Fred and George were not sure exactly what the Durmstrang student meant, or why she was adamant that they show the map to Professor Lupin, but soon enough, the three of them found themselves in the office of a bewildered professor Pann, with professor Lupin examining the map with the look of someone who was examining an artefact, as the twins explained how the map worked. Neither of the twins were really sure what to make of Bauer's story regarding Peter Pettigrew, but then again…
Neither of them had ever seen this Peter Pettigrew fellow. They thought he was a random student in Percy's year, or the year below him. They didn't really care, but they had also never really - well, now that they were thinking about, really thinking about it, as Bauer seemed to be going on incoherently about 'Pettigrew not being dead, like in her research' - neither Fred nor George could remember ever interacting with a student called Peter Pettigrew. No, they couldn't name every single Gryffindor student, but apart from seeing his name pop up on the map, neither could recall anyone ever even referring to a student by this name. And now that they talked to each other about it, they slowly started realising.
"Dad- that night, when Sirius Black escaped."
"When mum started swearing, yeah."
"He said something - remember? About someone I swear called like that."
Remus Lupin looked from the twins, back to Bauer, back to twins. He couldn't let them know that he knew exactly what map Fred and George Weasley were referring to. He knew it like the back of his hand, because the twins had been using the map he created. He tried to mimic Rada's surprise and disbelief as they explained how the map was used, what it showed, how it was opened and closed, and how the twins explained how they could see, for example, professor McGonagall inspecting one of the towers with professor Sprout.
The map that he created, with James, with Sirius, with Peter, who must not have been aware that that map was no longer laying forgotten in Filch's office, and that it had reached back in his hands.
Oh, Peter, you idiot, you utter fool.
A myriad of feelings bubbled in his soul and in his throat, as he examined the map, and he used a hand to steady himself against the desk. A ringing filled his ears, and Remus felt his heart beat in his skull as he slowly was realising the implications of what he was seeing. Peter Pettigrew was on that map. But not only that, he was moving on the map. And the map never lied, as much as Rada, sitting next to him, was trying to discredit it to the three students.
His vision and mind was still cloudy as he turned to face Rada, and leaned in to whisper in her ear, covering his mouth with his free hand.
"There is no Gryffindor student, or any current Hogwarts student, alive, called Peter Pettigrew."
He looked at her incredulous face, and wondered if he even said anything, or if he imagined himself saying it. But in the end she nodded her head, and put a hand in front of her mouth, whispering that they had to leave and go to Hogwarts as a matter of urgency.
"Thank you for bringing this matter to us, misters Weasley. I will take the map with myself, if you don't mind…" Remus arched a brow as the twins tried to protest, putting a hand in front of them to stop them talking. "Unless you'd rather I tell Professor Dumbledore that you have been using an illegal, stolen dark artefact for the past few years in order to track students and professors."
Remus waited for them to pipe down as he put it in one of the pockets of his robe, and was ready to take his leave, before noticing Rada still had something she had to tell them.
"I hope you understand the importance of keeping this matter between you three while we investigate this." she stated, and the three of them nodded begrudgingly. Remus doubted very much that they would, and was thankful to hear Rada's next words. "Now, I severely doubt you will, therefore I will have you segregated in my office, and will ask professor Hayk to monitor you."
They were ready to take their leave, before he realised who he had to deal with.
"Wands." Remus spoke quickly, extending his hand. "Your reputation precedes you both, Fred and George, I cannot trust that you will not sneak back into Hogwarts to try and find your brother - I am sure, or at least, hope, that you both are smart enough to not approach Black without a wand."
"You too, Bauer. For equality's sake."
In a storm of protests, all three students eventually handed over their wands, and Remus watched as Rada locked them in one of her drawers, promising to give their wands back upon their return.
Remus would have rather returned to Hogwarts by himself, but Rada was unrelenting in not letting him go alone, and he figured he needed someone as both enforcement and a witness, in case that was truly Peter. She had proposed waiting for Dumbledore, but Remus advised they did not have enough time for that. What he did not mention was that they did have enough time just to have him there, but if he had to add the time in explaining the map, Peter, and other aspects which would soon become obvious, if that was truly Peter…
They hadn't talked until they were back at Hogwarts, and by the time Rada had spoken again, they had already passed by the Great Hall, ready to go towards the Gryffindor room.
"Remus?"
"Hm?" His mind was racing a mile a minute, and his heart was beating in his chest as if it wanted to escape through his throat - he hadn't even realised she had been calling out to him several times in a hushed tone, before she finally decided to slightly raise her voice.
"Are you sure this map is not an enchanted sham, courtesy of the Weasley twins?"
"As if I've made it myself." he chuckled bitterly, leaving his companion quite confused.
As they entered the Gryffindor common room, Remus realised that alongside the other five Hogwarts professors that were patrolling Hogwarts and searching for Ronald Weasley, a new dot appeared on the map, near the Owlery, a little dot that had the name Sirius Black above it.
"Rada…" His voice was low, whispering as they were now shown to be close to Peter Pettigrew. Yet there was something gnawing at him, more than ever now that Sirius appeared to be in Hogwarts, moving freely on the map. "Where is Felix?"
"I'm not sure." she whispered back, without a sign of concern.
She used her wand to lift the couches in the Gryffindor's common room, looking under them, before catching a glimpse of Remus's look. There must have been something which betrayed his concern, as she waved her hand to allay his worries, most likely thinking Remus was implying something awful must have befell her pet.
"Oh, Felix disappears sometimes. Dogs do that, Remus, he'll come back soon." she whispered back, before bending down. "Speaking of pets, look at this scared little fellow. You poor thing, someone left you behind, didn't they?" she asked, petting what looked to be Nevile Longbottom's toad with a finger, lightly rubbing it between its eyes. "Oh, you too, love. It's alright, come here, come here."
"That's Ron Weasley's rat. Scabbers, I think."
Or at least, that was what the dot on the map marked with 'Peter Pettigrew' was pretending to be. He watched Rada pick up the rat in the palm of her hand, however, when the rat's beady little eyes met his own, Remus figured that Peter must have immediately recognised the map that he was holding, and realised the implications of what it meant.
"Do you think it can- hey!" she yelped, as Scabbers, or rather, Peter, bit the witch between her fingers in an attempt to escape.
"Don't let him go."
He dropped the map and took his wand out as he saw the rat slither between Rada's fingers and almost drop to the ground. Thankfully, she had managed to catch Peter by its tail with one hand right before he met the wooden floor, and held him tightly by locking his head in place between her knuckles with the other hand.
"My, what a bite… Probably scared out of its mind, poor thing. I was going to say, do you think it can lead us to Ron Weasley, but this fellow seems a bit too uncooperative for that." Rada grumbled, raising her eyes to meet Remus's.
The moment they did, however, she took a step back, furrowing her brows. He watched Peter writhe and squeal in her hands, however her hands held him tightly, and she had placed her fingers in such a way that he had no way of escaping or biting, much as he tried. She moved the rat away from the direction of his wand, yet his hand followed Peter's direction, ready to use a spell - he was not sure which one, but whatever would come to mind - if he were to try to disappear from her hold.
"Remus?"
"Hm?"
"Can you lower your wand, there, please?"
"Don't worry, Rada."
"Then lower your wand, Remus."
"I'm afraid I can't. Rada, please, I'm not going to hurt you. You have to understand, this rat is not just a rat." He watched her expression change, and she took a step back, her grasp on Peter so tight now that Remus swore he heard a squeal.
"Remus, you can't possibly think that-"
"It's true. Just don't let the rat go, I can show you." He bent down and picked the map again, only to see something surprising on the map. He knew it could not be wrong, yet-
James's Invisibility Cloak.
He must have been so busy looking at Peter and Sirius on the map, that he must have missed Harry and Hermione following them from afar, most likely under James's cloak, until they were right there in the room with them. There were five dots now in the Gryffindor common room. And the sixth one was soon to approach, and Remus dearly hoped it was in the form Sirius had been taking for the past few months.
"Hold tight onto the rat." he whispered, moving his eyes over from Rada, to the position he was sure Harry and Hermione were, and towards the entrance to the common room.
By the time he slowly turned his head, to ensure no one else knew who or what he was expecting to enter, he had already started hearing the familiar pitter-patter of paws onto the ground.
"Ah, here is Felix." he said, accentuating the name enough that he hoped Sirius would catch on. He fluttered the map in front of the dog's eyes, as he started hearing a low growl in Rada's direction. "We were just wondering if Ron's rat could maybe show us where Ron is, Ron Weasley… maybe Scabbers saw him leave?"
The low growl continued, and Remus furrowed his brows, wondering if that was truly Sirius. Could he have been wrong? He gritted his teeth, and with his wand still pointed at Rada's hands, bent down.
"Have you seen Ron Weasley, by chance?"
Still growling, the dog nodded. Remus was sure it nodded. His voice dropped even lower, to the point it was just barely more than mouthing the words towards the dog, to the point where no one else could hear him.
"Do you have a wand?"
An imperceptible nod, but a nod nonetheless.
Remus stood up, and deftly turned on heels, dearly hoping he was not wrong.
"Are you going to Obliviate the children?"
"I'll modify their memories, at the very least. I can't have it known that I've Stupefied my own students, and third years too…" Remus rubbed his face, wrapping the Invisibility Cloak carefully and putting it in one of Harry's pockets. He looked at the both of them, sighing wearily as he wondered what to do with them. Next to him, Sirius looked at the sleeping Harry with an indecipherable look, most likely in awe of how much he looked like James. Especially considering his eyes were closed, hiding his mother's eyes, he looked exactly like his father did, albeit a bit scrawnier. "At least if it were the twins, I would have had reason."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it. We've done worse at Durmstrang. And considering the circumstances, as well, you'd be fine." Rada said beside him, looking at the magically bound and unconscious Pettigrew with interest. "Should we get Dumbledore, then?"
"Shouldn't we get Ron Weasley first, Rada?"
"I would appreciate you not addressing me by name." Rada turned to Sirius Black, who had just spoken to her for the first time since he had turned from his Animagus form. Her voice was calm, yet contained rage emanated from each word. "In fact, I would much rather you never speak to me again after this is sorted. Not because you're a criminal, because you're not, and not because you've Stupefied me, because I can understand why you've done it, but because of how you lied to me."
"Understood."
From the corner of his eye, even with her face turned away from the both of them, Remus could have sworn he saw her hand rise and wipe at her face, masked into a motion to tuck her hair behind her ear.
"Rada?" Remus asked. "Maybe you should go get mister Weasley. I have an idea what to do with mister Potter and miss Granger, in the meantime." he waited for her to nod, figuring why she may not have wanted to speak. "Where's Ron, Sirius?"
"What happened to you?"
"What happened to you?"
Ron and Harry stared at each other as they spoke at the same time, before exploding into laughter. Ron was laying in one of the beds in the Hospital Wing, and Harry and Hermione were sitting on chairs next to him. At the end of the bed, sheets were pulled to hide a snoring figure that none of the three could see, guarded by their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.
"We're lucky we didn't get expelled Ron, you should have seen Professor McGonagall's face!" Hermione explained, red in her cheeks - just as red as she was when their Head of House discovered them roaming the corridors. She wasn't sure how exactly they reached there - both her and Harry were sure they were under the Invisibility Cloak, but suddenly they were not, suddenly Harry's cloak was in his pocket, and they were walking straight into their Head of House, who proceeded to give them a right bollocking for searching for Ron by themselves, and deducted fifty points for each, alongside giving them two months of detention for almost getting themselves killed.
"What happened to you then, Ron?"
"I'm not quite sure… I remember I was dragged by a dog to some dark place, but I don't remember much after that, apart from Pann finding me and taking me out. It was a weird place, it was a room, a shack? A shack that goes under the Whomping Willow - I know, I know, I swear on Merlin's bloomers it's true! I remember that part perfectly. But the dog that dragged me, I swear that it looked like that dog from-" Ron looked towards Lupin, before leaning in towards Harry and Hermione. "When we were in the library - like her dog, Harry, like Pann's dog. I think she had her dog drag me there, I mean, bloomin' 'eck, how else could she know where to go? No one else knew how to find me, Dumbledore didn't know!"
"Why would professor Pann do that?" Hermione whispered.
"To have the school empty, for Sirius Black to come in." Harry whispered back to them, turning from one to the other, before peeking back to Lupin - he wondered who was behind there. Another student? Pann? "Or who knows who or what else… Did you know she was almost married to Karkaroff?"
"What? Who told you that, mate?" Ron laughed loudly, loud enough to get professor Lupin to turn around briefly.
"Alexandra Szabo, with the orange hair- you know, at the Halloween party." Harry motioned her pumpkin-shaped hairstyle, before continuing in a low voice. "Apparently Karkaroff broke it off on the day of the wedding. Maybe she's trying to do all of this to-...I don't know, rekindle their relationship?"
"To have a Death Eater refuse to marry you… I wonder what happened." Hermione furrowed her brows, a shivering going through her spine at the thought of it. "It makes sense, Harry, how she follows Karkaroff, why she's in Hogwarts a lot, if she's doing it to get back with him. If she used the dog as a distraction to get Sirius Black in, to kill you, then maybe Karkaroff will-... you know."
"Nothing more romantic than getting my head on a plate, I suppose." Harry shrugged.
The door to the Hospital Wing opened, and Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall entered, both quite obviously trying to maintain stern faces, yet behind their masks the three students could read the remains of what looked like a nasty surprise had been sprung upon them in the last ten minutes.
"Did you catch him?" Ron asked, standing up from the bed.
"Catch who exactly, mister Weasley?" McGonagall asked, furrowing her brows.
"Who else, Sirius Black!"
Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey looked at one another with expressions none of the three could figure the meaning off. Harry was sure Ron would get a few points deducted from Gryffindor for the cheek in his tone, but before his theory could be confirmed, Madam Pomfrey spoke first.
"I appreciate the concern for your friend mister Weasley here, but I don't remember allowing visitors in these special circumstances. Mister Weasley, I can see that you are fine and seem ready to get yourself discharged. Your siblings are worried sick and will surely appreciate seeing you. Minerva, shall I escort them back?"
"Please, Poppy."
Minerva McGonagall smiled, thankful to not have to speak and have to deal with the three, or escort them back to the Durmstrang dining hall, not after the clear breach of rules Potter and Granger had surprised her with a mere hour ago. She was still shaking from anger after having shoved them in her office, when Dumbledore had requested her assistance.
She watched Poppy escort the three students out of the premises, before turning her head towards Remus. Slowly, she approached the white sheet, and slightly pulled it with her wand. She looked at the Petrified body in shock - Dumbledore had prepared her for it, had told her what to expect, but she still could not believe it, even with the proof in front of her eyes.
"How, Remus?" Her voice trembled as she spoke, pulling his robe aside to look at his hands. "How?"
"He had been here all along."
"Why…why would he do such a thing? For thirteen years, we thought… Merlin, it is him."
Remus shrugged, and Minerva could have sworn she saw a shiver in the movements of his shoulders as he looked at Peter Pettigrew lying down on the bed.
"I believe he should be able to tell us when the Minister comes."
After what had happened in the last few hours, Remus Lupin had no more energy left in him to debate, explain, or make any form of suppositions. He knew why, after all. Yet the reasons were different from the story he had concocted with Sirius and Rada.
And he had to keep his story straight for when Fudge would arrive, because his story had to match Rada's account as a witness, down to the finest details, make up for Ron Weasley's altered memory and his surprise disappearance, and also be strong enough to counter whatever Peter would try to throw at them in order to save his own skin.
And hopefully… be able to finally exonerate Sirius.
"Do you really think it's possible?" Remus turned towards Sirius as he heard his friend speak with a slight tremor of hope in his voice.
"After what you have discovered, I believe many things are now approaching the realm of possibility." Dumbledore responded, leaning in to look at Peter once again. "Indeed…"
Remus turned towards the door as he heard it open, closing the sheet dividing the existence of Peter Pettigrew from the entire wizarding world. Both himself and Minerva turned to face the door, in order to welcome Cornelius Fudge, accompanied by Dumbledore to one side, and Severus Snape to the other.