CHAPTER 23
The Attack Of The Dog
The five turned to look in the direction of the forbidden forest to see a huge Black monster-like dog - similar to the one they'd seen slinking around the corner of Privet Drive - charging towards them very noisily. Before they could react, he bounded foward and with a great leap, it threw Ethan, Neville and Draco to the floor with such force, they were stunned for a couple of seconds. Then it grabbed Harry by his left leg and pulled him towards the forest as though Harry weighed nothing, there was nothing that the girls could do, but scream.
Alas, Hagrid and their classmates were too far to hear.
Blaire made a leap for Harry, but the dog pulled him away further, until it reached the infamous Whomping Willow.
"Harry!" Blaire cried, expecting the tree to smash him with one of its branches. But, curiously enough, the tree remained dead still. It didn't even twitch. And for the first time in their Hogwarts life, they noticed a hole at the bottom of the tree.
And to their horror, the dog pulled Harry into that hole. And Harry's right leg, unable to move thanks to its condition wasn't able to fold in time, pausing the dog's movement. The moster pulled harder and Blaire shut her eyes in time for the loud snap and Harry's agonising cry of pain.
"Let's get help!" Blaire screamed.
"No!" Ethan gasped. "God knows what that thing will do to him. We are a huge number, we might just manage to chase it off. Harry's got that cane, hasn't he?"
"Yes." Blaire choked out.
"I've got my potions knife." Draco said.
"So do I." Neville said.
"Tilly," Ethan said. "You go on to the castle. I don't want you getting hurt because of-"
"I don't care!" Tilly screamed. "I'm coming! I won't be able to bear it if something happened to you lot and I could have done something to stop it!"
"We're wasting time arguing!" Draco shouted.
"Let's go!" Tilly shrieked.
Together they made it to the Whomping Willow and WHAM!
The tree came to life and struck Draco, who was the closest, on his shoulder, flinging him away.
"Harry?" Blaire tried fearful for his state.
There was no answer.
"Oh God!" she cried with worry.
For the next three or four minutes, the tree refused to let them enter, but from the whole, came out the ugliest cat Blaire had ever seen.
"Crookshanks?" Tilly said in more shock than disgust. "That's Hermione's cat!"
"Look at what it's doing!" Draco said. "It's placed it's paw on that sort of knot-like think there and the tree's stilling!"
True enough the tree came to a dead still, and before waiting a moment longer, Blaire ran foward and dived down the hole, followed immediately by Ethan, Neville, Draco and Tilly.
The hole had lead them to a tunnel and Blaire and Ethan were already running foward without checking to see if any kind of danger was lurking around. They tried again and again calling Harry's name, but got no response.
Then, after what seemed their eleventh call, they were greeted by a long, pain-drawn groan.
"Harry!" Ethan, Blaire and Neville called, but they got no response again, until they reached a...room, a very battered and worn out living room of a house.
"Don't come! Don't come!" Harry cried out suddenly. "Don't! Don't! You'll die! They'll hurt you! Animagus!"
"Shut up, Harry!" Ethan shouted in frustration. "We're almost there."
"They?" said Neville as they climbed up the creaking stairs and entered another room.
And as their eyes fell on a very pale Harry, who was seated on the far corner of a dilapidated bed, clutching his right leg as though his life depended on it, Blaire noticed his eyes glaring in hatred at something ahead.
The others moved towards him.
"Harry!" Ethan said, relieved. "Thank goodness! I thought that beast would kill you!"
Blaire followed them and noticed the cane she'd gifted him in their first year for Christmas was lying by Harry's side.
"Why did you come!" Harry moaned. "He's going to kill you too!"
"Who?" Blaire asked.
The door snapped shut behind them just then, and they whirled around to see an apologetic Lupin, in whose arms was a struggling rat, and by his side, barring his yellow, rotten teeth in the form of an atrocious grin was Sirius Black.
"Expelliarmus." Black croaked, holding out Harry's wand, and all their wands escaped their hands and landed on the floor around Black's.
"You!?" Blaire exclaimed, glaring at Lupin with hatred, driven more by the rise of adrenaline in her system and the fear for Harry's life.
"He's a Werewolf!" Ethan exclaimed with undisguised disgust and Lupin paled considerably.
"Shut up you two!" Draco's admonishing voice came into their heads, followed by a dry, "Oh oh."
"I had a feeling that you had figured it out." Lupin said at last.
"Draco?" Ethan, Blaire and Neville said surprised at hearing his voice in their heads. Harry seemed to be in too much of pain to understand what was happening.
"Accidental, I suppose. No time now. We need a plan. And quick!"
"Let us explain ourselves." Lupin said with calm confidence as Black bent to lift up the wands.
"Let him talk!" Neville said. "Don't interrupt him. I have a plan."
"I'm sure you already know the story of the Marauders, Lily and Snape... Let me add to it. When I was a little boy, I was bitten by Fenrir Greyback, the most feared werewolf known. And at the age of four, I was then pronounced a werewolf. I had lost all my childhood privileges, friends, company, happiness and even the chance to study. All that I knew was that I dreaded full moons, that full moons meant pain, pain of limbs growling, pain of bones breaking, and if werewolf is unable to find someone to bite, it bites itself, and there was terrible the pain in that as well.
"To my good luck, however, Dumbledore had become Headmaster and was kind enough to let me study. This place that you see," he looked around with bitter resentment, "and the tree that guards the tunnel, the Whomping Willow, were put up for my sake. The tree would keep anyone from coming close and the house was the place I spent the full moons. I howled in pain during my transformations and the villagers could hear the sounds and they began calling this place the Shrieking Shack."
"Can you hurry up, Remus!" Black croaked, now that he'd picked up all the wands and was standing up straight.
"Let me finish explaining."
"I want to finish what I'd set out to do twelve years ago!"
"Be patient, Sirius!" Lupin admonished.
"Blaire," Neville said, "Slowly move towards Tilly... Slowly, Blaire, or you'll tip them off!"
"Now, once I started at Hogwarts, I had to come up with reasons every month to excuse my absence from lessons and the dormitory. But my friends, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew realised the actual reason two years later.
"Great!" Neville said, grabbing hold of Draco's forearm, "Ethan get on the bed and grab hold of Harry."
"They confronted me and instead of turning their backs in disgust, they began helping me find excuses, they helped with the lessons I missed when I spent time recovering in the infirmary. They were the best thing that could have happened to me...that is until they decide to reasearch on werewolves and learnt that a werewolf was a lot calmer in the company of other animals. A little while later, I learnt that they were studying animagi and in my fifth year, they were full-fledged animagi. James was a Stag, Sirius was a dog and Peter was a rat." Lupin indicated to the rat in his arms, but before anything could dawn onto them, Neville put his plan in action.
"That's it! All of you, grab hold of your portkeys and when I say now, say Potions aloud! One! Two! Three!"
"NOW!"
"POTIONS!" they yelled in unison and Black and Lupin were pushed out of view only to be replaced by a whirl of colours that accompanied the imaginary hook at their navel.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As Amelia Bones, Albus Dumbledore and his fellow Heads of House discussed protection techniques, Severus occupied himself thinking of the best lines he could use to get Remus Lupin fired. It was high time they realised that ragged wolves didn't belong around a place called school that was a source of adventurous, rule breaking teenagers. It was high time they realised that it was very unhealthy to have a werewolf, under the influence of Wolfsbane or not, transform in a place full of sleeping beings!
And besides, this very werewolf, no matter whatever Dumbledore believed, could have possibly helped Sirius Black enter the heavily protected castle!
Severus was desperately trying to tweak their topic about protections against escaped criminals to protections against all kinds of dangers, significantly the werewolf related dangers. But it seemed like Dumbledore, Minerva, Filius and even the ever trusting and unsuspecting Pomona knew what was in his mind, for they interrupted before he could complete a single sentence.
Dumbledore probably must have given them the instructions...they weren't one's to think so ahead! The headmaster must have had ample of time to do that, considering that he was the last to arrive to welcome the Minister, thanks to the werewolf's trap. Years ago, Severus had been in the same spot as Draco and Neville had been this afternoon and he had been in a nasty mood for the rest of the day.
Severus tried and tried to get his statement through for a little less than half-an-hour, and finally realising that he was fighting a lost battle, he let out a sound that was between a snort and a huff and made a move to stand up and stalk right out of the office, when there was a loud crash and something huge and noisy collided with him, sending him painfully to the floor, the chair broken with the weight and the force of the collision.
Then there was silence and through his stunned and painful surprise, he heard a pained groan.
Severus blinked and looked clearly, only to find himself being the comfy cushion to six trembling thirteen-year-olds. Five of them were his charges, and the other was Tilly Ollivander. Every one of them was pale, though Harry's was more towards the shade of sickly.
"Prof." Harry said weakly when his eyes caught sight of him. Then he groaned again and fainted. His head would have crashed onto the floor had Flitwick, who had leapt out of his chairs along with all the other occupants in the room, grabbed hold of his shoulders.
Then there was chaos.
"Sirius Black!" Blaire shrieked right next to Severus's sensitive ears."In the Shrieking Shack!"
"Professor Lupin!" Draco said at the same time."Friends with Black!"
"Dog!" Tilly screamed along with Draco and Blaire. "Big dog, grabbed Harry... Whomping Willow!"
Ethan spoke at the same time, "Dog broke Harry's leg!"
"They're friends!"
"Tunnel!"
"werewolf!"
"Whomping Willow leads to the Shrieking Shack!"
"Animagus!"
"So scared! Thought it would eat Harry!"
"Harry! Where's Harry!"
"Quiet!" Severus commanded in a loud voice, and immediately, there was silence. Minerva conjured six stretchers, and leviated the six children, starting with Harry, on the stretchers. From the corner of his eye, he saw Dumbledore send out a Patronus.
Severus stood up and stretched his aching back.
"Alright!" Dumbledore said, "Why don't one of you tell us what happened?"
"Sirius Black's as animagus." Ethna said in a high, nervous, scared voice. "A dog!"
"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Pomona said, her voice calm and soothing. "Neville, you're the calmest of the lot. Why don't you do the talking."
"Prof, we were late lunch today because of that web prank, so Harry, whose winter wear was soaked from a fall, didn't have time to run down to get a fresh pair of gloves or coat, so we all set out together, but when we were halfway to Hagrid's Hut, Blaire came out to us with Harry's clothes and Tilly joined us for the afternoon, because of the fight between Ron and Hermione. Well that's how we were all at the same place at the same time. Anyway, Tilly spotted this huge big black dog rushing towards us.
"It was so huge, it knocked Ethan, Draco and me down with one leap and it grabbed Harry by his goo -er- left leg and dragged him towards the Whomping Willow with such speed, we couldn't do anything until it disappeared down a hole at the bottom of the tree! Apparently you've got to touch a knot on the tree to stop it from moving, and Crookshanks, that is Hermione's cat is working with this dog. The cat stopped the tree from hitting us and we jumped down into the hole after Harry.
"Honestly Prof, we would have come to you, but by the time we explained to you the whole situation, Harry would have probably been dead. The hole led to a tunnel that opened out into a two-storey house. Harry was on the bed upstairs, unable to move, because his right leg got caught at the opening of the hole as the dog pulled him in and it snapped.
"And when we entered and ran to Harry, the door snapped shut and we turned and saw both Sirius Black, holding Harry's wand and Remus Lupin, holding on to a struggling rat. They-"
"Shrieking Shack you say?" Amelia Bones interrupted.
"Yes." Neville said.
"What are we waiting for! They will-" she broke off as the fireplace flared green and a figure spun into view and Madam Pomfrey stepped out of the grate.
"Poppy," Dumbledore said, "keep these six in this room no matter what. The rest of you, hold on to either one of my arms... it's one of those small privileges granted to the Headmaster."
The moment Severus held on to his right arm, Dumbledore twisted and they were disapperating... straight to the Shrieking Shack. The moment Severus realised where he was, his wand was in his hand.
Before him was a very visible protective shield through which he could clearly see Sirius Black and Remus Lupin standing over a man, steadily pointing their wands at him. Severus turned his head to take a look at the man on the floor and received one of the greatest jolts of his lifetime...For the man that lying stunned on the floor was none other than the long since dead Peter Pettigrew!
A gasp from his side told him that his companions too had seen the spectacle.
Lupin turned his head to stare at them with emotionless eyes and said, "I think I owe you an explanation."
Severus was about to open his mouth and let out a string of indecent comments, but a firm hand on his shoulder shut him up before he could start.
"By all means, Remus" Dumbledore said from behind Severus. His tone as emotionless as Lupin's face.
"I'll make it quick." Lupin said seriously. "Whether you choose to believe me or not, it's upto you. But you may subject each of us to Veritaserum if you wish and this story will not change."
"Get on with it!" Black growled.
"Patience." Lupin said to him sharply. "It never was your virtue and it shall never be. I only hope it doesn't dig a deeper-"
"Get on with your excuses, Lupin!" Severus sneered. "We have no time for your philosophy."
Lupin nodded, and with his wand still pointed at Pettigrew, he said. "When I was in my second year, my friends James, Sirius and Peter learnt of my Lycanthropy. And instead of backing away, they decided to find measures to help me. And when they realised that being around a werewolf kept it sane, they decided to try and become animagi."
"Preposterous!" Minerva snapped. "Utterly impossible."
"Please let me finish, Minerva. Please save your judgement for later. In their fifth year, they succeeded."
"Oh really?" Severus mocked with contempt.
"Yes!" Lupin insisted withdrawing his wand and putting it in his belt. He began pacing the floor. "James was a stag, Sirius a Dog and Peter a Rat...Turn him, Sirius."
"Transfomare animale animae!" Black croaked out and in the place of Pettigrew lay an immobile fat rat.
"That's Weasley's rat!" Minerva exclaimed.
"Of course." Lupin said.
He moved towards the rat, lifted him up and moved him towards the shield so they could get a better look.
"Notice how he's missing a toe on this paw."
"Now, I will let Sirius tell his tale about what actually happened. You must bear in mind that he wasn't given a trial... Sirius."
The look of utmost lothing Black sent at the rat did nothing to flatter his ugly, filthy face. He turned to them and croaked out miserably, "I came to the Potters a few days before Halloween because I knew the Death Eaters would know that I was the first choice. I was afraid that I'd sell them out, so I convinced them to change the secret keeper to the lazy, good for nothing Peter Pettigrew."
He let out a bitter deranged laugh.
"Turned out I put the Potters right into the murders trap! You hear!...I killed the Potters. You're right...I'm a murderer! I'm a murderer! I signed their death warrant the moment I switched keepers! The rat sold them out! He told Voldemort! And when I realised the truth, I tracked him down! But useless, foolish, little Peter turned into cunning, sly Peter!... Shouted out across the street about how I betrayed the Potters. Then he placed his wand behind his back and killed the closest by bystanders!
"Cut off his finger and transformed into a rat! He escaped and left me to take the blame for the blast! And now...it is my turn for revenge! I waited twelve years to do this, so if you will all excuse me, I am going to commint the murder I was sentenced for."
Severus stood stunned. He said, "Do you expect us to believe that?"
"You are free to believe whatever you like, Snape."
"For all you know, Pettigrew could have been hiding from you!" Amelia Bones said, speaking for the first time.
"Whatever for? I was stuck in Azkaban! The rat was hiding from all his friends who thought he'd betrayed their Dark Lord! No-one expected his reign to end when he decided to pay the house, whose address Pettigrew disclosed to him, a visit."
"Were you and Remus in contact, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, lowering his wand slightly.
"No." Black said, shaking his head and the elbow length mass of tangled hair violently. "We met a few days after December. Snape had taken Ethan, Blaire and Harry out infront of the lake, where he began explaining to them the believed truth behind my predicament. Remus had been out there and heard his story and I heard his story too. Apparently, he spotted me and waited patiently for Snape to take the triplets in and he confronted me.
"He was going to tie me up and take me to Dumbledore, but I convinced him with the truth. He actually believed me, but I begged him not to tell anyone. My life was already ruined and I thought starting out with a new identity, in a new country would be better than trying to pick up the pieces of my old one.
"I told him that he would never see me again, that I would only kill Pettigrew and then disappear completely. But he found the Marauders Map of Hogwarts - a map that we created during our Hogwarts days that kept track of everyone in the castle and on the grounds - and spotted my name on it today morning. I was in the Shrieking Shack.
"He came to me and told me that he would help me find Pettigrew...but we would have to explain to the triplets first, or they would never know the actual truth. So I told him to get the rat, while I formulated a plan to get hold of the triplets. So-"
"So," Severus said fiercely, "You put up that web on the dungeon door -"
"That was Remus's doing-"
"And," Severus said a little louder, "You decided to grab a child by his leg and drag him down a hole, taking for granted the fact that his other leg could have broken. The child broke his leg, lost consciousness and still is quite unable to-"
"Severus!" Dumbledore said.
Black bowed his head with what looked like remorse, "I regret it."
"The hell you do!" Severus roared furiously.
"That's enough!" Dumbledore said. "Take off that shield."
Lupin looked inquiringly at Black and received his nod. Then Lupin snapped his fingers and the shield vanished and Severus readied himself for an attack...there was none.
"Severus," Dumbledore said, "Do you have Veritaserum with you?"
Wordless, Severus put his hand into his magically enlarged pockets and produced a vile of Veritaserum. Dumbledore nodded at Filius and the little man leviated the rat out of Lupin's hand. And the moment this happened Severus sent two powerful stunners at them.
They slumped to the ground like two sacks of potatoes.
"Severus!" Dumbledore admonished.
"Veritaserum works better when the consumer is taken by surprise." Severus said calmly and moved foward, without looking back at them.
Coincidentally, both men had their mouths open, and with unusual grace, Severus tipped three drops of the transparent liquid into them.
"Minerva, if you'll turn the rat into Pettigrew...if it really is Peter Pettigrew and not some little art piece these two have conjured."
The sight of two of his childhood tormentors lying in front of him had put Severus in a rare mood. Pomona tutted at him disapprovingly, while Filius placed the rat down and Minerva said aloud, "Transfomare ad tergum humano!"
Peter Pettigrew now took the form of a rat, and this brought Severus out of his good mood rather effectively. And with a scowl marring his features, he viciously spelled Petrigrew's mouth open and tipped in three drops of Veritaserum.
"They're all yours." he said to no one in particular.
"Would you like to take over, Amelia?" Dumbledore asked the Minister of Magic.
"Oh, no." Amelia Bones said in a very firm voice. "I'm going to be the silent witness. I'm going to put my memories into a pensive the moment we get this matter cleared. I'm going to the get responsible parties a fair trial in front of immediate Wizengamot hearing, where trusted newspaper reporters shall see the memories and put on the paper, the necessary part, and leave off the part that can be avoided, or I beleive the entire episode may open up like last time, but only this time, the Potters will not be the centre of unwanted information."
"Good thinking, my dear." he said and moved towards a glassy-eyed Peter Pettigrew.
"What is your name?"
"Peter Pettigrew." he answered in a monotone.
"Are you an animagus?"
"Yes."
"What form do you take?"
"A garden rat."
"Why did you become an animagus?"
"To help Remus."
"Did you learn to become one by yourself?"
"No. Sirius and James helped me."
"Were you the Potters secret keeper on the thirty first of October nineteen eighty one?"
"Yes."
"How did you come to be?"
"Sirius Black approached me and took me to the Godric's Hollow and convinced them to switch, because he felt everyone would guess that he was their secret keeper. He convinced them to change keepers to me and I accepted readily."
"Then what did you do?"
"I waited for the right time and I informed the Dark Lord."
"Coward!" Pomona shrieked.
"I thought better of you!" Minerva growled.
"Were you a Death Eater then?"
"Yes."
"Why did you join them?"
"I needed protection. My friends kept me safe from harm at Hogwarts. They wouldn't have been able to do the same back then...I would have ended up dying trying to keep the three little terrors alive."
"Coward!" Pomona yelled again."
"What did you do after your Dark Lord was killed?"
"I went into hiding. I needed to hide or Sirius Black would have found me and killed me."
"And he found you?"
"Yes, he tracked me down on a Muggle street."
"And what happened then?"
"I didn't give him a chance to act. I shouted out aloud about how he betrayed the Potters and acted as though I was the brave hero confronting the villain, and then, with my wand behind my back, I blasted the street around me, cutting off my index finger at about the same time. Then I transformed back into a rat and ran into the sewers."
"Then what did you do?" Dumbledore asked in undisguised disgust.
"I needed food, I needed to be looked after and I needed information, all the information I could get, so I found a perfect home, the Weasley home, and one of their younger boys, Percy Weasley took me in as a pet. The family was pure-blooded and the father worked at the Ministry. I always got all the information when he came home and spoke to his wife."
Dumbledore shook his head and tied up Petrigrew in chains.
"Minerva," he said, "please apply the necessary spells and keep him from transforming and scurrying away... Don't feed him the antidote until we've questioned them all."
"Pardon me, Headmaster," Filius said, "but don't we already know everything?"
"No, Filius." Dumbledore replied, "We don't."
He walked up to Black and said, "What is your name?"
"Sirius Black." Black replied in a monotone.
"Are you and animagus?"
"Yes."
"What form do you take?"
"A big black dog."
"Why did you become an animagus?"
"To help Remus."
"Were you the Potter's secret keeper on the thirty first of October nineteen eighty one?"
"No."
"Were you ever their secret keeper?"
"Yes."
"You switched?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I was afraid that I would let the Potter's down. I would have died for them, but I was afraid I would crack under the torture."
"So you convinced the Potter's to switch keepers?"
"Yes."
"What happen after Petrigrew betrayed you?"
"I handed the triplets over to Hagrid and I began to track him down."
"You found him and he framed to?"
"Yes."
"Then what happened?"
"I laughed."
"Why did you laugh?"
"Because I had never expected any of this to happen. The entire plan had turned tables on me."
"You were sent to Azkaban?"
"Yes."
"How were you able to remain sane?"
"I kept telling myself that I was innocent, and the dementors didn't find any happiness in that, so they left me with it...and also there was Padfoot. Everytime the dementors were a little overpowering, I would transform and sleep as Padfoot."
"What's Padfoot?"
"That's what I call my animagus form."
"What were your friends nicknames?"
"James was Prongs. Peter, Wormtail and Remus was Moony."
"Why did you choose to transform to Padfoot in the cell?"
"Because animagi aren't affected much in their animagus forms."
"Why did you choose to escape twelve years later?"
"Because I realised that Petrigrew was at Hogwarts with the triplets."
"How did you realise that?"
"When Cornelius Fudge crossed my cell this summer, he was carrying a newspaper. I asked him for it and he threw it in and hurried away. On the front page of the Prophet was a picture of the Weasley family in Egypt and on the youngest boy's shoulder was a rat with a missing toe. I took a closer look and realised that he was Peter Pettigrew."
"Why didn't you escape earlier?"
"I deserved the punishment. If I hadn't switched keepers, the Potters would still be a whole family." With a pained expression he continued, "I as good as murdered them."
"You decided to escape when you realised the Potter triplets were in danger."
"Yes."
"How did you escape?"
"Dementors can't feel animal feelings, so I transformed and waited and when the dementors opened the door to push my food in, I slipped out and I was thin enough to slip through the bars that close Azkaban from the rest of the world."
"How did you reach shore?"
"I swam as Padfoot."
"How were you able to withstand the animagus wards around Hogwarts?"
"I wanted to take one look at the triplets before I moved on with my mission. Under their kitchen window, I heard Blaire suggest to Snape to put on animagi wards around the school, for she had an idea that only an animagi would have been able to escape Azkaban. So I rushed to Hogwarts and remained within it's boundaries until all the wards were put up."
"What was your mission?"
"To get rid of Peter Pettigrew before he could hurt the triplets."
Dumbledore moved away from Black with sad eyes. Sympathetically, he moved foward to Lupin.
Minerva turned to Severus sharply and said, "How did Miss Potter know so much about animagi during her summer holidays?"
"I ask them all to go ahead with their studies during the vacation."
As Minerva turned away, satisfied with his answer, Severus imperceptibly let out a breath of relief.
"What is your name?" Dumbledore asked Lupin.
"Remus Lupin."
"Are you an animagus?"
"No."
"Did you help Sirius Black escape Azkaban?"
"Yes."
"Yes?" Dumbledore asked surprised.
"I didn't tell the authorities about his animagus ability."
"Did you help Black enter the castle?"
"I did not."
"Did you approach him in December?"
"We ran into each other."
"And he told you his story?"
"Yes."
"And you believed him?"
"Yes."
"You didn't tell anyone?"
"I did not."
"Why not?"
"Because I was satisfied he wouldn't kill anyone save for Pettigrew."
"Then you found him on that map and you approached him?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I knew that I could help... but I also wanted the triplets to know the truth, so we hatched a plan that could get them and the rat together, then I would have told them the truth and we would have finished Petrigrew."
"Were you aware of the dangers of exposing school children to a murderer?"
"Yes."
"Why were you willing to take such a risk then?"
"I would never have allowed the children to get hurt."
Dumbledore stared at his for a moment and then said, "Give them the antidote, Severus."
tbc...