My Godfather is an Innocent Convict (Rewrite)

Thinking of a Rat Trap

Lighting flashed outside the windows causing some of the first years to nearly jump out of their skins. Pans patted a younger Slytherin on the shoulder in comfort and poured her another cup of tea. Harriet pretended not to see the calming draught.

Due to the atrocious weather forecast for the entire month and especially the current weather, all the planned Quidditch matches had been cancelled.

Harriet didn't mind. Now she had more time to plan Pettigrew's capture and how to get a confession out of him.

On the other hand, the very unhappy Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood, had filed many complaints. So many, that his slightly annoyed team had staged an intervention.

His ambition to win the cup that year was admirable, since it was his last chance, but fate seemed not to care.

Due to a crack in the Slytherin common room wall, and the flooding, the Slytherins had been moved to the other common rooms temporarily. They all had the advantage of not being under the lake. Students had to share dorms with the other houses. Harriet had been ecstatic to find out she'd be staying with the Ravenclaws.

She had taken to studying with Marietta, whom she still remembered helping her in her first year, and her friend Cho Chang. Both extremely clever and able to hold intellectual conversations for hours.

Sirius had made himself at home in the shrieking shack. He'd even repaired lots of the destroyed furniture. Sure, the place still looked shabby, but at least it no longer took the appearance of a bomb site. It was progress.

Most of the issues Harriet brought to his attention had to do with Pettigrew. While Sirius admired his Prongslet's focus, it did make it difficult to get to know her. His goddaughter was like Remus during exam season. Absolutely brilliant, yet unable to see when she needed a break.

When Harriet got back to the castle from her last visit, Medusa was waiting on her guest bed in the Ravenclaw tower.

"So, any idea on how to catch Pettigrew yet?" the snake asked, slithering around her neck.

"No, but I do know that his animagus form is a rat," Harriet replied sighing. "Figures."

"Figures," Medusa agreed, scorn evident in her voice.

"It's Weasels rat on top of that," Harriet groaned, "I can't believe he disguised himself as a pet. That just makes it harder to catch him!"

"A rat is a rat!" Medusa snapped, "They all taste the same in the end!"

"This is a human animagus though! We can't just kill him. We need to make sure that we get a confession out of him infront of a ministry official." She gave Medusa some bacon to snack on. "What we need is a solid plan. One that doesn't involve unintentional manslaughter."

"Unintentional?"

"Completely intentional if there's no other option and a couple of well placed reasons, as well as assuming we knew nothing about Pettigrew being an animagus."

"I see. What do we do then?"

"Heck if I know! I need to talk to the others." Harriet threw on a scarf to cover Medusa and headed off in search of Draco, Pansy and Blaise.

Twenty-three minutes later they were huddled in the secret corridor.

"So we need to kidnap Petrigrew as soon as possible?" Pansy said, clicking her tongue.

"OK, how do we get him?" Draco asked.

"I'm guessing he's to smart for mouse traps?" Blaise suggested.

"Too fat more like!" Pansy said. "Weasel definitely feeds him too much. That can't be good."

"Makes him easier to catch." Draco shrugged. "Harriet?"

"We definitely need to sneak into Gryffindor tower, grab him, turn him back, notify the Aurors, get him to confess and get him locked up." Harriet rolled her eyes. "That's a lot to do and a lot to screw up."

"Maybe we can shove him into a mouse cage?" Blaise mused.

Pansy snorted. "I think the bigger problem is getting into the Gryffindor common room. Not to mention reversing the animagi spell."

"None of you are staying in Gryffindor tower?" Harriet asked them in disbelief.

"No," Draco sighed. "That would have been too easy."

"Why don't you ask Sirius for ideas?" Pansy tried.

"Or Professor Lupin?" Draco suggested.

"Like they could figure that out." Harriet scoffed. "This isn't the most productive meeting."

"Perhaps we can convince Professor McGonagall," Pansy said.

"Your funeral. Go ahead."

"Nevermind."

They sat there in silence for a while. Medusa was dozing on Harriet's arm and nibbling on Blaise's robes.

Figuring this out could be a problem. If only they had a very well trained cat or something?

Probably no better than Medusa. Harriet scrapped the idea. "Manual labour it is. Polyjuice potion if we must."