Chapter 146 "The True Betrayer"

Sherlock turned his head to look at Lupin but didn't make a sound. Lupin held up a finger at him, motioning him not to speak for a while. His ears were shaking slightly as if sensing the direction of the sound.

He waved cautiously to Sherlock, signaling him to follow him carefully. They started to move slightly, crept towards the left rear, and they walked for about a dozen steps. Sherlock also heard a slight snoring sound.

Lupin stopped, and Sherlock remained motionless. They looked towards the place where the snoring sounded. A big dog was lying there. Both of them held their breath, looked at each other, and both saw the look in each other's eyes.

This dog is Sirius Black.

The first time Sherlock saw Black, he gently took a bag from his pocket, went through it, and took out five or six wands. He threw them around, and those wands were suspended in the air.

Lupin stared at Sherlock's actions in astonishment at this time. If it hadn't been for a critical moment, he would have thought that Sherlock was showing off his talent to him. Sherlock didn't care whether he knew it or not and continued to throw his wand.

The wand that was thrown out at the beginning has been quietly flown around, and the farthest he can control it is ten meters. The distance between them was about ten meters from Black; dozens of wands had quietly flown right above him, and all the tips of the wands were aimed at him.

At this moment, Black suddenly moved his dog ears alertly, sniffed, and suddenly opened his eyes.

Sherlock and Lupin reacted to this.

Immediately, Black felt something was wrong and realized something was happening. He was being targeted right now. There was panic in his eyes. He got up from the ground, his four legs exerting force, and he wanted to escape into the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

Lupin roared and ran towards Black. Sherlock didn't move, but the dozens of wands suspended in mid-air and surrounding Black waved together. In all directions, countless bushes suddenly disappeared, and hundreds of vines glided, surrounding Black.

In the end, the vines wrapped around his body, wrapping everything up. Seeing that Black was caught by Sherlock, Lupin didn't stop his pace. He directly hit Black's face, and the dog spurted some blood.

The sun had slowly risen, but none of the people, the wolf and the dog present appreciated the rising sun. The moon had fallen, and Lupin's werewolf characteristics were gradually fading, and he returned to his human state. His face was extremely pale, but the hatred in his eyes did not disappear even a little bit.

Lupin stared at Black. Sherlock loosened the vine man on Black, and he also turned into a man with black hair, dark gray eyes, and a tall but extremely thin body. Seeing Black's face, Lupin couldn't hold back. He waved his fist again and hit Black hard in the face.

"You killed James and Lily!"

Black's mouth and nose were bleeding, he replied hoarsely, "I don't deny that."

"Peter was blown away with only one finger left by your spell!" Lupin didn't throw any more punches, but he was still mad at him.

"No, Peter is not dead!" Black suddenly became emotional and struggled hard.

"I don't deny that I was to blame for James and the others! But the traitor is not me! Listen to me, Lupin..."

However, before his words finished, Sherlock tightened the vines on him, "If you have something to say, you should wait for the Dementors. It is also possible that they will not listen to your explanation at all and will just end your life."

Seeing that his actions did not seem fake and that he really wanted to give himself to the Dementor, Black was completely desperate.

"I didn't lie! If I was really the traitor and wanted to kill Harry, I would've done it a long ago because I've had my chance twice! But I didn't. James' death was related to me. I'm guilty of it, but the one who betrayed him wasn't me! I didn't fight back when I was caught. I just wanted to punish myself for my sins!" He said everything he wanted to say.

Lupin looked at him. Sherlock said hesitantly, "You want to hear what he was trying to say?"

He could hear from what Black said just now that there might be some hidden meaning behind what happened at that time. Sherlock didn't let Black loose but tied him tighter. They stood up, looking at Black lying on the ground.

Lupin said coldly, "You have one chance to explain yourself."

Black took this opportunity well. He knew very well that if he was handed over to the hands of the Dementors, there was almost a 99% chance that he would be dead. He was not afraid of death, but he was afraid that after he died, no one would know what happened back then.

"After the prophecy that Voldemort would be defeated was spread around, James had the idea of going dark." Black told Lupin and Sherlock, "He used the Unbreakable Vow. He wanted me to be the secret keeper."

"But at that time, I was smart enough to think that I could be the secret keeper. But I found out that Voldemort was on me and passed it on to Peter Pettigrew. That way, Voldemort could focus on me without knowing what the real secret keeper was."

"But what I didn't expect was that my plan killed James and Lily. Peter was the traitor. After he became the secret keeper, he immediately told his master the secret."

"Voldemort later killed James and Lily. I went crazy to get revenge on Peter when I found out about it; I found him, drove him into a corner where he couldn't escape, shouted in front of a street, and cast a spell on him."

"He blew up an entire street of Muggles, leaving only one of his fingers on the ground."

"I thought he was dead, so I didn't resist and accepted the arrest from the Ministry of Magic and spent the rest of my life in Azkaban punishing my mistake. But last year I found out that Peter is not dead at all. He's still alive, and he's been by Harry's side all the time."

"That's why when I got out of jail. I want to kill Peter. I must kill him myself." Black shouted as if hatred was about to pop out of his throat.

Sherlock frowned and listened to all his stories. He just asked one question, "What is Peter's Animagus form?"

"A mouse!" Black said, "He probably relied on this to escape from me and played me around twice in a row."

Hearing this, Sherlock felt that Black was telling the truth. In his memory, in the original book, the real villain this year is a mouse trying to get away. 

Lupin also believed Black's words a little at this time. They were childhood friends and knew Black's character. He had always wondered why Black would betray James, and now it made sense. 

But Sherlock didn't trust Black clearly; he looked into Blake's eyes and asked, "How did you know in the prison that Peter wasn't dead?"

"The newspapers. When Fudge came to visit Azkaban, he brought in a newspaper. It's still with me, and you can take it out of my pocket."

After Lupin heard this, he walked up to him, reached into the pocket of his robe, and found a crumpled Daily Prophet newspaper inside. It was last summer's paper, and the front page featured the news that Arthur Weasley had won a prize and that the family was traveling in Egypt with the prize money.

The photo of the Weasley family in Egypt took up half of the newspaper, and the rat Scabbers, who was lying on Ron's shoulder, was weird.

"Look at that mouse's hand! He lost a finger. On that night, he blew himself up and left a finger to fake his death!"

Hearing Black's words, Lupin and Sherlock also noticed Scabbers' hand was missing a finger.

Lupin muttered to himself, "That mouse does look exactly like Peter's Animagus form."

They had believed most of what Black said, but Sherlock still had some doubts. He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a small vial of potion.

"Do you dare to say that everything you say is the truth after drinking the Veritaserum?"

Black said without hesitation, "I dare!"

Lupin looked at Sherlock. Veritaserum is a contraband in the wizarding world. Except for the Ministry of Magic and a small number of qualified potion masters, normal people can't get this kind of potion at all.

Sherlock walked in front of Black and raised the potion in his hand. Black opened his mouth without hesitation and drank all the potion.

Afterward, both Lupin and Black were waiting for the Veritaserum to take effect. However, Black's mood not only did not show the slightest fascination, but the wound on his face that Lupin's fist had hit was healing.

Both of them looked at Sherlock in shock.

"Sorry, I lied about having a Veritaserum, so I just gave you a bottle of healing potion. If you're afraid to drink it, then I will take you to the Dementor immediately. But since you're not afraid to drink it, it means that what you said is true, and this bottle of potion is just to tend your wound."

He had released the Transfiguration on Black, allowing him to move freely. Lupin held out a hand to Sirius on the ground.

"You suspected that the spy among us was me, so you didn't tell me about your plan?" Sirius stretched out his hand and held it with Lupin and was pulled up from the ground by him.

"Forgive me, Lupin. I had absolutely no idea that Peter would betray us."

"It's okay, my old friend. We've had the same misunderstanding for years, and we're even."

They hugged together like a pair of old friends reunited after a long time. 

"I think things like a reunion can be done later, but the most important thing is not yet solved today."

Sirius was separated from Lupin. He looked at Sherlock and extended his hand to him, "We've met many times, but I still don't know your name."

Sherlock reached out and shook his hand, "Sherlock Forrest, professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. I would also like to thank you for helping me and Silk before."

They got to know each other and started talking about business.

"Since the traitor is Peter, and he has been hiding in the Weasleys' house as their pet, he must now know about your escape from prison to seek revenge on him." Sherlock said calmly.

Black couldn't help clenching his teeth whenever his name was mentioned.

"Of course, he knew I was looking for him. I sneaked into the Gryffindor common room twice, didn't find him there the first time, and the second time I went there, he had escaped from me by pretending to be dead!"

Sherlock knows something about Ron's pet, Scabbers, "I met Harry and Ron the other day. Hermione was crying in a classroom, saying that her cat ate Ron's pet mouse. They had a conflict about it."

"No! That girl's cat is the smartest cat I've ever seen. I gained its trust and asked him to help catch Peter, but Peter pretended to be dead for the second time and wanted to repeat his old tricks to escape again!"