The Art of New Beginnings

Chapter Twenty: Answers to the Puzzle

Hermione screamed as Severus was uncovered. Remus leapt in front of Sirius. Harry jumped as though he'd received an electric shock. Erica was the only one who remained calm, watching Severus steadily, as though contemplating her options.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," said Severus, throwing the Cloak aside, careful to keep his wand pointing at Sirius and Remus. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you..."

Severus was slightly breathless, but he looked rather like he was fighting an internal battle within himself. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he asked. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your Potion tonight, so I took a goblet full along. And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running alone this passageway and out of sight.

"Severus-" Lupin began, but Snape overrode him.

"This is all very suspicious, of course, and something that the Headmaster will be wanting to know," he said, looking around them all. "Spiriting students away from the castle, filling their heads with stories, all very interesting indeed-"

"Severus," this time it was Erica who called his name, walking forward and laying her hand on his arm gently. When he looked at her, his gaze was marginally softer, but still so hard that she had to fight the urge to back away. "Severus, please here them out. Pettigrew is in this room with us. They have the answers we've- I've- been searching for all year."

"In this room," Severus breathed, casting another glance around before looking back at her. "How?"

"The rat," she responded quite simply, pointing to the struggling creature in Ron's hands, who squeaked and renewed his struggles. "He's an Animagus, and Sirius and Remus know why he's been sneaking into the castle, into Gryffindor, like he has been doing. We should hear them out."

Severus gave her a long, searching look, eyes flickering over her face, before he finally said, "Give me a reason."

"This again," Erica shook her head, jaw clenching, "Sev, we don't have time for this-"

"Give me a reason," he repeated again, and this time Erica understood what he was truly asking for. Not a reason to believe her, like she had originally thought, but a reason not to attack Sirius and Remus anyway, for all that they had done to him.

"There's another me walking around and she's all beat up and she knows things, and I think she saved Buckbeak," she murmured, ignoring the shocked gasps from around them. "Another Hermione, too. We're a little worse for wear, really, which leads me to believe that there's going to be a battle soon, because I think they're from the future, and I need you. Please, Sev."

He took a deep breath and then lowered his wand, looking to Sirius and Remus, and then at the others by the bed.

"Talk," he commanded, voice not wavering in the slightest, though he did place a hand on Erica's shoulder, his grip was too tight for it to be normal. "Before I change my mind."

"I think," Sirius said, casting his gaze to the rat struggling in Ron's hands, "that before we talk anymore, it is time we offer some proof of our claims. Ron, give me the rat, please."

Ron looked for a moment as though he was going to refuse, before he winced and handed over the rat, which struggled far greater than it ever had before, letting out squeaks and squeals as though it was being torn to shreds and not simply being passed from one person to another.

Sirius held the rat steady as Remus levelled his wand at it, though they did pause when Harry asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Force him to show himself," Sirius grunted, a steely note to his voice that hadn't been there before. "If he's really a rat, then it won't hurt him, but if it is Peter, like we suspect, then it will force him to transform."