“Get off him, Black!” Harry snarled, his voice full of rage. He grabbed the murderer by the shoulders and hauled him off Ron, throwing him into the boarded up window, knocking one of the boards loose and dust fell from the ceiling. Black lunged at Ron, but Harry punched him in the jaw, sending him sprawling.
“Get out of here, Ron. I don’t think I’m going to want witnesses for this,” Harry said. His voice promised violence.
“No! Don’t let him leave!” Black howled and crawled towards Ron. Harry stopped him by stomping on his hand. His shoes weren’t as heavy as his Harrier boots, but they worked well enough for this.
“Me?” Ron gulped. “What do you want with me?”
“Not you, him!” Black snarled, pointing a bony finger in Ron’s general direction. Ron spun around, but no one was there.
“You better start making sense, Black,” Harry growled, just like interrogating a Gotham street thug. “What are you talking about?”
“The rat in his hands! He’s why they’re dead, him and me.”
Harry eased the pressure off Black’s hand just a little. “My parents?”
Black snatched his hand back and clutched it to his chest. “Kill me if you want to, Harry, but you need to know the whole story first. And I need to kill the rat.”
“Nobody’s killing anybody tonight, Black. I’m not a murderer, but you killed my parents, and for that, I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
“I already do, Harry, I already do,” Black whispered.
“Then start talking, Black, and don’t lie to me. I’ll know if you’re lying.”
Black laughed, and he sounded unhinged. Harry had experience with that kind of laugh. “I don’t even know where to begin…” he trailed off.
“My parents went into hiding and you betrayed them. Why don’t we start there?” Harry snapped, looming over Black.
“I betrayed them, but not the way you think, Harry. I could never give them to Voldemort.” Ron flinched at the name, but didn’t say anything. “Your father and I were best friends, ever since First Year,” he croaked, trying to work out the words. Harry watched his face, but he wasn’t lying. “Inseparable, him and me, and Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, all four of us, and everybody knew it. James even had me be his best man when he married your mum, Harry, and god, she was beautiful that day. Like an angel, she was.”
“Focus, Black,” Harry growled.
Black shook his head and his eyes cleared a little bit. “When they went into hiding, they used magic called the Fidelius Charm. It can hide a location completely, but only with someone’s help. The Secret Keeper.”
“And you were the Secret Keeper for my parents, I know. Tell me something new.”
“No! No, I wasn’t their Secret Keeper, everyone just thought I was. I was the obvious choice, the one everyone was supposed to see. Did it all the time in school, show the people what they want and they never pay attention to what’s really going on. So I convinced your father to use Peter Pettigrew instead.”
“And then you killed him.”
“I didn’t! I wanted too, but I didn’t!”
“You’re lying, Black. You killed him and a dozen muggles the morning after my parents were killed. Blew him up.”
“No, he escaped! Cut his finger off and he blew up the street!”
Harry grabbed the front of Black’s robes and slammed him against the window, breaking the boards and hanging him halfway out the new opening. “And just how did he get away with that, that nobody ever caught him?”
“Animagus! He was an unregistered Animagus, we all were. I was a dog, your father was a stag, and Peter was a rat! That rat, right there!” He pointed a crooked finger at Scabbers.
0oOo0
Ron’s mind was reeling. He’d found Scabbers, who he was sure was dead, but then he was kidnapped by a dog, only it wasn’t a dog, it was Sirius Black, and now Scabbers was supposed to be an Animagus too?
And Harry, god, Ron didn’t know what to think. Harry was a good duelist, and a good spellcaster in class, but Ron had never seen this side of him. Harry was…scary. There was no better word for it. The Hufflepuff had always been a good sport in Dueling Club, fought fair and never got mad, not even when he lost. Now he was like a completely different person. It was like he didn’t even care that Black was a violent madman, and he was just a thirteen year old. Harry just came in and attacked Black, didn’t even use his wand, he was just throwing him around, fighting like a muggle. And it was working.
That the crazy murderer wasn’t the scariest person in the room…Ron didn’t know how to react to that.
“Ron!” Harry snapped. Apparently it wasn’t the first time he’d tried to get his attention.
“What?” Ron was stunned.
“Is what he said true? He’s an Animagus, it wasn’t a bewitched or conjured dog that brought you here?”
“Oh, um, yeah, he transformed, just like McGonagall does.”
Harry pulled Black back in the window and threw him on the ground. “Then at least that part of the story is true. Ron, give me the rat.”
“What? He’s not an Animagus, he’s just Scabbers!”
“No he’s not, he’s Peter!” Black raved. “Saw your family’s picture in the paper when Fudge came to Azkaban, and I saw your rat. I’d seen Peter transform a thousand times, I knew it was him. And he’s missing a toe, right where Peter cut off his finger.”
Ron clutched Scabbers tighter to his chest, and Scabbers struggled and squeaked. “He can’t be,” he said, but the words sounded hollow even to his own ears.
“There’s an easy way to test,” Harry interjected. “Give me the rat. There’s a charm to detect transfigurations. It won’t hurt Scabbers if he’s just a rat, but it’ll tell us if he’s really an Animagus in disguise.”
Ron hesitated and stared at Harry’s outstretched hand. After a moment, his own hands trembling, he handed Scabbers to Harry.
Harry pulled Ron’s wand out of his pocket and underhanded it to Ron. He nodded at Black. “If he moves, stun him.”
Ron nodded, but he was looking at Scabbers as Harry began the charm. At first, it looked like nothing was going to happen, but then Scabbers glowed blue. “Does that mean…?”
Harry nodded. “Animagus. Or at least transfigured.” He tried a Finishing Charm. “And if it was a basic transfiguration, that would have worked.”
“The Animagus Reversal Charm, that would force him to revert,” Black said. “I can do it.”
Harry glared at him. Ron flinched, and he wasn’t even the focus of the look. “If you think I’m giving you a wand, you’re crazier than I thought.” He looked at the rat in his hands. “You’re going to transform, or I’m going to start breaking bones. I’ve already broken Black’s fingers, so if you think I’m going to have trouble roughing up a rat, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Scabbers never stopped struggling.
Harry shook him, hard. Ron wanted to yell at him, to stop him from hurting his pet, but with the way Harry was acting, the words just wouldn’t come out.
“Pay attention,” Harry growled. Scabbers stopped struggling and looked up at Harry. “I know what you are, and if Black is telling the truth, I know who you are. If you don’t transform right now, I’m taking you back to Hogwarts and feeding you to Filch’s cat. One piece at a time.”
Ron believed him.
There was a soft pop, and Scabbers began to grow. McGonagall had transformed faster, hadn’t she? Maybe it had been so long, he barely knew how, anymore. Ron could see all the parts of him shift and change, and tried not to gag. He’d let that man sleep in his bed? Ron’s throat burned with bile, but he swallowed it down.
He was a short man, barely as tall as Ron, and balding. What hair he did have looked like it had been turned white out of fright, and he looked like he used to be fat, but now his skin was almost hanging off of him, he was so thin.
“Traitor!” Black snarled, and lunged for the man. Harry turned and stuck his wand in the hollow just under Black’s eye.
“Get back, Black. I’m the one in charge tonight.”
Black raised his hands slowly, but he wasn’t looking at the wand. “I’m going to kill you, Peter, for what you did to them.”
“N-no, Sirius, you’ve got it all wrong,” Pettigrew squeaked. “P-please, Harry, protect me, he’s going to kill me…”
Harry was shorter than Pettigrew, but Ron could barely tell with the way he shrank under Harry’s glare. “Black’s not the one you should be worried about. Innocent men don’t spend twelve years hiding as a rat.”
“I was hiding from him! He was going to escape and come to kill me!” He looked like he was going to continue pleading, but Harry punched him in the nose.
“Stop lying to me, Pettigrew, I can see it written all across your face.”
“You weren’t hiding from me, you were hiding from Voldemort’s other followers, weren’t you, Peter?” Sirius taunted. “I was in there with them, I heard them howling. They blame you, Peter. They think the double-crosser double-crossed them, and led Voldemort to his downfall on purpose. The ones who never made it to Azkaban can’t be too much happier with you, they’re the ones you were hiding from, weren’t you Peter?” His voice rose to a shout.
“No, no! If I was hiding from them, it’s because I put you in Azkaban—Sirius Black, their best spy!” Pettigrew squeaked desperately.
“Me, a spy?” Black barked out a laugh. “I’d die before I gave Voldemort anything! Like you should have.”
Pettigrew glanced around the room fearfully and clutched at Harry’s robes. “You can’t believe him, Harry, he’s lying, he’s lying,” Pettigrew pleaded.
Harry grabbed Pettigrew’s throat and forced his chin up until he made eye contact. “Don’t try to fight me. I can do this whether you’re conscious or not. Legilimens!”
Ron watched as Harry stared deep into Pettigrew’s eyes. Black stepped towards the pair, and Ron pointed his wand at him. “Don’t get any closer! Stay right there!” Ron noticed his wand was shaking. He tried to hold it still, but his hand didn’t seem to be listening.
Black wrapped his arms around himself, like he was cold. Was it getting colder? It was summer, it shouldn’t be getting colder. “I’m sorry about the bite, but I had to get to Peter,” Black said, and he hardly sounded crazy at all. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Ron glanced at his arm. It was a little bloody, and there were a couple puncture marks that were still oozing. He hadn’t even noticed them, with everything that was going on. “I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding,” Black pointed out, but didn’t say anything more about it. “I didn’t mean to draw you into this. It was just supposed to be me and Peter.”
“Oh yeah? You’d kill him, and then what?” Ron wasn’t sure he really wanted to know, but if Black was talking, he wasn’t attacking.
Black looked dumbstruck. “Hah! Never really got that far. I was always the doer, James was the planner.” He looked at Harry and Pettigrew. “Are you two friends?”
Ron shrugged, but kept his wand pointed at Black. “I dunno. I know him from Dueling Club, mostly. We’ve got some classes together, but he usually works with the other Hufflepuffs.”
Black shook his head. “Hufflepuff, I don’t know how that happened. James and Lily were Gryffindors, through and through. Certainly brave enough, following me here without even going to a teacher.”
“He works harder than anybody else in the year. Guess the Sorting Hat saw that in him,” Ron reasoned. Movement caught his eye, but it wasn’t Black.
Harry brought his other hand to Pettigrew’s neck, and he started to squeeze. “You got them killed. You got other people killed. All to save your own skin.”
Black’s attention snapped to Harry. “Don’t kill him, Harry, don’t do it. I couldn’t face your father knowing I let you become a murderer.”
Harry didn’t look away from Pettigrew. “I’m not going to kill him,” he said, even as he kept choking Pettigrew. “He probably deserves it, but I won’t kill him. I’m not even sure how many people died because of the information he passed, but it was definitely more than just my parents. Too many deaths.” Harry released Pettigrew violently, throwing him back. “But one more tonight won’t solve anything. He’s going to clear your name, and then the Ministry can feed him to the Dementors, for all I care. Stupefy.”
Harry added a Body Bind and some ropes, as well as what looked like a Confundus Charm as he spoke. “Voldemort got to him early. Hurt him, threatened to hurt his family. Loyalty from fear, it started out as, but he changed. Hurting other people, it felt like power to him, and he liked having power. He saw Voldemort as the winning side, and made his choice. Then Voldemort was defeated, and he didn’t have anywhere to go. He’d betrayed his friends, the Death Eaters thought he’d betrayed them, he was already running when you tracked him down, Black. Then he faked his death, and if you never broke out of Azkaban, he would have spent the rest of his life as a rat than face up to what he did.”
Black spit on the Stunned Pettigrew, and sat on the bed, clutching himself and shivering. “He never could take responsibility, he’d let us take the fall if he could. I didn’t mind, I liked the attention…” Black drifted off, and Ron could see a wispy outline of his breath. Ron hugged himself, feeling the cold too.
Harry noticed something, Ron wasn’t sure what, and rushed to the broken out window. “The Dementors are coming,” he warned urgently.
“They patrol Hogsmeade at night…” Black muttered. “Had to stick to the caves…”
“And they’re attracted to strong emotions,” Harry continued. “So much anger and fear here tonight, we were like a beacon leading them straight here. We need to get back to Hogwarts.” He flicked his wand and Pettigrew levitated. “Back through the tunnel. Move, now!”
Ron was the first out of the room, but he could see the black cloak of a Dementor through the window already. How could they escape when the Dementors were already so close?
A Stinging Hex flared across his leg and Ron looked back. “Keep moving Weasley, no time for breaks!” Harry roared as he floated Pettigrew and half-supported Black.
Ron noticed he had stalled when he clutched the banister and nodded. “Right, keep moving.”
They made it to the tunnel, but Ron could still feel the presence of the Dementors. They didn’t feel like they were getting any further away. Were they following them down the tunnel?
“Harry, I don’t know if we can do this,” he panted as he half-crawled through the tunnel.
“Of course we can. You know why?” Harry grunted. There was a soft pop, and Black was that big dog again. “Cause tonight, we’re the good guys, and the good guys always win.”
Ron didn’t say anything, but it sounded to him like Harry was trying to convince himself of that fact.
They made it to the end of the tunnel, and Ron could hear the Whomping Willow creaking above them. “What do we do now?” There was no way they could get past the branches, the tree would kill them, and if they waited, the Dementors coming down the tunnel would get them.
Harry stuck his head out of the hole and shined his wand light around.
“There’s a knot on the trunk.” Black was human again. When had that happened? “Press it, and it’ll freeze the tree.”
Harry shook his head. “No good. The Dementors have crossed onto the grounds again. They aren’t right by the hole, but there’s no way all of us could make it to the castle before they caught us.”
“So what do we do?” Ron asked again. Was that frost on the tunnel walls? He wasn’t sure.
“Do you still have those fireworks you mentioned?” Harry asked.
Ron was confused for a moment, but then he searched his pockets. “Yeah, here you go. How are fireworks going to help us?”
“They’re going to be a signal. Engorgio,” Harry cast. He pulled off his amulet and set it on Pettigrew’s face. “That’s our way out of here. Everybody make sure you’re touching it.”
Harry stuck his head up through the hole again and carved a strange symbol into the Whomping Willow’s trunk with his wand. “Get ready, cause we’re going!” He set off the fireworks, and the enlarged fireworks shot into the sky as the Whomping Willow went mad.
Then Harry was back in the tunnel, and there was a hook behind Ron’s navel, and then they were gone.