LATIBULE - F.WEASLEY

22

"Are you sure Harry isn't trying to kill the competition?" Fred asks as they approach the Whomping Willow.

"It's fine," Maggie murmurs. "Harry told me how to get past the tree"

Fred watches as Maggie rolls her shoulders before she begins to shrink, her body changing form until a swan stands before Fred. The boy blinks in surprise as Maggie, now a swan, takes flight and dodges the branches before landing next to a knot on the tree. The swan leans down and presses her beak against the tree and the branches freeze.

The swan begins to enlarge taking on a human form before Maggie appears before him once again. The boy wastes no time jogging to where Maggie is standing.

"Now what?"

"Down there," Maggie points at a small tunnel under the tree.

"No way," Fred shakes his head.

Maggie rolls her eyes and shoves Fred, sending him falling down the tunnel. The boy's surprise shout echoes through the tunnel as Maggie pushes the knot once again before sliding down the tunnel.

Fred lets out another shout when Maggie collides with his legs, sending him crashing back on the floor again.

"You can be really mean sometimes,"

"Lumos," Maggie waves her wand, ignoring Fred's complaining. "Mr Black?"

"Where are we?" Fred asks.

"Shrieking Shack,"

"Wicked,"

Maggie begins to walk up the steps, carefully testing each one before stepping on it. She gets to the remains of a door, pushing it open to see Sirius Black lounging on a raggedy sofa. His eyes widen when he looks at Maggie and Fred, almost as if he had seen two ghosts.

Standing in front of him were carbon copies of Marlene McKinnon and Gideon Prewett. Sirius swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, pushing back the unwanted memories that threatened to flood his brain.

"You don't look anything like your wanted poster," Fred blurts out and Sirius chuckles.

"Real food and no dementors are really good for your hair and skin," Sirius replies before looking at Maggie. "Remus told me the resemblance to your mother was uncanny, I didn't realise he meant you were almost identical. Harry's owl piqued my curiosity, why would the granddaughter of Barty Crouch Senior want to speak to a convicted mass murderer?"

"When you escaped," Maggie sits on the other sofa, ignoring the dust that sprayed from the cushions. "I was curious, I knew my grandfather had overseen your court case so I decided to look into it. My house is very boring so I started reading the files and it made no sense to me"

"The entire case was bogus," Sirius shakes his head. "They didn't even-"

"Administer veritaserum," Maggie finishes. "I thought that was baffling, I don't understand why they wouldn't follow the legal requirements of a trial. Ones that they followed for everyone else"

"Voldemort was dead," Sirius replies. "My family name was associated with pureblood elitism, my parents, my cousins, all of them. Bellatrix had been sentenced along with your father, and Narcissa had managed to claim she was under the imperius curse but I think Lucius had her scared half to death, especially with her son around, my mother and father died and so did my brother. I was the scapegoat"

"It's hard," Maggie murmurs. "You can't exactly waltz into the Ministry and declare your innocence"

"The only thing I'd gain from that is an unwanted snog from a dementor," Sirius jokes.

"The Ministry would never allow a retrial," Maggie says. "Because it would reveal one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British Wizarding History and Fudge's position is already precarious after you escaped last year. Now, with the attack at the World Cup, there's a coup brewing if he doesn't appease his colleagues. To admit such a big mistake, he'd be out. He wouldn't take your word for it, you'd need irrefutable proof"

"So I would need to bring in Pettigrew?"

"As in Peter Pettigrew?" Fred asks with a frown. "I thought he was dead"

"No," Sirius shakes his head. "He is, unfortunately, alive and breathing"

"But his finger-"

"Cut it off,"

"How did he hide from the entire wizarding world for almost fifteen years?"

"He was right under your nose," Sirius points at Fred. "A garden rat with an unusually long life span"

"Scabbers?!" Fred asks in disbelief.

"So let me get this straight," Maggie begins. "Peter Pettigrew is an unregistered animagus who hid as a rat in the Weasley family's home?"

"Yes,"

"This is insane," Fred murmurs. "How did you not go mad?"

"I nearly did," Sirius replies. "But I obsessed about my innocence. But it wasn't a happy thought so the dementors couldn't detect it. That's what allowed me to keep some of my sanity which meant I could escape in my animagus form and animal emotions are too complex for dementors"

"Surely your body gave in first?"

"It's not your physical health that goes first when you're in any form of prison, it's your mind,"