JULIET {remus lupin}

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN

"You're mental!" Ron gasped, clutching his rat to his chest.

"It's ridiculous," Hermione said, looking at Ron sadly.

Harry was still completely wound up, he pointed at Sirius angrily, glaring at Remus, "Peter Pettigrew is dead! He killed him!"

Sirius took a step forwards, "I meant to," he growled. "Little Pete got the better of me," the man lunged forwards, throwing himself on the ground onto Ron's injured leg, making the boy cry out in pain and Hermione stare furiously.

"Sirius, no!" Juliet exclaimed, helping Remus pull the man away from the boy who was still grasping his rat.

"They deserve an explanation," Remus breathed.

"We can explain afterwards," Sirius argued, trying to break free of Remus' grip.

"They've got a right to know everything," Juliet whispered to him, "you know they do."

"You owe it to Harry," Remus muttered to his friend. "Come on, mate."

"Fine," the man said suddenly, tensing up and looking at his friend sadly, before grimacing as he turned back to Ron. "But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was in Azkaban for."

"You're nutters," Ron said, shaking his head, trying to move but shrinking backwards as Remus took his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the rat.

"Hear us out, Ron," Remus muttered. "Keep hold of Peter-"

"HE'S SCABBERS!"

"People saw Pettigrew die," Harry said, staring at his professors, "you know they did."

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," Juliet sighed. "We both did until we saw the map tonight."

"The map never lies," Remus said shakily, meeting Sirius' eye.

"Professor Lupin," Hermione pleaded, "you know Scabbers isn't Peter, it can't be true, you know that."

"Why can't it be true?"

"The ministry has tabs on animagi," she said, speaking very quickly, "we did it in class, I found the register, Professor Mcgonagall is there, Peter Pettigrew isn't."

Remus laughed slowly, "right again, Merlin Hermione. But the ministry didn't know that there were three unregistered student animagi."

"Twelve years, Remus," Sirius snarled, tapping his foot impatiently, but pausing as a loud creak was heard and a door swung open.

Juliet took her wand out and glanced onto the landing, "no one's there."

"This place is haunted," Ron said, his voice shaking.

Remus and Sirius caught each other's eye again and the latter smirked a little, "it isn't."

"I'm assuming you know about wolfsbane, Hermione?"

The witch nodded and he continued, "when I take it, I can be a harmless wolf, waiting for the sun to rise, it's only a recent invention, Professor Snape and Professor Blair brew it for me here. I didn't have it at school, though. Dumbledore had the whomping willow planted for me, and this passage created," he breathed. "Once a month, I came here to transform away from school, they were horrible transformations, painful, locked in a room the wolf bit itself. But I had friends, I had him," he said, cocking his head at Sirius, "I had Peter Pettigrew, I had James," he gazed at Harry as he spoke. "They noticed, eventually, that I vanished, I made up stories, but like you, Hermione, they worked it out. And then, they didn't desert me as I expected, they became animagi."

"My dad did?" Harry asked, looking amazed.

Remus nodded, "took them three years to perfect it, but James and Sirius," he laughed, looking sadly at Juliet, "wasn't much they couldn't do if they put their mind to it. It worked in fifth year."