[Marauders] Harry Potter: We talked to Hagrid about the Chamber. Also, Sirius, you escaped from prison?!
[Marauders] Harry Potter: Also, hey Remus. Hope you're feeling better today. This is a Marauder's Map spell. Think about replying to talk to me.
Peter Pettigrew replies: Sirius escaped from Azkaban!? Oh no! Oh no!
Remus Lupin replies: Wait, what?
Sirius Black replies: You're in danger! I'm coming to help.
Harry had grabbed Ron and Hermione and found a corner of the library after lunch for the renewed conversation, and was relaying it to them. "Tell him not to come help!" Hermione insisted. "That's crazy."
Reply to Sirius Black: You can't come here. This is the first place they'd look for you. They think you're coming to KILL me.
The article had suggested that very thing. It seemed that everyone assumed Sirius Black would try to finish what he'd started.
Sirius Black replies: Don't worry. I'll be careful.
"That's not reassuring," Ron groused.
Reply to Remus Lupin: I figured out how to talk to the Marauders. You were wolfy last night so you missed the explanation. I… uh… may have accidentally convinced Sirius to break out to try to come help me. He says. Peter says he's a criminal.
Remus Lupin replies: This is a lot. Sirius escaped Azkaban? Wait. Peter's dead.
Reply to Remus Lupin: No, he's in hiding. Says he faked his death to hide from Sirius. Sirius says that PETER was the spy, and faked his death to frame Sirius.
Remus Lupin replies: Uhhh… I need a minute to think about this…
"I guess werewolves have post-transformation hangovers," Hermione mused. "He doesn't sound well."
"See if you can get Peter to come to Hogwarts," Ron suggested.
Reply to Peter Pettigrew: You should come to Hogwarts. Dumbledore would protect you!
Peter Pettigrew replies: I can't. I'm already out of the country. Hopefully far from Sirius.
"Well that's either suspicious, or good planning," Hermione pouted. "And I guess it confirms that you basically have unlimited range."
"Already out of the country," Ron picked up. "You think he left recently? But he just found out about Black."
"Fortunate holiday timing?" Harry shrugged.
Reply to Sirius Black: I'm talking to Remus now. He's up. He's not a spy, right?
Sirius Black replies: Good, loyal Remus. We never should have doubted him. It was Peter! Peter convinced us Remus might be the spy.
Reply to Sirius Black: Okay, thanks. Lay low, I guess? They'll definitely have people looking for you here.
Sirius Black replies: It may take me some time to get there anyway. Never did master apparating without a wand! Though maybe if I could sneak into a floo…
Reply to Sirius Black: They'd definitely notice you jumping out of somebody's fireplace!
Sirius Black replies: Good point! It's great to have someone to help me plan again! I've missed you so much, James!
Reply to Sirius Black: I'm Harry.
Sirius Black replies: Yes. Of course. Sorry. You sound like he did when we were young.
"Maybe he's not a traitor, but he sounds crazy," Hermione stressed.
Ron was thinking aloud, "So Peter says don't trust either of them. But Black says just don't trust Peter…" He decided on the strategy, "See what Lupin thinks."
Reply to Remus Lupin: Sirius claims he escaped to try to protect me. And HE says I can trust you, but Peter doesn't. What do you say?
Remus Lupin replies: And both of them are taking your voice in their head in stride? This is powerful magic. We never built it into the Map.
Remus Lupin replies: But, yes, I can see no reason Wormtail wouldn't go to the Ministry or Dumbledore if he survived. I feel terrible that I never went to talk to Padfoot…
"Wait," Hermione realized, doing the word problem with her genius-level intelligence, "if Wormtail is Pettigrew, and Padfoot is Black, then that means Lupin is either Prongs or Moony. And if he's Moony, it must have been a clue that he was a werewolf. Because of the moon. Maybe the other names mean something?"
Reply to Remus Lupin: You're Moony, sir? Is it because of, well, last night? What do the other names mean?
Remus Lupin replies: I… I don't think I should share that, just in case you're tricking me. But it might be important if Padfoot is loose…
Reply to Remus Lupin: I can just ask him.
Reply to Sirius Black: Moony is a werewolf. Why are you Padfoot and Pettigrew is Wormtail? Are you werewolves too?
Sirius Black replies: No. But we did figure out how to transform, to keep Moony company. Like old McGonagall.
"They're animagi!" Hermione would have shouted, if she didn't respect the library so much. "That must be how he escaped! The article didn't mention that he was registered. They must not have known to guard against him transforming."
Reply to Sirius Black: What are you? And what's Peter, so I'd know if I saw him.
Sirius Black replies: You won't warn anyone?
Reply to Sirius Black: No. Remus confirmed that you're probably innocent. He says he's sorry he didn't visit. Peter says he already left the country.
Sirius Black replies: Of course he did! The rat! Which is what he is. A fat grey rat. Probably missing a toe on his front right paw! From when he faked his death in front of me! I'm a big black dog.
Reply to Remus Lupin: Sirius told me he's a black dog. And that Peter is a gray rat. Missing the finger he cut off.
Remus Lupin replies: Well, then you're certainly getting your information from somewhere valid, you strange voice claiming to be Harry Potter.
Ron's eyes had widened and he'd gone pale, and Harry and Hermione finally noticed after that exchange with Lupin. "What is it?" Hermione checked.
"Scabbers is a gray rat. Who was missing a toe," Ron gasped.
"And showed up at your house right after my parents died. And lived way longer than a rat should have," Harry remembered. "But his nameplate just said 'Rat,' not Scabbers, Wormtail, or Peter Pettigrew."
"Then we have to assume that animagi can hide from the game system, just like Professor Snape can," Hermione agreed. "We should get Professor McGonagall to transform to verify it."
"I'm sure that will be easy to persuade her to do," Harry frowned.
"Guys. I slept in bed with him. I changed clothes in front of him! And he was an old man!" Ron continued having his crisis.
"And I explained the whole game system in front of him," Harry banged his forehead on the table. "That's why he ran away! He was worried I'd figure it out somehow. Maybe his name appeared on the Map?"
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Fred or George. Do you remember seeing the name Peter Pettigrew on the Map ever? It might have been in our dorm.
Fred Weasley replies: I think so! How'd we forget that? We always assumed it was an upper-year we didn't know.
George Weasley replies: Hard to see what room each name is in on the tower. They all kind of stack up.
Fred Weasley replies: Is he a ghost or something?
George Weasley replies: Hiding out in the tower attic this whole time?
Reply to Fred Weasley: Worse. He was Scabbers. I'll fill you both in later.
"I guess you should warn the other two about Pettigrew," Hermione suggested.
Reply to Sirius Black: We think Peter was posing as my friend's pet rat. He ran off as soon as I got the Map. Must have known I'd notice.
Reply to Remus Lupin: We think Peter was posing as my friend's pet rat. He ran off as soon as I got the Map. Must have known I'd notice.
Remus Lupin replies: Oh. Bother.
Sirius Black replies: ****
DISABLE PROFANITY FILTER?
"Harry James Potter, you will not," Hermione insisted. He probably shouldn't have narrated that part to her. But how would she know if he turned it off? "Harry," she growled at him warningly. Okay, so she'd know, somehow.
Ron still seemed upset about the Scabbers revelation, and suggested, "See if you can get the rat to tell you where he is. Say you're going to send him some cheese or something. Then you can send Black to catch him."
Reply to Peter Pettigrew: Are you safe? Do you need anything? If you let me know an address, I can send my owl with money or food or something.
DECEPTION CHECK FAILED
"Uh oh," Harry gasped.
Peter Pettigrew replies: Nice try. I guess the others sided against me? They always did… No, I don't think I'll tell you how to capture me for them to murder.
"I guess that's that, then," Harry sighed. "Maybe I should go ahead and try to remove him from the guild, so he can't hear us talking."
"No, wait," Hermione realized. "Maybe there's some way to track guild members that you haven't figured out yet. If you remove him, you won't be able to use that."
PETER PETTIGREW HAS QUIT THE MARAUDERS
"Looks like he made his own decision," Harry explained. "I wonder how he realized he could do that."
"You mentioned guilds in front of him, and that his name was on the list," Ron remembered.
"What a jerk," Hermione grumbled. She made another pitch, "We really should tell the professors about all of this."
"How would we prove any of it without explaining all of it?" Harry asked.
Ron, still shaken by the revelation about his beloved pet rat, took a moment to game it out and shook his head, "They didn't believe us about Quirrell. This sounds way less believable. Best case, they confiscate the Map. We don't have any proof of the Chamber or the rat being alive, or even being a rat, except you saying so."
"I'm sure they'd at least try to verify it," Hermione attempted, knowing it was futile. Neither boy's faces budged, so she just said, "Fine. Why don't we at least learn everything we can about—I guess all of it—while Harry looks for skill books this weekend?"
"I'll find the newspapers. And the yearbooks," Ron relented, his anger at being tricked overcoming his normal reticence to avoid research. "I'll see if we can learn more about the Marauders, and tick off that quest box for learning about Black."
"And I'll look up the laws and see what we'd need to get Black another trial for new evidence," she nodded.
"I'll… open up several hundred books to see which ones want to jump into my brain," Harry finished.
It was only the total strangeness of the recent situation that was keeping Harry from realizing that he should hate Peter Pettigrew for getting his parents killed. It would come, in time. At the moment, Ron was angry enough for the both of them.
They managed to pack in another good twelve hours in the library by Monday, and even got their weekend homework done. The rule of one skill book per shelf per hour was holding strangely true, though he had found rather more general skill books than class ones now that he was hitting the grade-level rankings for his mage skills. He was fairly sure he must be passing over some books that would have given him points if his skills weren't too high. But he now knew a little bit about swordfighting and repairing clocks?
General Skills
Advanced English 4
Basic Acting 1
Basic Athletics 4
Basic Automotive Repair 1
Basic Carpentry 3
Basic Clockwork Repair 1
Basic Computer Use 1
Basic Cooking 4
Basic Creature Harvesting 1
Basic Deception 4
Basic Dodging 2
Basic Drawing 1
Basic First Aid 3
Basic Gardening 3
Basic Guitar 1
Basic Home Repair 1
Basic Instance 1
Basic Locks 1
Basic Martial Arts 3
Basic Money Management 1
Basic Persuasion 3
Basic Sneak 4
Basic Swordfighting 1
Conversational English 20
Conversational French 3
Conversational Greek 3
Conversational Latin 5
Class Skills
Basic Broom Flying 6
OWL Charms 6
OWL Combat Magic 5
OWL Creature Handling 3
OWL Divination 3
OWL Enchanting 3
OWL Muggle Navigation 20
OWL Plant Defense 4
OWL Potions 5
OWL Spellcrafting 3
OWL Transfiguration 6
Seeker Broom Flying 3
At breakfast on Monday, Dumbledore stood up at the high table to speak. "Students, as you've no doubt learned from the newspaper, Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban prison. While it is uncertain how he accomplished this, the entirety of the auror force is looking for him, and his picture has been placed with the muggle news."
"Bet they're not looking for a dog," Harry muttered to himself.
The headmaster continued, "He is not in possession of a wand, and would need to cover quite a great deal of Scottish highland on foot were he to come this way, but the Ministry is taking no chances. I have begun discussion with the Minister about providing a protective force, just as precaution should he come in this direction. You should not worry. Simply go to class as you always have, and we will inform you if the situation changes."
As soon as he sat back down, the question up and down the Gryffindor table was, "What's a precautionary force?"
It was Percy Weasley who suggested, "I understand that the auror department is understaffed at the moment. If they are all out hunting Black, there remain few trained wizards who could stand guard duty. I believe there may be precedent for using the wardens of the prison for this kind of thing."
"Aren't those just aurors set as prison guards?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, no," Percy frowned. "Most of the guard work at the prison is done by a particularly powerful type of non-being, known as a dementor. I cannot imagine Sirius Black will want to tangle with one of them again. But, I could be wrong. I await whatever the Ministry does to protect us. Certainly, we are in no danger, regardless. Safest place in the world, Hogwarts."
Harry wasn't so sure. After Ron's book report over the weekend on the little known about Sirius, that quest goal had checked off. On Percy's statement, a new one had formed.
THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (MAIN QUEST)
A secret from your past has escaped.
* Get to Hogwarts
* Learn about the crimes of Sirius Black
O Learn about Dementors