There were a few seconds of silence.
"You're both mental," said Ron.
"Ridiculous!" Hermione said faintly. I looked up at my dad and he looked down at me, trying to convey a message with his eyes.
"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!"
"I meant to," my father growled, his fierceness returning. "but little Peter got the better of me...not this time, though!"
He threw himself at Scabbers, and Ron yelled as his weight fell on his broken leg.
"Dad, no!" I said, trying to pull him off with Lupin. "I believe you, but you have to explain!"
"We can explain afterwards!" he snarled, fighting our combined grasps.
"You owe Harry and Ash the truth, Sirius!"
He stopped moving for a second, his hollowed eyes fixing themselves on Scabbers, who was desperately wriggling in Ron's hand.
"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..."
"Dad," I whispered and he seemed to come back a little. He was near madness, desperate to get revenge on Peter but wavering between joy. His eyes hardened as he remembered something.
"Do you have the necklace?" he said urgently.
"What-"
"Do you have it?"
"Yes," I murmured. Black relaxed and exhaled.
"Just hear me out, Ron," Lupin was saying gently. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."
"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard; Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him and pushed him back down to the bed. He glared at Lupin.
"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," he said, though he sounded uncertain. "A street full of them."
"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" said Black, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands.
"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," said Lupin, nodding. "I believed it myself--until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's map never lies...Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."
Harry and Ron exchanged a look that clearly conveyed they thought Lupin, Sirius and I were all off of our rockers.
"But Professor Lupin...Scabbers can't be Pettigrew...it just can't be true, you know it can't..." Hermione spoke, in a trembling voice.
"Why can't it be true?" Lupin said calmly, as though they were in class, and Hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with Grindylows.
"Because...because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework--the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things...and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list."
"Right again, Hermione!" he said. "But the Ministry never knew that here used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."
"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," said Black, who was still watching Scabbers's every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."
YOU ARE READING
𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 | 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳
Fanfiction❝It's hard to forget when he gave me so much to remember.❞ ~❂~ ❝Yeah, not only am I terribly witty and a genius, I'm also savior of the universe.❞ ~❂~ Ashlynn Dream doesn't apologize; she doesn't cry; and she certainly doesn't expect to be tossed...
