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Once Draco arrived in the Shrieking Shack he was relieved to see that he had made it there before the teachers and before Potter and his friends.

"They are on their way," he panted as soon as he saw Sirius, Neville and the Greengrass sisters. "Snape and Lupin. And Harry and his friends. Do you have the rat?" he asked.

"Yes," Astoria announced proudly. "Neville and I left during the big mess in the Great Hall and Neville took me to his dorm. Neville distracted the cat and I caught the rat," she lifted the unconscious rat up for everyone to see. Neville, standing next to her, looked quite proud of their achievement as well.

"Perfect," Draco let out a sigh of relief. Maybe it would all work out for the best. He was optimistic - well, until Sirius opened his mouth.

"Let's kill him," Sirius said, sounding giddy. He made a few steps towards Astoria, who squealed and jumped back, hiding the rat behind her back. Neville instinctively stepped between them, hand tightening around his wand.

"No," Draco said. "Remember what we talked about. We need him alive to prove your innocence."

Sirius looked disappointed, but yielded to the others. "Fine."

"When Snape and Lupin arrive, I will explain what's going on. Snape'll listen to me and if he does not believe my words, we have the rat to prove your story is true." He just hoped Potter and his friends would not complicate the plan. His earlier encounter with Snape had already damaged his credibility. But he still thought Snape would listen to him before attacking him, even if he stood in front of Sirius. He turned towards Neville and the girls. "Maybe you guys should leave," he said. "No one knows you had anything to do with this. You can still get out of this without losing house point or detention... Or Azkaban."

"No," Daphne said, decisively, stepping next to Draco.

"We are in this together. We won't leave you alone when you really need us," agreed Neville.

Astoria nodded her head enthusiastically.

Draco wanted to say something, but was interrupted by the loud bang of a door being thrown open and hitting the wall. "YOU FOUL," the golden trio burst into the room and Hermione made her way towards Draco. "EVIL," she took another step towards Draco and smacked him in the face. Hermione was so mad, she was shaking.

Draco held his burning cheek. He had had a feeling that being slapped by Hermione Granger might be one of those things that he couldn't have changed had he tried. A universal truth that could not be undone. He was beginning to suspect that the past did not want to be changed, which was one of the reasons why the more Draco tried to change things, the more problems he ran into.

"Leave him alone," Neville yelled.

"Et tu, Neville?" Hermione whispered, shock and disappointment evident on her face. Draco could see the fight leave her betrayed body.

Harry and Ron were standing behind Hermione, pointing their wands at Draco and Sirius.

"Hermione, it's not what-" Neville started.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco yelled, the wands of the trio flying into his hand. Knowing that the Professors were on their way, he handed one of them to Sirius. He would need a wand to protect himself.

"If you want to kill Harry," Ron yelled at Sirius, "you will have to kill us too!"

"There will be only one murder here tonight," Sirius said, his eyes wild.

"Oh my god, Sirius!" Daphne squeaked.

"Shut up," Draco yelled at him. "Every time you open your mouth you make a bad situation even worse!" Which was exactly why their plan had only involved Draco talking and explaining. But apparently, Sirius had decided to skip that part of the plan entirely and get them all sent straight to Azkaban.

"And you, Malfoy," Harry stepped forward, wandless hands balled into fists. Draco had to admit, Potter was a lot of things, but a coward wasn't one of them. "I can't believe it. Why did I believe you when you said you weren't helping him? I am such an idiot. A Malfoy being nice, right. All you ever did was make my life more difficult than it already is. I don't know why I thought your maliciousness had limits," Harry huffed.

Draco took a step back. The betrayal in Potter's voice and the reminder of how he had been in the past, stung.

"You probably planned this all along," Harry accused. "Your father will be so proud. You have been helping him all along, haven't you?"

"Yes. Yes, he has," Sirius said, and Draco cursed under his breath. Why couldn't that man just shut up?

"YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!" Harry roared, turning towards Sirius.

"I can't deny that," Sirius admitted, and Draco threw his hands in the air. That man had some real problems. They should have foregone him entirely and just taken the stupid rat directly to Snape or Dumbledore.

"He is innocent," Astoria said hastily. "Just listen to him. To the whole story. He isn't a traitor."

"Oh shut up, you-" Weasley began.

"Hey!" both Draco and Daphne interrupted. "Don't talk to my sister like that," threatened Daphne.

"I know you Slytherins don't like me," Harry said, narrowing his eyes, "but this is murder."

Draco wanted to say something in his defense, but there was a noise coming from within the tunnel that connected the Shrieking Shack to the Whomping Willow.

"WE ARE HERE!" Hermione yelled before anyone could stop her. "SIRIUS BLACK-"

Before Draco could silence her with a spell, the door burst open and Remus Lupin entered the, by now rather crowded, room.

He had his wand raised at Sirius.

"Remus," Sirius eyes had a new spark in it and he maid a step towards him.

"Don't move," Lupin whispered, pointing his wand at him, sounding menacing.

"It's Pettigrew," Sirius rumbled hastily, almost stumbling over his own words. "He is still alive. It was him. Him all along," he wildly gestured at the rat Astoria was still holding.

Lupin's gaze fixed on the rat. "But then…" he whispered, staring at Black. "… why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless-" Lupin's eyes widened. "Unless he was the one… unless you switched… without telling me?"

Black slowly nodded.

"Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on-?" But he never finished his question.

Lupin lowered his wand, made a few steps towards Black and then embraced him like a long-lost brother.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed. "You- you-"

"Hermione," Lupin tried to stop her.

"- you and him!"

"Hermione, calm down –"

Draco's wands and those held by Sirius and Lupin flew out of their hands and into the hands of one Professor Severus Snape.

"Darn," Draco cursed under his breath. He shouldn't have let Lupin's arrival distract him so.

"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked, not having noticed Snape's presence. "I've been covering up for you-"

Draco knew that he had to stop Snape from doing anything rash so when the potion's master moved, Draco jumped in front of him. He stared him in the eyes, concentrating hard, practically forcing his memories on him.

"Hermione, listen to me, please!" Lupin shouted. "I can explain-"

The first memory he threw at him was of Black explaining the situation with Pettigrew. When he saw Snape halting in his movement he knew he had seen it.

"I trusted you," Harry shouted at Lupin, his voice wavering, "and all the time you've been his friend!"

When Draco knew he had his godfather's attention, he pushed forward the memory of the failed attempt to catch the rat. He could feel Snape entering his mind. He also felt how incredibly angry the man was.

"You're wrong," said Lupin. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now – Let me explain…"

Draco went back to the beginning, showing Snape how he and Neville had found Sirius.

"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too – he's a werewolf!"

There was a ringing silence. Everyone but Severus and Draco, who were still looking at each other, was now looking at Lupin.

"What?" Daphne whispered.

"It is true," Astoria said, calmly. "His absences coincide with the full moon." Draco was surprised she, as a first year, had figured it out, too. Damn, was she brilliant.

"Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione," said Lupin, ignoring Astoria. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead. But I won't deny that I am a werewolf. How long have you two known?"

Hermione looked over to Astoria.

"Ages," Hermione said.

"Since the essay for Professor Snape," added Astoria.

"Ten points to Gryffindor and ten points to Ravenclaw," Snape chose this moment to make himself known to everyone in the room, "for following instructions and exhibiting some common sense."

Lupin stared at him for a while. Looking at the wand that he had pointed in the general direction of him and Sirius. "You two are quite clever," he finally said.

"No," Hermione said, "if I were so clever, I would have told everyone what you are!"

"But they already know," said Lupin. "At least, the staff do."

"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf?" Ron gasped.

"Is he mad?" Daphne asked.

"Some off the staff thought so," Lupin said, looking at Severus. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy-"

"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "Snape was right. You have been helping him all this time!"

Severus raised an eyebrow at that statement. He seemed rather amused by the number of Gryffindors suddenly on his side. "Seeing that I am the only one currently armed, I believe it is time that everyone calmed down and you two," he motioned towards Lupin and Black, "explained what is going on. If you don't convince me in the next five minutes, I am sure the Dementors will be happy to meet you."

"You-" Sirius hesitated, "You are giving me a chance to explain?"

"Thank Draco for that," he said, dismissively.

Draco felt relief wash over him. Snape gave them a chance. One more than they probably all deserved but now he knew that there was hope.

"If you haven't been helping him," Harry started, "how did you know he was here?"

"The map," Lupin answered and explained how he and Sirius and James and Peter had created the map in their youth.

"I knew it," Severus whispered.

"I was watching it carefully tonight," Lupin continued, not minding Snape. "And I saw you," he looked at Neville, Astoria and Daphne, "with Sirius. I immediately went to fetch Severus as I couldn't see where you were heading. By the way, how did you know where they were going?"

"Legilimency. I had suspected Draco was helping Black for quite some time now. Apparently, I wasn't wrong," Snape gave Draco a peculiar look that he couldn't quite place.

Draco shrugged his shoulders.

"I still don't get any of this," Harry muttered.

"It's quite simple," Draco stepped forward. "Sirius is innocent. He never was your parents' Secret Keeper. He had switched with Peter Pettigrew, who, by the way, is still alive. He is the one who betrayed your parents. Something else you should know: your father and Pettigrew and Black were all Animagi. Pettigrew framed Sirius and went into hiding in his animal form. That, of a rat."

He let that all sink in.

"That rat," Sirius said, taking the still unconscious rat out of Astoria's hands.

"You are mental," Ron whispered. "This is ridiculous," he said somewhat louder.

Then Lupin started to tell his story. How he had been turned into a werewolf. And how his friends had not only accepted it, but had become illegal Animagi to help him. "I always knew that Sirius was an Animagus. And even though I thought he was a murderer after Harry, I never told Dumbledore about it. Severus, you have been right. Dumbledore shouldn't have trusted me. He even sent me a letter over Christmas and I never told anyone about it."

Snape narrowed his eyes at Lupin, then looked at Black. "I am still not sure I believe you," he admitted.

"Then it is time for some proof," Sirius said, pointing at the rat. He then looked at Snape. "Since you are the only one with a wand…" he shrugged his shoulders.

"My pleasure," Severus said. He stepped towards the rat, but Ron jumped in front of him.

"No!" he looked frantic. "Leave Scabbers alone!"

"Out of the way, Weasley," demanded Snape.

"How do you even know it is him? There are a million rats out there! How would he even know about him if he was in Azkaban?"

"Fair questions," Snape conceded. "The newspaper?" he looked at Draco.

"Y-Yes," he nodded, looking between Snape and Harry.

Harry seemed to catch on. "The one he confiscated toady? The one about Egypt. It had a picture Ron's family on it…"

"And Scabbers," Ron whispered.

"How did you get it?" Lupin asked Sirius.

"Fudge," said Black. "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me his paper. And there was Peter, on the front page… on this boy's shoulder… I knew him at once… how many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts… to where Harry was…"

"Hmm…" Severus mused, "the rat is missing a finger… right?"

"Uhm, yes?" Ron said.

"My God," whispered Lupin. "The biggest bit of Peter they found was his finger."

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right-"

"Twelve years, in fact," said Lupin. "Haven't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"

"We – we've been taking good care of him!" said Ron.

"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said Lupin. "I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again…"

"He's been scared of that mad cat!"

"No… no," Harry said. "He's been looking bad ever since you came back from Egypt, Ron. But you…" he looked at Sirius, "you said you killed my parents… just moments ago…"

"I… I as good as killed them, Harry. I told them to switch Secret Keepers. If I hadn't, they would have used me and still be alive."

"Enough of this," Snape roared. "The rat, Miss Greengrass." Astoria put Scabbers on the ground in front of Snape.

Snape handed Draco his wand back, as back up in case Sirius's story wasn't true, Draco assumed, and also gave Lupin his.

Lupin and Snape looked at each other and then a bright blue light shot out of their wands.

A head was shooting upwards from the ground; limbs were sprouting; next moment, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands.

"It is true," gasped Severus and Draco could feel everyone in the room growing tense.

"Well, hello, Peter," said Lupin pleasantly. "Long time, no see."

TBC

A.N. A lot of this was obviously taken from the third book.

As always, let me know what you think :)