Chapter 19

Revelations and Escapes

Lily, Ron and Hermione's mouths were agape as they stared at Peter Pettigrew, who looked terrified as he looked around the room. "Remus… Sirius… my old friends," he said meekly, before bolting for the door. Sirius and Lupin caught him quickly, with Minerva pointing her wand at him angrily.

"So, the rat has revealed himself at last!" Minerva exclaimed. Lily had never heard her so angry before, and the look in her eyes showed how scary she could be.

"I… no, I'm not… he's lying!" Pettigrew exclaimed. "I… I would never…"

"So why are you here? Why hide all these years if you were innocent?" Sirius demanded angrily.

"Because… I knew… I… I knew… he'd be after me! He hated me!" Peter exclaimed, pointing to Lupin.

"You were never a good liar, Peter," Minerva said bitterly. "Why did you do it?"

"I… I didn't… I didn't have a choice! I… I had to… he was going to kill me," Peter pleaded.

"Liar! You were passing information to Voldemort for a year before James and Lily died!" Lupin finally sounded angry. "I heard his supporters in Azkaban, they wanted to kill Peter, they thought he betrayed Voldemort, and that was how he died."

"YOU COWARD!" Sirius cried out angrily.

"Uncle Sirius, please, calm down," Lily said. "Please don't let him make you angry."

"Lily, he's the reason your parents are dead," Lupin said, sounding calm again.

"Maybe, but he can go to the Dementors, and go to Azkaban," Lily said. "My dad wouldn't want his best friends to become murderers."

"You are so much like your mother Lily, she would be so proud of you," Lupin said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Remus… I wish… I should have known…" Sirius said softly. Lupin smiled and took Sirius's hand.

"It's okay Sirius. I missed you," Lupin said, smiling before kissing him softly. Lily grinned at the sight.

"Let's get this filth out of here, and clear your name, Remus," Sirius said. "Peter, you owe Lily your life. Don't ever forget that," he added bitterly.

"Please… don't… I'm…" Peter exclaimed, his eyes darting around the room.

"Let's go," Minerva said angrily. The group walked forward, but as they did, Lupin stopped as he cried out in agony.

"Remus?" Sirius asked.

"It's… it's a full moon!" Hermione exclaimed. As Remus began to grow hair, Peter pushed Sirius down and ran for the exit, grabbing Sirius's wand as he did. Lily aimed her wand at him and fired a disarming spell at Peter, who dropped the wand, but quickly ran, slamming the door closed behind him. Lily ran to the door, opening it, but watched as Peter ran down the stairs and out of the building. She ran after him, followed by Hermione.

As they reached the street, they stopped, seeing Dementors starting to swarm the house. Lily quickly cast her Patronus, but it wasn't strong enough as the Dementors shattered her weak shield.

Hermione and Lily turned to run back to the shack, but the Dementors were starting to close in towards them, so they ran down the trees as quickly as they could. Racing through them, Lily felt her heart racing, but she and Hermione had to try and hide.

Unfortunately, Lily heard a thud, and turned around, seeing Hermione fall into the mud. The ground had already begun to ice up, thanks to the Dementors, so Lily ran and helped her up.

"Come on, we need to keep running," Lily exclaimed, feeling a cold chill run down her back. Hermione nodded, but before they could, the Dementors moved towards them, having circled them.

Lily tried to cast her Patronus spell once again, but it failed as she heard her mother's voice, screaming. She saw Hermione fall to the ground, a Dementor moving towards her, but couldn't do anything as another Dementor reached her.

She could feel her mind starting to fade, when she heard a loud, female voice call out, seeing a large Doe striking the Dementors, forcing them back, with waves of white light pulsing around them. Lily, in the last moments of consciousness, tried to see who had saved them, and felt her heart skip a beat as she saw a face, one she knew from her photo album; it was the face of her mother, and it was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

"How is she?" a familiar male voice was the first Lily heard.

"She'll be fine, Sirius, just fine," Dumbledore's voice spoke up. "Right now, she needs rest, as does Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley."

"I can't believe he got away," Sirius fumed, as Lily slowly sat up.

"Uncle Sirius?" she asked weakly. Sirius turned, and smiled, heading over to her.

"Lily, are you okay?" Sirius asked. Lily nodded.

"I'm fine. Remus was right, he can keep his mind when in wolf form now," Sirius said, smiling.

"Where is he? Is he okay?" Lily asked.

"He's fine, he's in the castle, isolated, until he returns to human form," Sirius said. He smiled at her. "You were very brave, trying to go after Peter like that."

"I needed to make sure Uncle Remus could be proven innocent," Lily said.

"I know Lily, I know. I never expected Peter to move so quickly," Sirius said.

"Is Mr. Lupin going to be okay?" Hermione's voice spoke up from the bed next to Lily. She looked at Hermione and smiled.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked. Hermione nodded.

"Right now, there is some discussion as to what to do. There is some thought by Aurors that Remus enchanted all of you with dark magic, and no evidence to prove otherwise," Dumbledore explained.

"What? We were there, how can they just dismiss us like that?" Lily demanded, ignoring the pain in her head.

"Right now, Lily, there is a meeting going on. What Remus has done, gotten out of Azkaban, shown that he can keep his mind as a wolf, managed to hide from everyone for so long, people think that's a sign of very dark magic," Dumbledore explained softly. "Sirius, you'll be asked to speak soon, so maybe you should go and get ready."

"I'll be back soon Lily," Sirius promised, before leaving the hospital wing. Ron was now starting to sit up, his leg in a bandage.

"Miss Granger, Miss Potter, what Remus needs now is some form of evidence proving his innocence, perhaps if someone could get something that he was wearing or perhaps even a hair or two. We would just need more time," Dumbledore said pointedly to Hermione, who's eyes widened.

"I think three turns should do the trick, and you know the law Miss Granger, you must not be seen. If you do this right, several lives will be saved tonight," Dumbledore said, with a smile. He went to the door of the hospital ward and walked out.

"What did that mean?" Ron asked, confused.

"I'll tell you later Ron," Hermione said, as she got up and pulled Lily to her feet. She then took out an unusual necklace with a large chain from around her neck and put the chain around her and Lily's neck.

"Hermione, what is this?" Lily asked, confused.

"Hold on Lily," Hermione said, as she turned a small hourglass three times. Lily suddenly felt very dizzy as everything began to move around them, in a blue. When it finally stopped a few moments later, daylight was shining through the windows, so Hermione pulled the chain off Lily and put it back around just her neck.

"Remember me telling you I couldn't tell you how I was getting to class? This is how. It's a time-turner, it allows someone to travel back in time. Professor McGonagall got me permission to use it this year to take all my classes. I had to swear never to tell anyone," Hermione said.

"You mean… we're back in time?" Lily couldn't keep the shock from her voice as Hermione led her through the castle.

"Yes, and we can't be seen. People who mess with time can end up messing with the timeline, or even killing themselves," Hermione said. "Each turn took us back six hours, it's now just before seven. I'm not sure why the Professor suggested we go back this far."

"Wait, he said we could save several lives. What if he was talking about Buckbeak?" Lily asked. "If we can get Buckbeak out of Hagrid's Garden, we can hide him in the forest until he can be found somewhere safe to go."

"How can we do that?" Hermione asked, as they made a beeline for Hagrid's hut. "I mean, we're heading there now, aren't we?"

"Let's go anyway, and see what we can do," Lily said, looking around.

By the time they made their way to Hagrid's, they had watched Hermione punch Malfoy, which would always make Lily smile, and then outside Hagrid's hut, Hermione had seen they weren't leaving, so she threw a couple of stones at Lily.

"That hurt, Hermione," Lily complained.

"Sorry, Lily," Hermione replied meekly. Quickly hiding behind the trees, they watched as their past selves headed to where they had watched the execution, and quickly approached Buckbeak, bowing first and then leading him into the woods.

Lily smiled as she saw the executioner cut through a pumpkin in frustration, sending birds into the air. She then looked at Hermione.

"I think Dumbledore knew we were here," Lily whispered. "He would have seen Buckbeak hadn't been there."

"Which is why he told me to do this," Hermione agreed with her friend. "We need to get to the Shrieking Shack, quickly."

"Buckbeak can fly us, right?" Lily asked. They both got on his back, guiding him to near the Shrieking Shack.

"We need a plan. We don't have a camera, do we?" Hermione asked.

"No, and we can't tell anyone we were here, otherwise we'll all be in trouble," Lily agreed, watching the house from a spot they knew they didn't go near before.

"We could try and grab some of his hair," Hermione thought aloud.

"I don't have my cloak with me, so he'd see us and run," Lily countered. "What about a freezing spell?"

"How would we explain that we have Pettigrew? Plus, I don't think we're strong enough to be able to do a strong enough one to stop him," Hermione said. "Wait, I have an idea. There's a spell I've been learning in my spare time, the summoning spell. If I can summon a few hairs, then the Minister can use magic to prove they belong to Pettigrew."

"Can you do that?" Lily asked, impressed with her friend. Of course, there would be spells Hermione was learning in her spare time, even though he doubted she had many.

"It's our only hope," Hermione said. They sat and watched, with Buckbeak just inside the woods. It felt like hours before they finally saw Peter emerge from the house.

"Accio Pettigrew's Hairs!" Hermione exclaimed. Lily watched with amazement, and gratitude, as several of Pettigrew's hair shot away from him as he was turning into a rat, and into Hermione's hands.

"Hermione, that was bloody brilliant!" Lily whispered, as she watched their past selves go running past them. Lily gave chase, keeping her distance from the dementors.

"Lily, we need to go back!" Hermione hissed.

"Not yet. Hermione, I saw my mom! She was the one who saved us!" Lily exclaimed, smiling. "I saw her before I passed out."

"Lily, you… your mom… she's dead," Hermione said gently.

"I know, but she's still there somehow, and I need to see her," Lily insisted, racing ahead. She and Hermione reached where the Dementors had attacked, and watched, Lily's heart pounding.

"Lily, we… are you sure?" Hermione whispered. Lily nodded, watching the scene. Any second now, her mum would appear. She took a deep breath and looked at the ground, worried, and then spotted something; a patch of ice that was clear enough to see her reflection. Her eyes widened as she stepped forward, ignoring Hermione's objections.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Lily shouted. She felt a warmth rush through her as a large Doe appeared, and ran at the Dementors, as did waves of bright light. She laughed softly as she saw the Dementors fleeing, and as she watched her past self collapse, she watched the Doe approach them, and smiling, before vanishing. Lily hid with Hermione, moments before Sirius and a werewolf Lupin raced towards her past self.

Hermione kept silent until they were sure Minerva had left the shack with Ron, before they ran inside with Buckbeak, tying him in the bedroom.

"Lily… that… you managed to summon a Patronus… how? That's really advanced magic!" Hermione exclaimed. Lily smiled.

"I looked at a patch of ice and saw my reflection, and I realised I hadn't seen my mum, I'd seen myself! I look like her, that's what everyone keeps telling me," Lily said.

"So?" Hermione asked, confused.

"I knew I had done the spell before, so I knew I could do it. Does that make sense?" Lily asked. Hermione thought carefully.

"A little," she conceded, as she made sure Buckbeak was secure.

"Buckbeak, stay here and stay quiet. I'll send help as soon as we can," Lily promised. Buckbeak nodded, and laid down, closing his eyes, so Lily and Hermione raced through the shack and back through the tunnel, avoiding being hit by the Whomping Willow and heading into the school.

As they reached the hospital wing doors, they saw Dumbledore smiling as he closed the doors. Hermione pulled out the hairs they got from Pettigrew and handed them to him.

"Well done, both of you. Now go inside and get some rest. I promise you, with this I will be able to secure Remus Lupin's release," Dumbledore said. "We'll come and see you after."

"Yes, Professor," Lily and Hermione said at the same time. They opened the door, just as their other selves vanished, with Ron bolting up.

"What? How?" Ron demanded.

"We'll tell you later Ron, it'll take… time to explain," Lily said, grinning happily, with her and Hermione bursting into laughter, leaving Ron looking confused. They were quickly ushered back into bed by Madam Pomfrey, but Lily felt extremely satisfied, and knew that they had made a difference, and now she knew the truth, she also hoped that her Uncle Sirius would find some peace, and happiness, at long last.