiling, "Hermione has been using a timeturner to get to her classes this year. Dumbledore gave her and Harry permission to go back in time to rescue Sirius and Buckbeak." Lily gasped, and James grinned. Remus smiled at their shock and got up to walk to the window. "Harry can give you more details about that. All I'll say is that his future self was able to conjure a corporeal Patronus to save his past self along with Sirius and Hermione."

"That's my boy!" cheered James, as Lily beamed.

"Remus," said Lily, after a second's silence, "where is Sirius now?"

James went paper white. "Merlin, what have I done?"

"James...?" Lily began.

"I left him there." James hung his head, burying his face in his hands. "In Azkaban, with... with them." He choked out the word, seemingly unable to call the dementors by their name. "I knew we switched secret keepers. I should have..."

Remus crossed the room quickly, gripping his old friend's shoulder. "James, Sirius does not blame you for that."

"He should."

"No," said Remus. "We all know what the war was like. We all distrusted each other. Sirius thought I was the spy, the Order..." He shook his head, breaking off there. "You believed in all of us, and you were burned. Whether it was by Sirius or Peter doesn't change that. It's natural you didn't know what to think or do about it. Even if you had believed Sirius, you probably wouldn't have been able to get him out of Azkaban. But now, we've been given a second chance."

"He's right," said Lily, quietly. "We've wasted too much time to worry about regrets now."

Just then, there was a loud bark and a scratching sound at the front door. The Potters jumped. James stared at the door with wide eyes.

"Why, there he is now," Remus smirked. He checked his watch. "Actually, he's a little late."

Before he had even finished speaking, James was sprinting from the room. Lily and Remus followed. By the time they arrived at the door, James and Sirius had their arms around each other. If tears were shed, no one ever mentioned them.

Lily leaned over and whispered to Remus, "Thank you. For bringing him home."

"I don't expect he'll stay," Remus muttered back. "He doesn't want to get anyone caught in his problems, and there's no way to prove his innocence without Peter. I don't think you'll be able to persuade him to not to go on the run."

Lily's face fell for a second, before lifting again. "He's here now. The truth is out. That's what matters."

Sirius and James finally let go of each other, and Sirius made eye contact with Lily. "Hey Lils," he said with a grin. He was gaunt and pale, with crazy long, matted hair. He was not at all as she remembered him. But in that grin, she saw her friend again. Smiling hard enough to hurt, she enveloped him in a hug. For that brief minute, it seemed as if the previous twelve years had fallen away, and they were all young again.