"You have got to be kidding me," Ginny said as she passed around half a dozen chocolate frogs. "You're telling me that Scabbers, the most useless rat who ever lived, is really…"

"Peter Pettigrew," Hermione finished, tearing open her treat. "Yup." She examined the collector card – Hengist of Woodcroft, the founder of Hogsmeade – and took a bite of the frog, allowing the creamy chocolate to melt in her mouth.

"Hermione!" Ginny whined. "You can't possibly just say 'yup' and leave it at that! Tell me what happened!" Harry and Draco laughed at Ginny's eagerness and impatience. The last few days had been such a whirlwind that they hadn't yet managed to tell Ginny – or anyone, for that matter – the full story of what had happened that night, and it was only now that they were on the train back to London that they finally had a long stretch of time in which to do so.

"Well, it all started when Hermione, Ron and I headed down to Hagrid's just before Buckbeak's execution," Harry began. He then proceeded to weave the full tale as best he could, Hermione chipping in missing details as he went. Draco listened just as intently as Ginny – though Hermione had given him a brief rundown of things when they'd gone back in time, she hadn't had time to explain further, and he was interested to hear the story in its entirety. When Harry and Hermione finally finished – it took them the better part of an hour – Ginny stared at them for a long moment before she finally found her voice.

"How is it that you guys are such adventure magnets?" she asked with a laugh. "I mean, holy Merlin…but, hang on. You said that Scabbers got away, but…"

"He did, initially," Hermione said, "or at least, that's what we thought." She launched into her part of the story, explaining all about the Time-Turner and her conversation with Dumbledore, her meeting with Draco, and their subsequent departure into the past.

"Just when I thought things couldn't get any more interesting, you throw time travel into the mix," Ginny said, looking awed. "How'd you get one of those things, anyway?"

"Well, I don't have it anymore," Hermione said. "I turned it in this morning, after I formally dropped Divination and Muggle Studies."

"Muggle Studies?" Draco asked, looking confused. "Why? You had the highest final exam score in that class that Hogwarts has seen in centuries – or probably ever, actually."

"I know," Hermione said, "but the class just wasn't that interesting, to be honest. Professor Burbage is sweet and everything, but studying Muggles from a Wizarding perspective really wasn't all that great – most of it was stuff I already knew, not nearly as much of a difference as I was expecting. I could see how it would be a great class for someone who knew nothing about Muggles, but it just didn't do it for me. Anyway, now that I've dropped those two classes, I can go back to having a normal schedule next year."

"Still packed, of course," Harry said cheekily. "Three electives and all…"

"Hey, that's not fair!" Hermione protested. "It's not like I'm the only one who takes three…" She stuck out her lower lip in a slight pout and Harry laughed, giving his friend an affectionate squeeze.

"I'm just teasing you, Maya," he said. She punched his shoulder in response but smiled all the same.

"So what happened next?" Ginny pressed. "We got sidetracked talking about Time-Turners."

"Oh, right," Draco said. "Sorry about that. So Lotte drags me out of the broom cupboard and across the grounds until we're in the Forbidden Forest, where we have to sit and listen to the guy from the Ministry drone on and on in the most boring tone you've ever heard…" He carried on until the part about the dementors, then faltered. Hermione looked over at him, not sure why he'd stopped.

"How'd you get away from the dementors?" Ginny asked. "Was it really a Patronus you'd seen, or was it something else?"

"It was a Patronus," Hermione said, "and it was Draco's."

"What?" Ginny gasped. "But…how? Not that I don't think you're capable of it," she added hastily, "but it must've been so powerful…"

"Show them, Dragon," Hermione encouraged. She suspected that Draco had stopped talking when he did because he hadn't wanted to brag about being able to do such powerful magic, and he was probably hesitating to draw his wand now for the same reason – he'd never really liked being the center of attention. Draco met her gaze and must've seen something encouraging, because he nodded and raised his wand.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silver wolf burst into being once more, wagging its tail and sniffing each member of the compartment before seating itself on the floor beside its caster, peering up at everyone with its large eyes. Just as he'd done in the clearing by the lake, Draco reached out a hand towards the wolf, and the creature touched its nose to Draco's fingertips before vanishing.

"Damn, Drake," Harry said, looking impressed. "That's unbelievable." Draco flushed a little but grinned in reply, encouraged by his brother's positive reaction.

"So then we had to run for it, because it was really close to midnight by that point," Hermione continued. She quickly finished the tale, bringing them to the point when she and Draco had met Dumbledore outside the hospital wing.

"And then you took Scabbers to Fudge," Ginny said. "I'll bet that was hilarious."

"It was," Hermione agreed, chuckling a little, "but it was tiring too…"

"Well done," Dumbledore said, nodding approvingly. "I look forward to hearing the whole adventure, but for now, I think it's time we headed to my office."

"Um…Professor?" Hermione said. "I don't mean to be rude, but Harry should probably be a part of this discussion too, shouldn't he? And I'm supposed to be in the hospital wing as of…two minutes ago…"

"Of course – forgive me for forgetting," Dumbledore said. "In that case, we'll bring the discussion to you instead." He opened the door to the hospital wing and ushered them inside. "Mr. Black, I'm sure you can come up with a viable excuse for being here if Madam Pomfrey asks – you three are certainly here often enough. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll be back with the Minister very soon."

Dumbledore was true to his word – barely five minutes had passed before he returned to the hospital wing, Cornelius Fudge in tow. The portly little man seemed very confused at the change of location and kept staring suspiciously at the ward's occupants. Harry, Draco, and Hermione, who had been talking quietly, immediately stopped and waited to see what he would do.

"Dumbledore," he said, "I've already told you that I can't possibly accept the word of mere teenagers without some sort of evidence…"

"Ah, but they do have evidence, Cornelius," Dumbledore interrupted politely. "Mr. Black – the rat, if you will?" In their haste to summon the Minister, Draco hadn't actually handed over the cage containing Scabbers, and so he lifted it up off the floor and presented it to the headmaster.

"I believe you are aware that there is a spell that will force an Animagus to resume his or her human form, Cornelius?" Dumbledore asked. When Fudge nodded, Dumbledore continued, "Allow me to perform said spell on this rat for you, right now. As you know, if it happens to be an ordinary rat, it will not be harmed in any way." Dumbledore carefully unlocked the cage, taking care to make sure that Scabbers was still Stunned, and levitated the rat onto a nearby cot. With a wave of his wand, the rat rapidly changed form, morphing into a man once more.

"Do you recognize him, Cornelius?" Dumbledore asked quietly. Harry, Draco, and Hermione gazed intently at the Minister, who had gone deathly white.

Did he recognize him? Of course he did – how could he not, with the man's face plastered all over nearly half the available surfaces in the Auror department? Dumbledore had immediately made it known who was responsible for what had happened the night James Potter died, and though Fudge had needed some persuading, he'd eventually caved and sent out the alarm. Though Pettigrew had vanished without a trace, the man on the cot hadn't changed all that much from the impressionable, rather timid youth Fudge had known. Sure, he was missing quite a bit more of his hair, and his body looked like he'd lost a lot of weight in a short period of time – spending more than a decade as a rat couldn't have done anything good for his physique – but there was no mistaking the Stunned man's identity.

"Well?" Dumbledore prodded gently. In response, Fudge turned even whiter – if that was even possible – gave a little squeak of fright, and promptly fainted.

"He fainted?" Ginny gasped, unable to hold back her laughter. "He actually fainted?"

"Did he ever!" Harry confirmed, laughing quite a bit himself. "Toppled right over on the floor – it took Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey a good ten minutes to revive him fully."

"And then?"

"And then began one of the longest out-of-court interrogations known to man," Hermione said with a groan. "It took ages for Fudge to stop believing that Pettigrew was some sort of hallucination. Then they had to question all of us under Veritaserum – Fudge wasn't convinced that we weren't lying, so we had to take it too – then they had to spell Pettigrew back into his rat form so they could put him back in the cage for transportation, then Fudge insisted on talking in that drawn-out way he does…it was nearing three in the morning by the time we finally got to sleep."

"No wonder you all looked dead the next morning," Ginny remarked.

"You would too, if you'd gotten so little sleep after running around like that," Draco chuckled.

"Harry," Hermione asked suddenly, "did you ever find out what happened to the map?"

"Yeah – Moony had it," Harry replied. They all looked upset at the mention of their favorite teacher – discontent had been rising in nearby werewolf camps at an alarming rate, and Lupin would be returning to his work for the Order as soon as he could in an attempt to help. The chances that he'd be able to resume teaching in the fall were almost nonexistent.

"He found it on the main staircase just outside the Great Hall," Harry elaborated. "It must've fallen out of my pocket either right before or after dinner. In any case, he obviously knew what it was and activated it, and when he saw where we were going, and with whom, he followed us. He didn't really say how he met up with Snape – I think Snape was following him because he thought Lupin hadn't taken his potion. He gave me back the map this morning."

"I'm gonna miss Moony," Draco said. "He was definitely the best Defense teacher we've ever had, if not one of the best teachers, period."

"I agree," Hermione said sadly. "Hopefully Dumbledore can find someone just as good for next year, but it'll be hard."

"Hey, cheer up," Ginny said. "We've got a lot to look forward to until then – it's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! The UK hasn't hosted in Merlin knows how long, and Ireland, at least, has a decent chance of going pretty far – their Chasers are incredible!"

"Wouldn't it be great if we could go to a match?" Harry asked.

"Definitely," Draco agreed, "although we'd probably have to wear pretty heavy glamour charms, no?"

"It'd be worth it," Harry said. "Absolutely worth it."

The rest of the train ride was spent discussing Quidditch, Ireland's chances against some of their biggest competitors, which included the Nigerians, the Japanese, and a handful of teams from the Continent, and coming up with ways to coerce Lily and Padfoot into purchasing tickets. By the time they reached Kings Cross, their morose mood regarding Lupin had disappeared, and as the trio hugged Ginny goodbye and called well wishes to their other friends, they knew they were in for a summer just as exciting as the last.

A/N: And that's that - the end of part 3! I hope you all liked Fudge's reaction - I certainly did.

THANK YOU, as always, to anyone who's read this series, as well as followed/faved/reviewed. You guys are the best. Chapter 1 of part 4, 'When Foreigners Come to Call', is now up - hope to see you there!

JKR owns all things Potter, I just play. Please R&R, & off to part 4 we go! :)