Ron Weasley was not a particularly aware individual. When he got his order to appear before the Wizengamot with his pet rat, Scabbers, he didn't seem to realize just what the implication of this was, or that it had anything to do with the Sirius Black hearing. He was much more aware of the immediate effects of this – mainly, his family finding out that he'd lost his pet rat.

"I know I shouldn't tell him anything so his testimony isn't tainted," Harry ranted to Hermione, "but he keeps going on about how upset Percy is going to be! Percy, who had Scabbers for years!" He threw his hands up. "Percy's going to have a heart attack when he realizes just who he had at his bedside for seven years! He'll be a sight more upset over that than the loss of the rat, I'd wager!"

Hermione was hard-pressed not to laugh. "I bet."

When the time for the hearing finally rolled around the next week, it was Hermione who needed to bring Scabbers, as Ron still had no idea where he'd gotten off to. She dutifully retrieved his cage from the back of the top her wardrobe (where the rat didn't have a view over the edge of it, to her immense relief), only to have Crookshanks leap at it almost immediately, hissing and spitting. This time, Hermione understood.

"You know it's not a normal rat, don't you?" she praised Crookshanks, setting the cage down to scratch his head and scruff. "You are such a smart cat, aren't you? Such a brilliant, clever Crookshanks."

Crookshanks purred and looked smug as she scratched behind his ears.

"Well, I'm going to go take care of it," Hermione assured her cat. "They're probably going to transform him back into a person, and I expect he'll be seized and put into custody. There won't be this fake rat lurking around anymore."

Crookshanks seemed to reluctantly accept this, though he still seemed to glower at the cage as Hermione picked it back up. He hissed viciously, and Scabbers squeaked and ran to the back of the cage, cowering. Hermione peered at him curiously.

"You've been a rat for twelve years – do you even remember how to be human?" she wondered. "Can you understand what I'm saying to you?"

Scabbers didn't react to her words, trembling in the back of the cage, and Hermione sighed.

"I suppose we'll find out," she conceded.


To her surprise, not only were Harry and Susan were waiting with Ron at the base of Dumbledore's rotating stairs, but Blaise and Luna were as well.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in astonishment. She glanced around at them all. "Surely you haven't all gotten requests to testify?"

"Susan and I figured we should come along in case they had any more questions," Harry said, shrugging. He looked sideways at Ron. "And, y'know, I wanted to be there. Moral support for Ron, and to see what all goes down."

"And we decided to come along as well," Blaise said, tugging Luna into his side in an awkward hug, "in case they want to ask us any questions as a coven, or in case we're needed to prove the ritual we did."

"And protect you." Luna's eyes were a darker blue than usual, deadly serious. "We're stronger together than we are apart."

Hermione didn't quite know what to say to that, but anything she was about to say was interrupted by the grinding noise of the stairs next to the giant phoenix statue beginning to rotate and rise.

"We'd better get on!" Harry said, hopping onto the stairs. "Come on, it's time!"

"Do these just move for us?" Ron asked, leaping on. "Wicked."

Hermione rolled her eyes and stepped on calmly – it wasn't like the staircase was a trap or obstacle of some sort. Luna and Susan followed suit, and Blaise brought up the rear with his wand aloft, almost as if he was the vanguard.

Dumbledore was waiting for them at the top, blue eyes twinkling.

"What a prepared crowd of young witches and wizards," he said, nodding to them. "Good evening to you all. Are you quite ready?"

"Err—Professor Dumbledore?" Ron said. "I'm sorry, I only just got this a few days ago, but they want me to bring my pet rat, and I haven't got him anymore."

"I'm sure the Wizengamot will be understanding in the matter of your lost pet rat," Dumbledore reassured him. His eyes cut over to Hermione, sharp through his half-moon glasses, and Hermione nodded, patting her pocket. He refocused on Ron, smiling benignly. "So long as you answer their questions honestly, this should not too difficult an experience for you."

Hermione doubted that. Answering questions might not be difficult, but the emotional burden of realizing the truth of his beloved pet…that was going to be rough.


"We can afford it."

Hermione looked up at Royce Fiddlewood, who was grinning down at her.

"I'm sorry?" she said.

"We can afford it," Royce said again. "I spoke to the Department of Magical Transportation. There are unpublished rates they use for Ministry projects – drastically lower rates, which makes sense how the Aurors jump all over the bloody continent without flinching. I'd wondered—" he broke off, clearing his throat. "Anyway. If you can get the diplomatic arrangement in order, we'll be able to fund it and organize it on our side."

"That's excellent," Hermione breathed, relieved. "I've owled Julian Selwyn – he agreed to meet me on an upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. This—this really might work!"

"Don't drop your wand just yet," Royce advised her, taking his seat next to her. "You've still got to talk to New Zealand's people and see what they think."

"I know," Hermione said, biting her lip. "Fingers crossed it goes well."

Royce looked puzzled by the idiom, but he quickly dropped it as Era Hornbeam bapped him on the head as she took her seat.

"I spent my day handling goblins being attacked by Chinese Chomping Cabbages in a town market," she informed him. "They're enormous, compared to the body of a goblin. One goblin lost an arm and howled, and the other goblins counter-attacked the cabbages."

Hermione did her best to stifle her laughter. It wasn't funny, someone had gotten seriously hurt, but the mental image of the goblins going to war with cabbages was too silly to ignore.

"The resulting scuffle broke through the secrecy barriers and into the muggle side of the town." Era glared at him. "This is your fault, allowing the bloody goblins bloody trade."

"They're supposed to go through the committee!" Royce objected. "There's a specific legal outline for them to follow—"

"Well they're bloody not, are they? The committee probably told them to go buy their own cursed cabbages, and they did—"

"We are convened to continue our investigation into Sirius Black's claims," Dumbledore intoned, his voice echoing through the chamber. "Please take your seats."

Era shot Royce a venomous look before settling her robes around her. Hermione wondered what the goblins needed with more cabbages. Had the ones she'd brought them died out? Had they all been used up?

"Ronald Weasley," Dumbledore said. "Would you please take the stand?"

Ron walked to the center of the room, trembling. He took the seat inside the Truth Circle after glancing back at Harry several times, as if needing reassurance of where to go. When he finally settled himself and looked up at Dumbledore, Dumbledore gave him a kind smile.

"If you could say your name for the court, please?"

"Ronald Bilius Weasley," Ron said. "Um. I mostly go by Ron."

"Very good," Dumbledore said. "Now—"

"I don't know anything about Sirius Black," Ron blurted out. "I mean, I heard he was Harry's godfather, but I haven't seen him, and I don't know anything about him being innocent—"

"We have not called you here to ask about Sirius Black," Dumbledore reassured him.

Ron looked confused. "Wait, you haven't?"

"No," Lucius Malfoy said curtly. "You've been called to testify about your pet rat."

"What, really?" Ron was incredulous. "You want to know about Scabbers?"

"Scabbers, you call him?" Lucius Malfoy sniffed. "Well, then…"

"What can you tell us about Scabbers?" Dumbledore asked Ron.

Ron looked kind of boggled by the question. Hermione didn't understand how he was so surprised – his order to appear had included mention of his pet rat in the document.

"Err—well, he's my pet rat," Ron said uncertainly. "He was Percy's before he was mine."

"You inherited a rat?" Phaedra Lestrange's lip curled in distaste.

"I didn't inherit him," Ron objected, face going red. "It's not like Percy died!"

"Forgive me; you received a hand-me-down rat," Phaedra corrected herself, tone dripping in disdain. "Please continue."

As Ron detailed how Scabbers had been in the family for ages but how he'd started to look more sickly this year, Hermione looked at Phaedra Lestrange closely. Did she know about her daughter's espionage and blackmail? Sylvia seemed estranged from her mother, so Hermione doubted it, but if she did know…

"Is there anything special about Scabbers besides him being smart and so long-lived?" Augusta Longbottom wanted to know.

"Err—well. He's missing a toe," Ron said, scratching his head. "Not sure how that happened, but he is."

There was a murmur through the room, wide eyes exchanging significant looks.

"And where is your rat?" Augusta demanded. "You were to bring him today, were you not?"

"Err—well, he vanished," Ron said. He looked miserable. "I haven't seen him since January. He ran off, I guess."

"'Haven't seen him since January'," Lucius Malfoy said, his lip curling. "How convenient."

"You may step down, Ron," Dumbledore bid him.

Ron hopped down from the stand, going to sit with Harry, and immediately discussion and objections broke out.

"This is all hearsay, Dumbledore," Lucius Malfoy said loudly. "Without the rat, this is all insane speculation and the deranged conspiracy theory of a lunatic madman—"

"Luckily for us," Dumbledore cut in, eyes gleaming, "we have the rat present today."

Lucius Malfoy cut himself off abruptly, apparently astonished, and Dumbledore looked satisfied as he nodded to Hermione.

"Miss Hermione Granger," he bid. "If you would approach?"

Hermione walked down to the floor of the chamber, careful not to trip on her long Wizengamot robes. As she did, she marveled at Lucius Malfoy's acting. He knew Pettigrew would be present – it was part of their greater plan, after all – but for the world, you'd never know it by his reaction. Dumbledore seemed taken in by his act as well, even.

But that made sense, Hermione mused. If Dumbledore thought Sirius was innocent, he would think Lucius Malfoy would want to keep him behind bars. He saw what he expected to see. It was harder to imagine Lucius wanting Sirius to be declared innocent, to conceive that he was part of this plan all along.

Hermione took her place inside the Truth Circle, looking up at Dumbledore.

"If you might state your name for the court?" he bid her.

"Hermione Granger," Hermione said.

"And what do you have for the Wizangamot today, Hermione?"

She didn't require much bidding.

"I am a member of Harry Potter's coven," she said, speaking clearly. "I was there when we conducted the Blood Debt ritual."

There was a murmur and looks of astonishment, but Hermione went on.

"After the ritual, we were confused why Sirius Black hadn't appeared, and why we'd gotten Ron's rat instead," Hermione said. "We decided to err on the side of caution, and we captured Scabbers and kept him in a cage." She withdrew the cage from her robes. "I've had him since that night in January."

There was a loud murmur as Hermione set the cage on the stand in front of her, members of the far seats gossiping with each other wildly. Dumbledore banged a gavel to settle everyone back down.

"You've had this rat for months?" Lucius Malfoy demanded. "Why didn't you return him to his friend?"

"We thought the rat might be a person cursed to live as a rat," Hermione shot back. "He did come through the ritual circle, so he had to be responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents somehow."

"But—you said nothing?" Augusta Longbottom prompted. "You told no one?"

Hermione winced.

"I didn't think my Head of House would be pleased to learn that I'd participated in a ritual with the express goal of capturing Sirius Black," she admitted. "And the rat being an Animagus never occurred to us at the time – who would want to live as a rat for twelve years?"

"Thank you, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said. "You may step down."

Hermione bowed and hurried off to the side, joining her coven and Ron. Ron looked torn between being furious and being appalled, but Harry was practically vibrating with anticipation, his eyes wide.

"They're going to do it, aren't they?" he asked in a hush. "Turn him back?"

"There's a spell," Hermione told him, quiet. "The Homorphus Charm. Professor McGonagall told me about it."

Amelia Bones was directing two Aurors now, who were laying down protective wards outside of the truth circle. They took up position next to the circle a moment later, wands at the ready, and Amelia turned to Dumbledore, nodding. Dumbledore nodded deeply back.

"All the witnesses up to this point have been about this rat," Dumbledore proclaimed. "We have heard its history; we have heard the chain of custody. Now, we will learn the truth."

"Get on with it," Lucius Malfoy hissed, eyes tight.

Dumbledore nodded obligingly, withdrawing his wand.

There wasn't even an incantation – the lock of the cage popped open, the door flew open, and Scabbers made a mad dash out of it only to be caught by a wave of magic a moment later, blue-white light catching him in the air. The rat squeaked rapidly, his small gray form twisting madly, there was a blinding flash of light, and then—

It was like watching a time-lapse film of a tree growing: a head was shooting upward from the ground, limbs were sprouting off of a thick trunk, and a moment later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands, whimpering.

He was a very short man, shorter than Hermione, even. He had thin, unkempt colorless hair with a bald patch on the top, and he had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who had lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time. His skin almost looked grubby, like Scabbers' fur, and he had something of the look of a rat about his face, lingering in his pointed nose and his very small, beady eyes.

There was no doubt left to be had that the rat was indeed an Animagus.

There was chaos and a roar from the Wizengamot, members shouting out, and Dumbledore had to bang his gavel several times to regain control while the small man cowered within the Truth Circle, eyes darting around wildly.

"Settle down, settle down!" Dumbledore said, trying to regain control. "We must have order!"

Hermione glanced sideways at Harry, who was staring at Pettigrew with an intense look on his face. Luna stood next to him, her hand on his back supportively, though Hermione wasn't sure Harry was even aware he was being touched. Off to the side, Ron was vomiting, Susan doing her best to Vanish his bile each time more came up.

"He slept in my bed," Ron moaned. He threw up again, gagging, and Hermione winced and went over, withdrawing her wand and Vanishing the small pile. Susan shot Hermione a grateful look before conjuring a cup of water for Ron to wash his mouth out with as he moaned piteously.

"Can't really blame him," Susan said quietly. "This has to be an awful shock."

The Wizengamot was settling down now, and Dumbledore was focused on the man on the stand with a terrible intensity. All sparkle in his eye was gone.

"Your name." His voice was hard, a demand.

The man on the stand cowered.

"P-Peter P-P-Pettigrew," he stammered. "W-w-what's going on?"

Dumbledore was having none of it. "Were you Secret-Keeper for the Potters?"

Peter's eyes bulged. He opened his mouth, only to choke and gag. A circle of red began to glow around him, a slight glow that intensified into a bright red light as Peter continued to struggle. The murmurs around the room grew louder as he fought.

"You are inside a Truth Circle, Peter! One of the most powerful ever laid down. Tell the truth!" Dumbledore's voice boomed.

Peter coughed, trying to catch his breath. Hermione wondered if he had tried to lie so hard, that the Truth Circle had actually choked him to the point of depriving him of air.

"…yes," he gasped finally. "Yes, I was."

"And did you betray the Potters to Lord Voldemort?" Dumbledore demanded. "Did you reveal their location to him?"

The Truth Circle pulsed red warningly as Peter opened his mouth. Peter stared down at it, before he closed his eyes for a long moment, seeming to resign himself to his fate.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, alright, I did."

The outcry was immediate.

"Arrest him!" Augusta Longbottom shrieked. "He is responsible for the deaths of the Potters!"

"Get the Veritaserum!" Thoros Nott declared. "We must have the truth!"

"Why stay a rat?" Amycus Carrow wanted to know. "Why live as a rat for a decade?"

Other people were crying things out, Dumbledore desperately banging his gavel and trying to maintain order. He was at a disadvantage, though – Dumbledore could not stop staring at Peter Pettigrew, and his body seemed to shake slightly with his hatred. Harry was in a similar state, glaring at Peter, but his face was torn between fury and anguish.

"Are they going to give him Veritaserum?" Harry wanted to know. "Will I get to ask him why?"

"Probably not right now," Susan told him quietly, as the Aurors moved to arrest Peter. "This isn't a trial – use of Veritaserum is highly regulated. That won't happen until trial or official interrogation, if at all."

Harry looked wild, his hair standing on end from him running his hand through it so many times. Frustration warred with sense on his face, and he scowled at Peter as he was chained.

"Look on the bright side," Blaise said.

Harry turned to shoot him a glare. "What bright side?"

"Well, Peter's already admitted guilt, yeah?" Blaise commented. "That means you're likely to get your godfather back – and not guilty, too boot."

Harry froze.

"Sirius," he breathed, eyes wide. He turned to Hermione. "Are—are they going to let him go?"

"First, they need to issue a stay of execution," Hermione said. "Err—or whatever they call it, to reverse the Dementor's Kiss order. Then, I think he has to surrender to Ministry custody to be officially arrested and arraigned?"

"He'll probably send word through his Regent his terms of surrender," Susan clarified. "He'll agree to present himself for trial if certain conditions are met." She looked to Harry. "There will be a trial – there has to be, with all the publicity his escape has had. But… with Peter Pettigrew as a witness… he's likely to go free."

Harry's face was frozen, as if he couldn't believe it. Hermione bit her lip, not knowing how to feel. She imagined Harry was feeling some fairly complicated things right now.

"My Mum's gonna kill me," Ron moaned from the floor, where he laid, forgotten. "Not only did I lose Scabbers, but I was feeding a Death Eater for years…"

Their reassurances that Molly Weasley was not going to be upset with him for unknowingly harboring a murderer fell on deaf ears; Ron was utterly inconsolable over the entire thing. He continued to moan and gag while the Wizengamot continued, and by the time the revocation of the Dementor's Kiss on Sight edict was complete, Hermione was sick to death of Ron's moaning and rather wished his mother would kill him over the stupid rat.