Chapter 32, everybody! In which familiars have meetings and the twins do things….Trevor being a spy is in reference to a comic I saw ages ago that had Trevor as a secret agent in the vein of Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb. It was memorable. :D

TroyWeb, thanks for the review! Ah thank you. :D And yeah—I mean you can kind of get part of it because Hermione is overworked and Ron is stressed over his pet being sick (and having been in both places those are stressful situations), but yeah, they didn't handle that well, nor were they solid mates throughout the series. Honestly, to the point that when I told Mom that Ron and Hermione ended up together (while we were watching the movies and Mom thought that Harry and Hermione would get together) her response was basically "HOW?"

Harry Potter © JK Rowling

Unlike the kids, the assorted familiars did not believe Scabbers to be dead.

'It wouldn't be the first time that rat faked his death,' Snuffles insisted.

'Ahem,' Mauve said sternly, glaring at him. When he subsided: 'Thank you—this meeting of Familiars for the Protection of Their Humans will now come to order, Fitzherbert will take the minutes.'

'Can I at least point out that the current name has the acronym FPTH?'

'Part of the meeting can be dedicated to a better name, once we have the more pressing matters addressed.'

'Ron's been careful about locking that door,' Crookshanks said. 'I'm not sure how the rat got out.'

'I am,' Snips put in. 'It's a simple latch job—it's easy to flip up and open from the inside.'

'So he could have escaped at any time. Why now?'

'More of us were suspicious of him,' Hedwig pointed out. 'I've told the other owls about it, they've been keeping an eye out.'

'The cats have been informed too.'

Snuffles sighed. 'So for now we don't know where he is.'

'Aren't you a dog?' Snips asked. 'Can't you track?'

'I did! He went in a little bolt-hole though, and I don't know where that one leads.'

Mauve scratched her head pensively with the tip of her tail. 'Snips or I could go in after him—the only problem with that is he's obviously desperate to escape, so if we corner him—or even find him—he could do some real damage to us.'

'Not to mention there's a real chance we could get lost in the walls,' Snips told her. 'I'm not sure about you, but I definitely need to eat on occasion—and then what if it's wet back there?'

'Yes, I'd rather not lose a few inches,' she sighed.

Crookshanks mrowed to get their attention. 'With all the cats and owls looking, we should find him soon enough.'

'At the very least, he's running out of other rats to associate with,' Hedwig put in.

Mauve nodded, bobbed her head at the toad with them. 'Trevor you've been quiet.'

'I'm just thinking,' Trevor said, obviously turning something over in his head. 'Aside from the fact that we've never really needed to have meetings like this…there was always something kind of suspect about that rat, now that I think about it.'

'Yes,' Hedwig agreed. 'Rats don't nap in the sun.'

'Well according to our sources the rat is actually a human shamming as one,' Mauve said. 'Which is very creepy, if you stop and think about it.'

'Yes,' Snips said, glaring at the cat and dog. 'And while we're thinking about it—I get how the cat knew, magic cats can have quite a long life. You, on the other hand—'

Snuffles cocked his head. 'Seriously?'

'I would say 'serious' has something to do with it—especially considering the general consensus is that Harry Potter somehow has a dog just like his father did. Now, one of James Potter's school friends is an unregistered Animagus—wouldn't it stand to reason a second one is the same way?'

The dog's ears flicked back at the sudden attention it was getting—

Crookshank moved so he was sitting in front of the dog. 'I still trust the dog.'

'Even though that dog is Sirius Black?'

Mauve gasped—Fitzherbert started scribbling madly.

The dog flinched, sinking in on itself. 'Can I just start by saying I didn't kill anyone?'

'I suggest you start explaining,' Hedwig said firmly.

'Yeah,' Trevor agreed. 'Because if that's the case you hanging around is kind of creepy too.'

'Don't look at me, it was the bat's idea!' the dog insisted.

'Excuse you,' Snips sniffed.

'You do kind of look like a bat,' Mauve pointed out. 'Mr. Black, please explain.'

The dog did so, explaining that he and his friends had become unregistered Animagi so they could hang out with their friend during his, er, monthly issue—

'Oh great!' Snips declared. 'So the Defense professor is a werewolf on top of everything! I knew there was a reason I didn't like him.'

'We'll address that later,' Mauve said. 'Continue.'

Snuffles huffed—continued with his explanation that when mister-slimy-pureblood-lover Moldy-Voldy (Trevor snorted at that) decided to target the Potters they made it known that Sirius Black was the secret keeper, but in reality gave that role to Peter Pettigrew.

'It was the perfect double-blind, see,' Snuffles Black insisted, waving a paw. 'They could target me all they wanted, but they'd be no closer to figuring out where the Potters were—meantime if Peter had to he could always turn into a rat and hide out somewhere. Honestly, that's what we all expected him to do.

'But instead he sold the Potters out to Moldy-Voldy,' Snuffles growled. 'Did it without even batting an eye—soon as I found out I went to the Potters' place—was too late, Lily and James were already dead and Hagrid was taking Harry to Dumbledore—I gave Hagrid my bike and went after Peter. I was totally planning on blowing him to bits, I admit that.

'Except he beat me to it—yelled for the whole street to hear that I betrayed Lily and James, then blasted the street to bits, killing all those Muggles. I thought he had killed himself, until I saw him in the paper this year.'

Hedwig blinked, ruffled her feathers, startling the rest of them. 'Hold it—if he's been hiding out as a rat all these years, how did you see a picture of him?'

It was Snips' turn to start. 'The picture of the Weasleys that was in the Prophet!'

Snuffles nodded. 'The rat was sitting on the youngest boy's shoulder. Well of course I recognized him—how many times had I seen him turn into a rat? And anyone who knows anything about Animagi know they have special markings—but what really cinched it was him missing a toe on the front paw. All they found of Pettigrew was a finger, remember? That rat is missing a toe on a front paw.'

The familiars all aahed appreciatively.

'So then,' Mauve concluded. 'The plan is to catch that rat and turn him in—then he's held responsible for all these nasty things he's done.'

Trevor looked at Sirius. 'Wouldn't that mean you'd be pardoned?'

'I guess so,' Sirius said, cocking his head.

'Genius down there was just going to kill the rat and be done with it,' Snips muttered.

'Excuse you I was running on adrenaline and spite I never said I had a plan.'

'So,' Mauve said. 'We've got that squared away. Anyone have anything else to declare, or should we move on to figuring out a better name for our group?'

Silence for a beat.

'I'm really a spy,' Trevor volunteered.

'Trevor, be real,' Hedwig said.

'I am! It's the perfect cover since no one ever believes it.'

Everyone agreed that was a fair point.

Harry hadn't progressed much past the fine mist, which was frustrating to say the least.

"You've got the wand movements down, and your pronunciation is sound," Professor Lupin told him. "So whatever it is, it's the memory you're trying, or it could simply be you're not far along enough magically to do it. The important thing is, what you have now is enough to hold off a Dementor—and I've finally found a boggart. Willing to give it a try?"

"Yes," Harry said, steeling himself.

Professor Lupin nodded, went to unlock a trunk that kept rattling—

Good news: Harry was right, his boggart was a Dementor.

Bad news: he could not hold said boggart-Dementor off.

Professor Lupin slammed the trunk shut once he got the boggart back in.

"So," he huffed. "We'll have to try working back up to that—keep working on those happy thoughts, Harry, and we'll try again next week—here, have some chocolate…."

Harry was steaming as he headed back to the dorm room.

"I don't get it," he told Snips. "I've got happy thoughts—why aren't they happy enough?"

Snips blinked at him, tipping his head. Crred thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Harry sighed, turning a corner. "That's what I thought—"

"BORF!"

"Aaah!" Harry yelped, getting flattened and licked by Snuffles. "I missed you too, but you need to sleep at Hagrid's, remember? Professor McGonagall said this multiple times."

"Borf," Snuffles noised, sitting back and letting Harry up. Tipped his head at Snips chittering at him, chuffed and walked off.

"Why does he listen to you and not me?" Harry wondered, making his way to his dorm. Snips chirped but didn't answer, making him think that he'd have to borrow Fitzherbert to find out.

Maybe after a good night's sleep.

The next Hogsmeade trip meant he wasn't going, again, because Dementors. Hermione and Ron individually assured him they'd bring something nice back ("Like a BIG pile of sweets!" Ron insisted).

Which left Harry sitting in the library, working his way through his homework since he didn't have anything better to do, quietly grousing to himself until Fred and George plopped down on either side of him.

"Hello, Harry," Fred greeted, ignoring Snips growling at them.

"We couldn't help but notice you losing out on one of the great joys of third year," George observed.

"And we told ourselves: selves, we know how to fix that."

"And so we have decided that we will. Pack your bags, Harry, you're going to Hogsmeade."

Harry blinked at them both, having to glance back and forth in order to do so. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Don't apologize," George said, already putting Harry's books back in his bag.

"Trust us, Harry, this will be worth it," Fred assured him. "And no growling," he added, looking at Snips. "Technically, Harry is allowed to go; he just needs a way around the Dementors."

"I mean, I've been working on it," Harry said. "It's just taking a while."

"Ah, but Harry, you're letting life pass you by this way—come."

"Small bites," George said, offering Snips a hand up as they hauled Harry up. "Come come—we have places to be. Specific places."

"Now Harry," Fred said as they maneuvered through the castle. "It has occurred to us that in your two and a half years at Hogwarts, you've gotten into an appalling lack of trouble."

"We need to fix that," George agreed sagely.

"Being accused of siccing a great ugly snake on people didn't count?" Harry wondered.

"No—because you didn't actually do that. But back to the point—are you aware of the various secret passages within Hogwarts?"

"Um—some of them? Dumbledore says a lot of students spend their spare time hunting them down."

"Tis a noble pursuit, to be sure," Fred agreed. "But there are passages leading out of Hogwarts as well."

"Seven, as a matter of fact," George said. "Filch knows about two of them, and three more collapsed a while back, but this one," he said, as they stopped in front of a statue of a one-eyed witch. "Still works perfectly."

"It'll take us straight to Honeydukes' basement," Fred said, scanning the corridor as George opened the secret passage. "Come on, no tarrying once the passage is open!"

"Baby's first escapade," George said, wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye. "We're so proud, Harry."

"We…kinda snuck out to duel Malfoy first year," Harry said. "And I snuck out lots over the Christmas holidays that year."

"Oh goodness—there's hope for you after all, Harry."

Harry wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, kept quiet as he followed their lead, nodding as they 'imparted words of wisdom' to him, snuck up through the basement following their prompts—

"And here we are!" Fred announced, him and George gesturing expansively once they were safe in the store. "Honeydukes of Hogsmeade!"

Harry had to take several long moments to digest the colorful room with so much going on, candies of all shapes and sizes everywhere, lollipops bigger than his head, spun-sugar castles that looked so delicate he didn't dare breathe in their direction, strings of popcorn going everywhere—

"I love magic," Harry said, stifling a delirious giggle.

"We do too, Harrykins," George said, patting him on the head. "Now—round three you meet us back here and we'll help you get back in the castle without getting caught. Sound like a plan?"

"Three?" Harry asked, checking his watch—oh yeah he had plenty of time. "Sure—brilliant—thank you—thank you both!"

"No problem, Harry."

"Pleasure, always," Fred agreed, following George to the door, leaving Harry to turn a slow circle to take in the shop.

"Snips," he announced. "I think I'm about to blow my budget."