The Godmother || Sirius Black

━ 7. An unexpected revelation

Remus was sitting in office after class, his mind preoccupied with the plan Diana had prepared and told him about. While it was a very good plan, he admitted, it was also a bit tricky.

It was hard on him because he couldn't discuss it with anyone as he had another feud with Sirius already and Diana was out of question. He could see the familiar brown goshawk sometimes sitting on a branch of a tree whenever Harry was near. While he realized that it was a very dangerous thing to do as Diana had dementors on her tail, he couldn't exactly blame her either for wanting to see her one and only godson who resembled his parents so strongly that it was bound to bring back memories. 

He sighed and pushed himself up from the chair, getting out of his office with a particular vial of potion in his pocket.

Maybe luck was on his side today. As soon as he got out of his office, he saw the famous trio lingering around the staircase. Harry, Ron and Hermione. 

"Professor Lupin." They greeted him when he walked up to them.

"Aren't you supposed to go to your Transfiguration class right now?" Remus was very well aware that they still had around 15 minutes before the class started.

"We still have 15 more minutes, sir." Hermione informed him.

The brown haired man nodded then turned to Ron as if he had suddenly remembered something important. "Oh, Ron, I have something for you. Well, not exactly for you..."

He fished out the particular vial of the sleeping potion he received from Snape the other day and held it towards Ron who looked at him confusedly.

"You said Scabbers wasn't feeling very good these days after your family came back from Egypt." Said Remus. "This potion will help him to regain his... strength and color."

To Remus's surprise, Ron's face fell and he shot a cold glare towards Hermione who looked downwards timidly. "No need for that, Professor. Scabbers is dead."

Shocked and startled by this sudden news, Remus looked at Ron wide eyed. "What?!" He sputtered out. "He is dead?"

"Yes, sir. Hermione's devil of a cat killed him!" Ron cried.

"Crookshanks is not a devil and you have no proof for that." Even though Hermione denied Ron's accusations, her voice was laced with slight uncertainty.

"I damn well have! My whole bed was splattered with blood,"

"You don't know if it's Scabbers' blood or not and if you could look for him some more in the dorm..."

"He is dead!" Ron yelled angrily and Hermione flinched. "Your bloody cat killed him!"

Harry and Remus looked at each other awkwardly as Hermione stormed off with an angry scowl on her face. 

"Well, I think it wouldn't hurt if you go to Transfiguration class a bit early today," Remus tried to keep a pleasant look on his face but he was too astonished by all this sudden news.

"Talk to you later Harry." Said Remus as Ron and Harry nodded and walked off to their classroom.

As soon as his students went out of his sight, he ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation. 

'Scabbers is dead?! If Scabbers really was Peter, I don't think he would've died that easily... Did Diana lie to me or something? Or did Peter suspected something was going on and ran away?'

Befuddled by the thousands of questions that buzzed inside his head, he didn't have any answers to any of those questions.

In the evening when the school hours ended, Remus sat in his office with the map laid out in front of him on the table. He felt lost, utterly lost. He suspected that Peter must have felt something was going on and fled but he had zero evidence to support his suspicions. On the hand, there was a very tiny part of him that started to doubt everything Diana had said.