AN: I'm so sorry this didn't come sooner. But it is a longer chapter so enjoy! Thanks so much for all of your support. I'm so excited to get out of this writing rut i've been in. Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favorites and I never expected I'd have such a difficult time getting through it. But here we are! Finally through the thick of it.

Chapter Forty Seven

It was like someone sent an electric shock through the group. Hermione let out a scream while Black leapt to his feet. Remus lifted his hands in the air cautiously.

I was really not liking the look in Snape's eyes.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow." Snape said, throwing aside the Invisibility Cloak, careful to keep his wand pointed at Lupin's chest. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you…"

"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" He drawled, his eyes glittering with triumph. I had never seen him like this before. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful 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 along this passageway and out of sight."

"Severus-" Lupin tried but Snape didn't let him get a word in.

"I've told the headmaster time and time again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout-"

"Severus you're making a mistake," Lupin tried to reason. "You haven't heard everything- I can explain- Sirius is not here to kill Harry-"

"Two more for Azkaban tonight." Snape sneered, clearly enjoying this. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this… he was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin… a tame werewolf-"

"You fool. Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban."

That was not the right thing to say.

BANG! Cords burst from the end of Snape's wand, twisting around Lupin's mouth silencing him. More wrapped around his wrists and ankles causing him to fall onto the ground, unable to move. Black let out a roar of anger starting towards Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.

"Give me a reason. Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."

Black stopped dead.

"We can at least hear them out." I tried, taking a step forward. Snape glanced at me and his expression darked, as if just remembering that I was here.

"Know your place Cassiopeia." He almost growled, tone firmer and darker than I've ever heard before. My stomach twisted.

Everything in me wanted to argue back but my throat was tight. I knew this was wrong. I knew that they were more than likely telling the truth but… I didn't have much left. As terrible as he could be- he was my Godfather.

"Professor Snape-" Hermione saved me. She sounded breathless as she took a step next to me. "It- it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, would it?"

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school. You, Potter, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."

I tried to ignore the fact that he left my name out.

"But if- if there was a mistake-"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

A couple sparks flew out of his wand. I grabbed onto her arm and pulled her back a bit. Snape looked like he was about to lose it.

"Vengeance is very sweet." Snape breathed, smiling. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..,"

"The joke's on you again, Severus. As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle-" Black jerked his head towards Ron. "I'll come quietly."

"Up to the castle?" Snape almost sounded amused. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black… pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay…"

"You can't do that!" I tried but he was already grabbing the cords that bound Lupin.

"You don't have to come willingly." He said, his eyes glinting. I glanced over at the others unsure about what to do. Ron was still struggling with Scabbers looking confused and worried. Harry looked just as conflicted as I felt but crossed over in front of the door, blocking the exit, his face pale.

"Get out of the way Potter, you're in enough trouble already. If I hadn't been here to save your skin-"

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year." Harry cut in. "I've been alone with him loads of time, having defense lessons. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works. Get out of the way Potter." Snape hissed.

"YOU'RE PATHETIC! JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN-"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT! Like father like son Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me! You would have been well served if he'd kill you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to to believe you might be mistaken in Black- now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

Snape raised his foot to take a step towards Harry. Almost on instinct, I raised my wand.

"Expelliarmus!" The blast sent Snape off of his feet and slamming into the wall with a large bang. He slid to the floor, his head bleeding, and unmoving.

I looked to see that Ron, Hermione, and Harry all had their wands up as well. The force of four disarming spells had been more than enough to take Snape out. Though that wasn't our intent.

Oh Merlin what did we just do?

"You shouldn't have done that." Black muttered after a moment of silence.. "You should have left him to me…"

"We attacked a teacher… We attacked a teacher…" Hermione whimpered, her eyes still trained on Snape.

I couldn't stop myself from moving to my godfather's side, quickly checking his pulse to make sure that he was alive. Steady. He was just knocked out. Thank Merlin.

"Thank you, Harry." Lupin said after Black untied him.

"I'm still not saying I believe you." Harry retorted.

"Then it's time we offered you some proof. You, boy- give me Peter. Now."

Ron clutched Scabbers even closer to his chest.

"Come off of it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean… Okay look." Ron looked at Harry, Hermione, and myself. "Say Pettigrew could turn into a rat- there are millions of rats- how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he's locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," Lupin pondered, turning towards Sirius with a frown. "How did you find out where he was?"

Black reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. After a moment of flattening it out, he held it up to us.

My eyebrows furrowed.

It was the Daily Profit, the photo of Ron and the rest of the Weasleys from winning the lottery. And right there, sitting on Ron's shoulder, was Scabbers.

"How did you get this?" Lupin asked, looking dumbstruck. He grabbed the paper out of Black's hands looking closer at it.

"Fudge." Black almost smirked. "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me this paper. And there was Peter, on the front page… on this boy's shoulder… I knew him at once. How many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy was going back to Hogwarts… To where Harry was…"

"My god." Lupin said softly. He was looking back and forth between Scabbers and the newspaper. "His front paw…"

"What about it?" Ron asked defiantly.

"He's got a toe missing." Black muttered.

"Of course." Lupin breathed. "So simple… So brilliant… He cut it off himself?"

"Just before he transformed," Black said and my stomach turned. "When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed James and Lily. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the rest of the street with the wand behind his back. Killed everyone within twenty feet of himself- and sped down into the sewer with the other rats…"

"The biggest bit of Peter they found was a finger…" I breathed and Ron started to shake his head, fear all over his face.

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right—"

"Twelve years in fact." Lupin said. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"

"We- we've been taking good care of him!" Ron sounded almost hysterical.

"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he? I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again…"

"He's been scared of that mad cat!" Ron exclaimed pointing at Crookshanks who was purring on the bed.

"This cat isn't mad." Black said hoarsely. Crookshanks leaned into Black as he started to stroke the cat's head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me… Finally I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me…"

"What do you mean?" Hermione breathed.

"He tried to bring Peter to me, but couldn't… so he stole the passwords into the Gryffindor tower for me. As I understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table… But Peter caught wind of what was going on and ran for it…" Black croaked. "This. Cat- Crookshanks, did you call him? — told me Peter had left blood on the sheets… I supposed he bit himself… well, faking his own death had worked once…"

Harry jerked as if having an epiphany.

"And why did he fake his death?" He asked furiously. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"

"No, Harry-" Lupin tried but was cut off.

"And now you've come to finish him off!"

"Yes I have." Black confirmed.

"Harry," Lupin cut in hurriedly. "Don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents and Peter tracked him down- but it was the other way around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father. Sirius tracked Peter down-"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry roared. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"

Harry was pointing at Black who was shaking his head.

"Harry… I as good as killed them." He croaked, grief written all over his face. "I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as the Secret-Keeper instead of me… I'm to blame. I know it… The night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, to make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he was gone. Yet there was no sign of struggle. It didn't feel right… I was scared. I set out for your parents' house straightaway. And then I saw their house… destroyed, and their bodies… I realized what Peter must've done… What I'd done."

His voice broke and he turned away. My heart twisted at his words. His best friends had died because of a mistake he made…

"Enough of this." Lupin said. There was a steely note in his voice that I hadn't heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron. Give me that rat."

"And what are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" Ron asked.

"Force him to show himself. If he is really a rat, it won't hurt him."

After hesitating for a second, he held out Scabbers to the Professor. Lupin took him and scabbers started to squeak, twisting and turning wildly- trying to get away.

"Ready, Sirius?" Lupin asked.

Sirius had already grabbed Snape's wand from the bed. We all watched as he stepped towards Lupin and the struggling rat.

"Together?"

"I think so." Lupin nodded, holding Scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the other. "On the count of three. One- two- THREE!"

A flash of blue-white light filled the room. For a moment Scabbers was frozen midair, his grey form twisting madly. Ron let out a yell as the rat fell and hit the ground. There was another blinding flash of light and then-

My stomach twisted as Scabbers' human head started to grow from the grey rat body. Limbs were starting to sprout, the form growing until where Scabbers just was was a full grown man.

The man was short, around my height. What little hair he did have was thin and colorless. His skin was hanging off of his body and his eyes were small and watery. Something about him made my skin crawl.

They had been right all along.

"Why hello, Peter." Lupin almost smirked. "Long time no see."

Pettigrew's eyes darted towards the door. "S-Sirius… Remus… My friends… my old friends…"

Black's arm rose but Lupin quickly seized him by the wrist, giving him a warning look. He then turned back towards Pettigrew, voice light and casual.

"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed-"

"Remus." Pettigrew gasped. "You don't believe him, do you…" He tried to kill me."

"So we've heard." Lupin said, his eyes hardening. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so-"

"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeaked pointing at Black with his middle finger. His index was missing just like they said. It clearly hadn't healed right either. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too! You've got to help me out Remus…"

"No one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out." Remus said as if talking to a child.

"Sorted things out?" Squeaked Pettigrew. He looked wildly around the room and the grip on my wand tightened as his eyes fell on the doorway. "I knew he'd come after me! I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!"

"You knew that Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban? When nobody has ever done it before?" Lupin voiced what I had been thinking.

"He's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of! How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!"

Pettigrew was not a good liar. Sweat was started to bead on his pale, rat-like face. His whole body was twitching.

"Voldemort, teach me tricks?" Sirius laughed. The name alone caused Pettigrew to twitch violently.

"What? Scared to hear your old master's name? I don't blame you. Peter. His lot aren't very happy with you, are they?"

"Don't know what you mean, Sirius-" Pettigrew's whole face was shining with sweat.

"You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years." Black said matter of factly. "You've been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban, Peter… they all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them… I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went to the Potter's on your information… and Voldemort met his downfall there. And not all of Voldemort's supporters ended up in Azkaban did they? There are still out there, biding their time, pretending they've seen the error of their ways… If they ever got wind that you were still alive, Peter-"

An involuntary shudder ran through my body. He was right about that.

"Don't know… what you're talking about…" Pettigrew said his voice shrill. He wiped his face on his grimy sleeve and turned towards Lupin. "You don't believe this- this madness, Remus-"

Our professor gave him a deadpanned look.

"I must admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an innocent man would want to spend twelve years as a rat."

"Innocent but scared!" Squealed Pettigrew. Despite the fact that he clearly wasn't winning anyone over, he persisted. "If Voldemort's supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban- the spy, Sirius Black!"

Black's face contorted.

"How dare you." He growled, sounding like the bear sized dog he could easily transform into. "I, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever sneak round people who were stronger or more powerful than myself? But you, Peter- I'll never understand why I didn't see you were the spy from the start. You always liked big friends who'd look after you, didn't you? It used to us… me and Remus… and James."

Pettigrew wiped his face again. He was almost panting for breath.

"Me, a spy… must be out of your mind… ever… don't know how you could say such a-"

"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Black hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step back. I stepped back as well, not wanting to be close to the short man. "I thought it was the perfect plan… a bluff… Voldemort would sure to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you… It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."

Pettigrew started to mutter distractedly. "Farfetched" and "lunacy" came from the man but his ashen face and darting eyes told us everything. glanced around the room and saw that the others were watching Pettigrew as well.

"Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked almost timidly. "Can- can I say something?"

"Certainly Hermione."

"Well- Scabbers- I mean, this… this man- he's been sleeping in Harry's dormitory for three years. If he's working for You-Know-Who, how come he never tried to hurt Harry before now?"

"There!" Pettigrew said shrilly and pointed his mained hand at Ron who looked sick to his stomach. "Thank you! You see, Remus? I have never hurt a hair on Harry's head! Why should I?"

"Oh I'll tell you why." Black cut in. "Because you never did anything for anyone unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's been in hiding for twelve years. They say he's half dead. You weren't about to commit murder right under Albus Dumbledore's nose for a wreck of a wizard who'd lost all of his power, were you? You'd want to be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the playground before you went back to him, wouldn't you? Why else did you find a wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you, Peter. Just in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to rejoin him…"

My stomach twisted at the thought of everything Peter knew about Harry. About us. For three years he had been around our group. Learning about us in disguise. Sleeping in Ron's bed.

Another shudder ran through my body. Oh Merlin.

Pettigrew's mouth opened and closed several times though no words escaped.

"Er- Mr. Black… Sirius?" Hermione tried.

Black jumped at being addressed like this and stared at Hermione. He probably hasn't been addressed so politely in years.

"If you don't mind me asking, how- how did you get out of Azkaban if you didn't use Dark Magic?"

"Thank you!" gasped Peter, nodding frantically. "Exactly! Precisely what I-"

Thankfully Lupin silenced him with a look. Black frowned slightly though not out of frustration. It was more like he was pondering his answer.

"I don't… know how I did it." he said slowly. "I think the only reason why I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the dementors couldn't suck it out of me… but it kept me sane and knowing who I am… helped me keep my powers… so when it all became too much… I could transform in my cell, become a dog. Dementors can't see you know… they feel their way towards people by sensing their emotions. They could tell my feelings were less- less human. Less complex when I was a dog… but they thought, of course, I was losing my mind like everyone else in there. So it didn't trouble them. But I was weak, very weak, and I had no hope of driving them away from me without a wand…

"But then I saw Peter in that picture… I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry… perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark side was gathering strength again… ready to strike the moment he could be sure of allies… and to deliver the last Potter to them. If he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayed Lord Voldemort. He'd be welcomed back with honors…

"So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still alive."

We were all hypnotized by Black's words.

"It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and the dementors couldn't destroy it. It… wasn't a happy feeling… it was an obsession… but it gave me strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring food, I slipped past them as a dog… It's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they were confused… I was thin, very thin… thin enough to slip through the bars… I swam as a dog back to the mainland… I journeyed north and slipped into the Hogwarts grounds as a dog. I've been living in the forest since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch match of course. You fly as well as your father did, Harry…"

He looked at Harry, eyes dark but unwavering.

"Believe me. Believe me Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."

After what felt like eternity, Harry nodded.