Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Harry McGonagall - Chapter 30 - The Rat Revealed
"Hurry up, Moony!" screamed the crazy-looking man at the mirror in his hand before pocketing it. Harry and the others were drawing their wands. Sirius took a step toward Harry and said, "Well, well, well. Hello, Harry Potter."
"Stop right there, murderer!" shouted the Boy-Who-Lived. "How do you know who I am?" A small part of him was relieved that everyone present already knew his true identity, so Sirius hadn't revealed any secrets. Another part of him was scared to death that this killer knew who he was.
"Your scent," he answered simply. "I used to spend a lot of time at your house with you and your parents."
"Before you betrayed them!" shouted Brianna. All the kids were now pointing their wands at the fugitive, who seemed unconcerned.
"I didn't betray Lily and James. It was this rat!"
"Ronald Weasley's pet?" asked Hermione. "That's preposterous!"
"It may seem that way at first, but it can be explained," came a calm voice from behind the kids.
"It's about time you got here, Remus," said Black.
The kids turned around to see Professor Lupin pointing his wand at them - not Sirius. He said, "Everyone calm down and lower your wands and nobody will get hurt."
"I trusted you!" shouted Harry as his face turned red. "And you've been helping him all this time!"
"What's going on here?" shouted the Muggle Studies teacher, who'd returned because she'd forgotten something in the cabin. "Professor Lupin, why are you pointing…" She then noticed who was on the other side of the kids. "You're helping Sirius Black!" She reached into her pocket for her wand, but was too late.
"I'm sorry, Professor Burbage," said Lupin calmly. "Stupefy." She was hit by the red beam of light and fell to the ground unconscious. He then glanced at the kids who were glaring at him and pointed his wand back at them. "I didn't hurt her. She might've gotten in the way. Now, I told you to lower your wands."
"Why should we, werewolf?" growled Padma. "Are you waiting for the moon to come out so you can bite us?" Hermione and Brianna had their wands on Black while Harry and Padma had theirs on Lupin.
The professor seemed shocked, and then noticed that only Brianna seemed surprised at this information. "How long have you known?"
"Months," said Harry. "You were always sick on the full moon."
"And you didn't tell me?" asked Brianna, looking upset.
"At the time," growled Harry. "We didn't think he was dangerous." He glared at his professor. "I trusted you! I talked to you for hours about my birth parents! Were the aurors wrong? Was it both you and Black who betrayed the Potters and Pettigrew?"
"We didn't betray them, Harry," said Lupin sadly. "Pettigrew did."
"And he's in my hand!" added Sirius with an excited grin. "I've waited thirteen years for this!"
"He's mad!" declared Hermione.
Lupin suddenly pointed his wand toward Hermione's general direction and released a spell. Harry jumped Lupin, pushing him to the ground. Hermione ducked before seeing the spell wasn't aimed at her, but at the rat in Black's hand. It hit the rodent, who was forced to change shape into a pathetic-looking short, balding, overweight man who Sirius was now holding by his throat.
Harry punched Remus in the face before hearing an unfamiliar voice. "Padfoot? It's so good to see you again." Harry turned, and for the first time in his memory, saw Peter Pettigrew. He absentmindedly got up, ignoring Moony, who had a black-eye forming on his face.
"What, how?"
Peter started to speak before Sirius gripped his throat tighter. "Tell them the truth, rat!"
While sniffling and stuttering, Pettigrew told them, "It was me. I t-t-told the Dark Lord where Lily and James were hiding. You have no idea the curses that he knows. No idea how much pain he can cause. W-w-what would you do?"
"I would've died!" snarled Sirius. "I would've died rather than betray my friends! To think I convinced them to trust you to be their secret-keeper instead of me. Making myself a decoy." He sighed. "Biggest mistake of our lives!"
"That's why you didn't kill the Dursleys or Ron Weasley," mumbled Brianna, mainly to herself.
By now, all the wands were on Peter as Remus said, "There's only one just punishment for that kind of betrayal, Wormtail. You should've known that if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Hold him, Sirius."
"Don't you want to turn him in?" asked Padma, gesturing toward the trembling coward. "He could get Mr. Black free."
Taking a calming breath, Remus reluctantly said, "You're right, of course," while Harry watched.
"Death is too good for him. The Dementors can have him once we've cleared Sirius' name." He pulled out his own mirror and called, "Minerva McGonagall."
After about fifteen seconds, she answered, "Harry?"
"Have I got a story for you," he replied. "But you'll need to come to C.A.R.E. headquarters."
While his aunt made her way to their location, Harry filled her in on the recent developments, even pointing his mirror at Pettigrew to confirm the story. After he was done explaining things to her, Harry talked to Sirius for a few minutes, who said, "Your parents made me your godfather, Harry. I'm sure you're happy with your adoptive family, but if you ever wanted another home, you could…"
"…come and live with you?" Harry asked. Padfoot nodded. Harry wasn't sure how to respond to this without hurting Sirius' feelings. In one sense, he was a complete stranger, but he was also Harry's godfather and a close friend of his birth parents. He took a deep breath. "I do appreciate the offer, Sirius. I really do. But like you said, I am very happy with my adoptive parents. But you can visit, you know. Once you're free, you could even…"
At that moment, Minerva arrived. "Hello, gentlemen. I do hope we can clear up this misunderstanding," she said calmly, but appeared shocked as she stared at Peter, whose throat was still being held by Sirius Black. "Mr. Pettigrew, I cannot express how disappointed in you I am," she added in her worst `teacher giving detention' mode. The rat Animagus cringed. She then turned to Lupin. "I must say that is an impressive black eye, and I do hope you've taken your medication, Remus."
With a grin, he replied, "I have taken my wolfsbane."
"Good." She looked to the ground. "I see none of you have seen fit to revive Professor Burbage yet."
Suddenly, the air got very chilly as a cold feeling overtook them all. Harry began hearing his birth mother's voice pleading with Voldemort as a swarm of over fifty Dementors came into view. He was forcing his Occlumency shields up as he watched Professor Lupin point his wand toward the monsters.
Suddenly, the Defense teacher started trembling in pain and dropped his wand. Harry glanced up and saw the full moon in between two of the Dementors and back down to see Lupin changing. A Dementor was charging at him. Sirius, in the meantime, didn't have his own wand and was scrambling to pick up the werewolf's. Even though Moony would keep his mind, he'd be unable to perform magic until the next morning.
Upon hearing a scream, Harry turned to see his aunt's wand hand had been grabbed so she wouldn't be able to defend them. The girls were in a similar predicament, and they all seemed on the verge of collapsing as several Dementors lowered their hoods. While fighting his own mind's reaction, Harry took a deep breath as he glanced at Hermione's trembling form as one of the monsters got closer to her. He forced himself to concentrate on their first kiss as he pointed his wand and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery Patronus shot out of his wand, shaped like a tabby cat. It ran at the Dementor closest to Hermione, forcing it to flee, and began chasing after each one, saving all of them from a fate worse than death.
Sirius got up, holding Lupin's wand. "That was amazing, Harry. I'd have never expected you to cast a Patronus at your age, let alone one powerful enough to drive them all away!"
Harry smiled. "Aunt Minnie and Professor Lupin taught me." He indicated Minerva and the tame werewolf sitting on the ground. "I guess we should get Pettig…where is he?"
Everyone looked around in panic and didn't see the traitor or his rat form anywhere. "DAMN!" shouted Padfoot. "The bloody traitor got away during the Dementor attack!"
A shaky Minerva sadly said, "I'm afraid that it will take absolute proof to get the Ministry to admit they made a mistake. It will take more than Pensieve memories for that."
"But…" said Harry.
"Fudge wouldn't remove the Dementors from the grounds after they nearly killed a student. That obstinate…politician has been shouting all year about how Sirius Black was a murderer."
"I'm afraid your aunt's right, Harry," said Sirius with his head down.
"But surely with all of us testifying," began Hermione.
"I'm afraid it won't be enough for that imbecile," said Minerva. "Besides, he's ordered the Dementors to Kiss Sirius on sight. Even if he tried to turn himself in, he wouldn't survive."
With a sigh, Padfoot said, "I guess I'd better move on, then." Lupin barked loudly, and when they turned toward him, they saw he was gesturing one of his paws toward himself. Sirius closed his eyes in regret. "You mean you have to run, too, don't you. That teacher saw us together and you stunned her."
"Perhaps I could…" said Minerva.
"Talk her out of it? Modify her memory?" suggested Black while shaking his head. "That won't work. You'll become a fugitive, too. No. Remus and I had the kids cornered and you rescued them. That's what you'll tell everyone. We've got to be going."
"At least let me help you gentlemen," said Minerva before calling out, "Twinky!" An elf appeared with a small pop.
"Yes, Headmistress. What can Twinky be doing for you?"
"On the sixth floor, there is a large storage room. Do you know where I'm talking about?"
"Yes, Headmistress."
"In one corner, there is a rather large, folded up carpet. Could you bring it here?"
"Yes, Headmistress," the elf replied, bowing before popping away.
"What is he getting?" asked Harry, "a flying carpet?"
Before she could answer, Twinky reappeared with a huge red carpet that looked brand new on the ground in front of him. "Here it is being. Twinky is sorry he is taking so long. Twinky is dusting it off."
"You did a good job, Twinky. Now, could you pack up provisions for two men to last at least a month and bring it here? And all of Professor Lupin's possessions. And a box of chocolates?"
"Yes, Headmistress." He popped away again.
"Before the Hogwarts Express was built," Minerva explained. "Students would ride this flying carpet to school." While the others watched, she pointed her wand at the carpet and muttered a Latin phrase. "That will activate its defenses against detection. Once it's ten feet in the air, no one can see it. The bottom of the carpet looks like the sky above it so that no magical person will see it from the ground. It also disillusions anything on it."
"Thank you," said Sirius, clearly in awe. The werewolf was silently admiring it as well.
"I suggest you make your way to America. I will contact Harry's parents and see if I can persuade them to help you two. Harry said you had a communication mirror?"
"Yes," answered Padfoot, pulling it out of the pocket of his raggedy pants.
"Surely I taught you enough Transfiguration to make those clothes look decent?"
Padfoot laughed. "It hasn't come up yet, but I'll take care of that on our way."
"My mirror address is `Minerva McGonagall.' Harry's is `Harry McGonagall.'
"So," said Sirius with a grin. "Remus told me how you took Harry from the Dursleys right under Dumbledore's nose."
With pink ears, Minerva began, "I…"
"I want to thank you for that. From what Lily told me about them, and what I saw in my visit, they would've treated Harry terribly."
"You're welcome. It was my pleasure."
"Moony and I decided that what you did is a prank worthy of the Marauders, so we decided to make you an honorary member, Miss Whiskers." Harry and Brianna laughed at that until their aunt glared at them. They were saved from her response by Twinky reappearing with a ton of food and drink, along with an extra dose of wolfsbane for Lupin, as well as the professor's possessions. Once all that was on the carpet, everyone got a piece of chocolate. Padfoot and Moony boarded and sat on chairs Minerva conjured for them.
After short goodbyes, the remaining Marauders flew away, becoming invisible once they were ten feet in the air. At that moment, Professor Burbage woke up and looked around. "They're gone! Sirius Black was working with Professor Lupin! I saw them holding the kids at wand point. Are you okay? You must have been terrified!" The kids nodded sadly. "What happened?"
--HM--
Minerva relayed the official story they'd come up with, and they all sadly marched back to Hogwarts, where the Headmistress reluctantly did her duty to floo the Ministry and tell them the same story that had been told to the Muggle Studies professor, how Minerva had surprised the two Marauders and rescued the children. She hated telling that lie, but knew that Fudge would accept nothing less. Not to mention that if Fudge even suspected they sympathized with Black, he'd have the McGonagall family under observation, even in America. Then, she decided to have a talk with her old friend from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones, to see if the case of Sirius Black could be reopened and the evidence reexamined.
The next day's Daily Prophet had a huge story about Professor Remus Lupin helping his old friend, Sirius Black, escape. Fortunately for Minerva, it didn't mention that Remus was a werewolf. Otherwise, it would've made her look very bad. As it was, the article made her out to be some sort of heroine for rescuing the kids from Sirius and Remus. A few days later, the term ended and the students left Hogwarts for the summer.
--HM--
Please review. Thank you to those who have.
Sorry for such a short chapter, but I felt that this incident deserved its own chapter rather than being stuffed in the middle of several other events.
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