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Aurora Areli
THERE WERE A FEW moments of silence as everyone took in the absurdity of this new information.
"You're both mental." Ron shook his head.
"Ridiculous!" Hermione said faintly.
"You can't really expect us to believe that," I said.
"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" Harry said. "He killed him twelve years ago!"
He pointed at Black, whose face twitched convulsively.
"I meant to," he growled, his yellow teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me . . . not this time, though!"
And Crookshanks was thrown to the floor as Black lunged at Scabbers; Ron yelled with pain as Black's weight fell on his broken leg.
"Hey, get off of him!" I shouted, and started towards them at the same time as Uncle Remus.
"Sirius, NO!" he yelled, dragging Black away from Ron again. "WAIT! You can't do it just like that — they need to understand — we've got to explain —"
"We can explain afterwards!" Black snarled, trying to throw Uncle Remus off. One of his hands was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape.
"They've — got — a — right — to — know — everything!" Uncle Remus panted, still trying to restrain the deranged Azkaban escapee. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of this even I don't understand! And Harry — you owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"
Black stopped struggling, though his hollowed eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's scratched and bleeding hands.
"All right, then," Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for . . ."
"You're nutters, both of you," Ron said shakily, looking around at me, Harry and Hermione for support. "I've had enough of this. I'm off."
He tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Uncle Remus raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers.
"You're going to hear me out, Ron," he said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."
"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the squirming rat back into his front pocket. That seemed to be too much for him, because he swayed and overbalanced, and Harry had to catch him and push him back down to the bed. Then, ignoring Black altogether, Harry turned to Uncle Remus.
"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," he said. "A whole street full of them . . ."
"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black said savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands.
