SuperPotterLock- The Prisoner of Azkaban

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Sherlock had not been paying attention to what had been happening. His scalp prickled at the name 'Peter Pettigrew', but his whole attention was focused on John, so much so that even the pain in his arm had faded to a dull throb.

As he continued to mutter, John's spasming body slowly relaxed. The lids closed over his glassy, white eyes, and his breathing slowed to a normal rhythm. Sherlock felt the heaviness and buzzing return to the far corners of his mind and he gave a great sigh of relief.

It was only then, with John sleeping comfortably in his lap, that he looked up at what was going on around him.

Ron was still gripping Scabbers tightly, while Professor Lupin and Sirius Black stared at him intently. Scabbers, Black and Lupin were all still shimmering. There was something he was still missing.

'My three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month,' Lupin was explaining. That's right, he was a werewolf, Sherlock thought. 'I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and I had to go home and see her... I was terrified they would all desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they worked out the truth... And they didn't desert me at all. Instead they did something that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi.'

'Animagi,' Sherlock breathed. 'So that's what you were trying to tell me,' he murmured to John, who twitched slightly.

'They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals,' said Lupin. 'A werewolf is only a danger to people. The Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack were both constructed the year I came to Hogwarts. Both were designed to keep me in here, and other people out. Before the invention of the Wolfsbane Potion, I became a fully-fledged monster every month, and this was the only way I could safely attend Hogwarts. But my friends would sneak out of the castle and transform. Peter – the smallest – could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot on the trunk that freezes it, so they could all come down the tunnel and join me. Incidentally, Dean, how did you get in?'

'I think John could see when the branches were coming so he kinda just ran in. Me and Cas used the Freezing Charm though,' said Dean.

'Oh, really? That works?' said Lupin.

'Yeah, it does.'

'Remus, please,' Black croaked.

'Yes, yes, as I was saying. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind was less so. Now that we could all transform, we were soon leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the grounds and the village. Sirius and James became such large animals that they were able to keep a werewolf in check. No Hogwarts students found out as much about the grounds as we did, and that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot, Peter is Wormtail, James was Prongs.'

'That was really dangerous!' Hermione cried. 'What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten someone?'

'A thought that still haunts me,' Lupin said heavily. 'And there were near misses. Many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless. Carried away by our own cleverness. I sometimes feel guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust... he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other Headmaster would have done so, he had no idea I was breaking the rules. He never knew I had led three other students into becoming Animagi illegally.'

'Don't blame yourself for that, Professor,' said Castiel. 'It sounds like it was their choice to do that. I doubt they regret it.'

Black looked at Castiel in surprise, then nodded. 'He's right, Remus.'

Lupin smiled faintly. 'All this year, I've been telling myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius is an Animagus. But I was too cowardly. It would mean admitting that I betrayed his trust, and his trust meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts and gave me a job, when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using Dark Arts he learnt from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it... so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along.'

'Snape?' said Black harshly. 'What's Snape got to do with it?'

'He's here, Sirius. He's teaching here as well.' Lupin looked at Harry. 'Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He had his reasons, you see... Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me-'

Black made a derisive noise. 'It served him right,' he sneered. 'Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled...'

'Severus was very interested in where I went every month,' Lupin told them. 'We were in the same year and we – er – didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch pitch... anyway, Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening. Sirius thought it would be – er – amusing to tell Snape that all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree-trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it – if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully-grown werewolf – but your father heard about what Sirius had done and went after Snape. He pulled him back, at great risk to his own life. Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden to tell anyone by Dumbledore, but from that time on, he knew what I was.'

'So that's why Snape doesn't like you,' Harry said slowly, 'because he thought you were in on the joke?'

'That's right,' sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin.

Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointed directly at Lupin.

2 s?