Venus

21- The Conspiracy Theory

Footsteps thundered up the stairs, and the door was flung open, to reveal Lupin, standing there with his wand raised.

He quickly looked around the room, at Ron, now sat on the bed, clutching his leg with one arm and clinging onto Venus with the other, to Venus who's wand was still emitting red sparks without her meaning it to, to Hermione who was trembling, then to Harry and Black.

"Expelliarmus!" Lupin said, Harry's wand once again forward out of his hand and so did the two Hermione was holding. Venus's however once again stayed in her grip. Lupin caught all of the wands and moved forwards, staring at Black.

"Where is he Sirius?" Lupin's voice shook with a strange emotion.

Black said nothing, but pointed at Ron.

"But then, why hasn't he shown himself before?" Lupin frowned. "Unless..." Lupins eyes widened, "unless he was the one, unless you switched..."

Venus didn't understand what was going on, she looked from Lupin to Black and back again.

Black very slowly nodded being careful not to dislodge Crookshanks.

"Professor Lupin!" Harry said loudly, "what's going-"

Harry's voice died as Lupin lowered his wand. He walked to Black's side and helped him up, they embraced as brothers.

"I don't believe it!" Hermione yelled, "you-you and him!"

"Hermione," Lupin said in a soothing tone.

"You and him!"

"Hermione calm down!"

"I didn't tell anyone." Hermione shrieked, "I've been covering for you," she turned to the others, "he's a wearwolf!"

Lupin looked remarkably calm, "how long have you know?"

"Ages," Hermione said, "since I did that essay for Snape."

"He'll be delighted," Lupin said cool, "he set that essay hoping someone would work out what I am. Snape was never convinced that I was trustworthy."

"I never thought I'd hear myself say this," Venus declared, "but Snape was right! You've been helping Black all the time!"

"No I haven't!" Lupin insisted, "if you'll give me a chance I'll explain!"

Lupin threw all of the wands back to their owners, "there, you're armed, we're not, now will you listen!" Lupin shoved his own wand into his waistband.

"If you weren't helping him, how did you know he was here?" Harry demanded.

"The map!" Lupin said, "the Marauder's map, I was in my office examaning it."

"You know how to work it?" Harry frowned.

"If course, I helped create it!" Lupin said, "I'm Moony, that was my nickname at school. Anyway, I was watching it because I thought you three," he gestured at Ron, Hermione and Harry, "we're going to go and visit Hagrid, and I was right wasnt I. You might've been wearing your father's old cloak Harry-"

"How do you know about the cloak?" Harry demanded.

"The number of times I saw James disappear under it!" Lupin waved them off, "the point is, you still show up on the map under an invisbility cloak! I watched you go to Hagrid's and then you left 20 minuets later, now there were four of you however."

"No we weren't." Harry frowned. Ron withdrew Scabbers from his robes.

Lupin gazed intently at Scabbers.

"What's my rat got to do with anything?" Ron demanded.

"That's not a rat!" Black croaked, "he's an animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

"You're both mental," Ron said.

"Pettigrew is dead!" Venus pointed out, "you killed him twelve years ago!" She pointed at Black.

"I tried to," Black glared at the rat, "but Peter got the better of me- not this time though!" Black lunged forwards.

Lupin stopped him, "Sirius no!" Lupin grabbed his arm, "you can't do it just like that! They need to understand! We've got to explain!"

"We can explain afterwards!"

"They've got a right to know everything!" Lupin panted, "Ron has kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand! Harry has a right to know! And Venus! Sirius you have to explain it to your daughter!"

Black's eyes sofened and he looked at Venus.

"Alright then," black said, "but make it quick Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for!"

"That sounds really morbid," Venus murmered.

"I suppose it all started with me becoming a wearwolf." Lupin said. "I was very young when I was bitten and my transformations were painful. I was removed from human company so I bit and scratched myself."

"Get a move on Remus," Black growled, "I've waited 12 years, i'm not going to wait much longer."

There was a creak as the door opened slightly.

Lupin frowned but continued with his story, "thanks to Dumbledore I was able to come to school, but precautions had to be taken. They built this place and planted the Whomping Willow over the entrance to stop curious students finding me. But despite my transformations I was happy at Hogwarts. I had friends, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter."

"Hurry up Remus!" Black growled again, "it didn't take my three friends long to work out that something was wrong and eventually they discovered my secret and wanted to help. They hatched a daring plan to become animagi to keep me company during the nights of the full moon and by our fith year they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will. We spent our nights exploring the school grounds and Hogsmead."

"Remus," Sirius warned.

"We wrote the map to record our findings," Lupin explained, "I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, but I always managed to forget my guilty feelings when we planned our next adventure. All of this year I have wrestled with the urge to tell Dumbledore that Sirius is an animagus. But I couldn't do it. I convinced myself he was using dark magic that he learnt from Voldemort to get into the castle. So in a way Snape has been right about me all along."

"Snape?" Sirius demanded.

"He's here Sirius," Lupin said, "he's a teacher here as well," Lupin looked at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Venus, "Snape was at school with us, he's been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted."

"He tried to convince Dumbledore that I was helping him," Venus pointed at Black.

"He had his reasons," Lupin said, "Sirius played a prank on him that might have resulted in his death when we were at school."

"It served him right," Black snarled.

"Sirius thought it would be amusing to tell Snape where I went every full moon, James managed to pull him back though, saving his life."

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you." Harry realised, "he thought you were in on the joke."

"That's right!'" Snape was in the corner, pulling off the invisibility cloak.

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~Em xx