2/8

"I am to blame for James and Lily's deaths, and now it is time to finish what was started that night twelve years ago."

He then heard a struggle and walked in to see Harry straddling Sirius with his wand pointed at the man's throat.

"Expelliarmus!" Lupin cried as he entered the room properly, snatching Harry's wand out of the air while training his own on Sirius.

"Well, Sirius. It looks like prison has brought out the madness within."

"You would know all about the madness within, wouldn't you, Remus." Sirius said back.

Hermione thought that banter sounded a little rehearsed, but even her suspicions about Professor Lupin's loyalties wouldn't allow her to consider the possibility that these two grown men would possibly sit around coming up with back-and-forth routines.

Her suspicions about him were well-founded, it appeared, when instead of cursing the man, Lupin helped Black to his feet and handed him Harry's wand. When no one was looking at her or Harry, she slipped him her wand. He was a much better fighter than she was.

"You're working with him?!" Harry yelled.

"Now, Harry, there is a simple explanation for all of this…" Remus really wished Sirius could have explained himself, instead of using needlessly ambiguous declarative statements.

"Out of the way Remus, it's time to commit the murder that I suffered in Azkaban for. Finally!"

"Now, wait a minute, he deserves to know why-"

"I've done my waiting! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!" Sirius screamed, his wand pointing right at the three teenagers still cowering in the corner.

"I won't let you hurt Harry!" Hermione said, finally pushing to the front to stand in front of him. "He's a werewolf, Harry. That's why he missed those classes and dinners!" She added, looking directly at Lupin.

"You really are the brightest witch of your age, Ms Granger."

"I'm not planning to kill Harry, anyhow. The one I want to kill is him!" Sirius replied, directing his wand at Ron now.

"M-me?" Ron stammered.

"Not you, boy. Your rat!"

"Scabbers?" Ron's hand snuck into his pocket immediately, finding the rat still where he had left it. The rat might have been able to crawl out after Ron had propped himself up on the wall, freeing his escape route, but Sirius had been watching, eagle-eyed.

"That's the name he goes by now, but we knew him by a different name." Remus said.

"You're both mental!" Ron shouted, holding Scabbers to his chest protectively. "Scabbers has been in my family for years."

"Twelve years, I'd wager. A long life for a common rat, don't you think? And missing a toe, I should imagine."

"So?" Ron was downright terrified now. Murderers were one thing, but nut jobs were another.

"When Peter Pettigrew was 'killed' twelve years ago, all they found of him was one finger. When the Daily Prophet featured a picture of your family in Egypt, Sirius here saw Pettigrew."

"Peter Pettigrew? But you killed him." Harry said.

"Oh, I wish!"

"Sirius was supposed to be the Secret Keeper, to protect your parents and you, Harry. Unbeknownst to me and everybody else, they decided to switch to Peter so that no one would go after the real one."

"But you said you were responsible for killing them!" Harry pointed at Sirius.

"I was the one who suggested trusting that rat. I should have known he was the traitor. By the time I figured it out, it was already too late. James and Lily were gone, you were with Hagrid, and Peter had run off to rejoin Voldemort. When I caught up with him, he told everyone it was me, that I had betrayed them, and then he blew up the street and all those muggles. I was sure he was dead, too. I never would have thought he would have the gall to cut off his own finger."

"I thought he was guilty for years too." Lupin admitted. "I probably would have been the first one to volunteer to hunt him down when he escaped if he hadn't come to me first. I didn't want to believe I had been so wrong, but when I saw the picture, and when he explained his story to me, it all fit together too well. Mind you, I was still two steps away from handing him in to the dementors until I snuck him some Veritaserum."

"I'm still can't believe you did that." Sirius snarked.

"You think Scabbers is that dead guy?" Ron asked, looking down at the familiar ratty face. Somehow he found himself trusting his family rat more than the convicted murderer and the new teacher at the school.

"I would recognise that face anywhere, in any form! I spent twelve years dreaming about it, thinking of all of the things I would say and all of the things I would do!"

"Expelliarmus!" Snape shouted as he moved into the room, ignoring the two wands that had shot out of Sirius' and Remus' hands. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise. I had hoped, only hoped that both of you were in it together. I can't describe to you the pleasure I am going to take in handing you both over to the dementors. I've been told it is excruciating to simply watch their Kiss, but I will do my best. After all, we're all old friends here." The sickly smile was enough to warm the hearts of any dementor of goblin.

"I had half expected Gaara to be here too. Where is he, off raiding my Potion stores again?"

"Gaara?" Harry asked, looking at Sirius, wondering if there really was a connection.

"Uh…" Sirius wasn't sure what to say.

"I knew his appearance was suspicious the moment I saw him. And then when the Headmaster asked him to stay I was sure of it. It was far too much of a coincidence, him showing just weeks after your narrow escape. How did you manage that, anyway?"

"Magic." Sirius said, his smile back in place.

"Well, no matter. Now that this is all over, I'm sure whatever dark secrets he is hiding will come out. If I had my way, he would have been out the first night he was in the castle. I tried to stun him and send him back to you, but his sand protection stopped me."

"So Snape's finally the bad guy!?" Ron shouted abruptly, looking around the room for confirmation.

"No, you simple boy-" Snape had rounded on Ron to give him a tongue lashing, but his wand was sent flying after Harry had cast the disarming charm on him.

When Snape looked like was going to dive for his wand on the floor, Harry stepped closer and held it at Snape's head.

"Wait. We need to find out what's happening here. Professor Lupin, please, is there any proof you can give us? Something? Anything?"

Lupin moved slowly to pick up his wand and then moved over to Ron. "Give him here, this shouldn't hurt a bit." He snatched the rat from the ginger's hands and held it at arm's length, disgust firmly etched onto his sickly face.

"Potter, as usual you have totally missed the danger in front of you. That man sold your parents to Voldemort. He needs to be punished!" Snape said angrily, not bothering to look at whatever Remus was up to with the Weasley family shoe brush.

"Oh do shut up, Severus. You never did know when to keep you enormous mouth shut or your even bigger nose out of other people's business." Sirius looked to be quite enjoying insulting Snape, but he used Harry's distraction to pick up the wand he had taken off of the boy and trained it on the rat in Lupin's hand.

Lupin dropped the rat onto the bed and they both pointed their wands at it, silently casting the Animagus Reversal Spell they had had to master in the Marauders early days when they were still learning their transformations.

"I didn't know the madness of Azkaban could be passed between fools." Snape cut in.

"Do be quite Severus or we will have to gag you." Remus threw over his shoulder.

"Scabbers!" Ron cried, worried for his recently recovered pet's safety.

Harry and Hermione, who were standing, watched as the rat on top of the bed started to wriggle and shiver in place before it started to shift. It was slow unlike most animagus transformations, with the arms sprouting from the small legs not unlike a tree growing from the ground. It continued to grow and morph, limbs changing from a small rodent's to a man's, the head swelling and flattening.

Until finally on the bed lay a shivering little fat man in an unbelievably grimy suit.

"It can't be."

"Not the first time you've been proven wrong, Severus." Remus said, his eyes trained on Pettigrew.

"Now, it's time to finish this." Sirius said, practically licking his lips. He had really been looking forward to this.

"No, wait!" Harry called.

"No, Harry. This has to be done. This man is directly responsible for the deaths of your parents and who knows how many others. He betrayed us all and he cannot be allowed to live." Normally the voice of reason, it came out all the darker coming from Lupin.

"No, p-please. My old friends!" Peter spoke for the first time in years to beg for his life. His features were uncannily ratty.

"You should have thought of that before you sold James and Lily out to Voldemort. You must have known if he didn't kill you, we would!" Sirius shouted, just about ready to make an unforgiveable move.

"You don't understand, the Dark Lord has powers you can't imagine. You have no idea the weapons he possesses. He would have killed me! What would you have done? Either of you?!" He argued, now on all fours on the bed, unable to dismount without moving towards one of his murderous school friends.

"We would have died rather than betray our friends!"

"Wait, you can't kill him!" Harry shouted again.

"He's right, you can't kill him, sir." Hermione chimed in too.

"We can explain it later, but for now, I think both Sirius and I have earned this."

"But if you kill him now, you'll never be free. They'll never believe you were innocent!"

This finally gave Sirius pause, looking back at the spitting image of James. "We can't let him go…"

"I'm not saying we let him go. Give him to the dementors. Let him suffer like you did, and then you'll be free." Harry said.

"For once, Potter has a good idea. While I for one am disappointed at the thought of you not receiving a cruel and unusual punishment, Black, it would seem that Pettigrew is the one that needs to pay the price. I don't know whether you still have the higher reasoning afforded to humans left after your time in Azkaban, but I trust Remus here can act as interpreter for you. Although, I suppose you can't count on him for human speech all the time, can you?"

Sirius looked quite upset at the prospect of his long awaited revenge being handed to someone else, but some small sliver of logic was getting through to him.

"Now, if someone with a wand and half a brain could conjure some ropes, we can take this thing to the dementors and I will get my show after all."

As dark and acerbic as the Potions master was at every opportunity, everyone was surprised at just how violent he could be. To be Kissed was said to be worse than death, and he seemed to be looking forward to it as much as Sirius. Harry couldn't reconcile the man's hatred of his father with his apparent need for revenge.

Snape's wand was returned to him, and he turned it straight on Pettigrew and cast the binding spell he obviously didn't trust anybody else to.

"Since it would seem the both of you are rather well versed in animagus magic, would you two perhaps happen to know the proper warding spells to stop him from transforming?"

Sirius looked at Remus and vice versa.

"I shouldn't have expected any different. If it can't be used to inflict misery or pain on another, it doesn't merit learning, I suppose. Just don't take your eyes off of him. And Pettigrew, if I see so much as a whisker, I will take more than a finger."

The fat, silently weeping man nodded.

"Why is it… that you happen to know so much about being an animagus? And Pettigrew here, an unremarkable wizard by any standard, was able to accomplish such a rare feat of magic?" Snape asked.

"Well, with Remus' furry little problem, he needed someone to keep him occupied on the nights of the full moon. And you weren't always available, Severus!" Sirius smirked. He was the only one of their group never to feel a deep remorse for that prank.

Snape sneered at his adversary, but kept his wand on Pettigrew nonetheless.

"So that's how you escaped your cell. I wondered if one of your relatives had a hand in it."

"I'm afraid not." Sirius didn't bother elaborating.

Ron had been in shock to find that the pet rat that had spent three years sleeping in the same bed as him, and a number of years with his brothers, all while being petted, fed and carried around like a real pet, had in fact been a dark wizard responsible for one of the biggest atrocities of the war against Voldemort. His first utterance upon returning to cognizance, was: "Why were you my rat?"

It was a pertinent question, and one that Remus had wondered more than once. Why not return to the Death Eaters he served, or run away entirely.

"Well, I was waiting for the Dark Lord to return, and if I showed my face to any of his followers, they might think I had sent him into a trap. You all know what the Lestranges did to the Longbottoms after the Dark Lord disappeared!"

The children and Sirius did not know, but Severus and Remus did, and they took the words in silently.

"A coward, through and through." Sirius spat.

They all started moving back towards the castle, back through the narrow tunnel. With the encroachment of the dementor patrols, they couldn't risk taking Sirius out into Hogsmeade without calling a swarm, and they needed the order to attack/Kiss on sight to be rescinded by a human.

Now that things had calmed down marginally, emotions were starting to bleed out again. While Snape and Lupin had the prisoner well in hand, Sirius was back with Harry helping to carry Ron who was still moaning. Of all people, Snape had been the one to suggest bandaging Ron's arm 'before that idiotic Weasley bleeds himself to death,' and put a splint on his broken leg.

Harry couldn't help but notice that Sirius wasn't really helping that much with Ron's weight, but he couldn't hold it against the emaciated man since he clearly struggled with walking without stumbling, without any added burdens.

"I really am very sorry, Ronald. I usually have such a sweet disposition as a dog. More than once, Harry's father suggested I make the change permanent. The tail I could live with, but the fleas are murder."

Ron didn't bother to respond, instead moaning when his hurt leg was jostled.

"I don't suppose anyone's ever told you this, Harry, but when you were born, your father and your mother named me your godfather."

"Actually, I did know that."

"Ah, yes, I suppose you were bound to at some point."

Sirius, as bodacious as he was prone to being and as enthusiastic as he had been about meeting his godson, was now acting uncharacteristically meek now that he was talking directly to Harry. He had no idea how to talk to this boy who meant the world to him and who was actively working to save him.

"I saw your Quidditch games more than once this year. I think you would have given your dad a run for his money."

"Wait, you saw me playing?"

"How could I miss it? You were amazing! Do you plan to play professionally after you finish your schooling?"

"No, I don't think I could… the level the international players are on is… Wait, did you send me the Firebolt?"

"Oh, yes, I did. It wasn't easy getting a hold of it, but I've missed too many birthdays and Christmases so I had better start making up for them, don't you think?"

Harry blushed at the generosity, still so unused to receiving gifts, and never had he been given such an extravagant present. "Wait, so why did you send Gaara one too? Was it so they wouldn't confiscate them?"

"No, I actually hadn't even considered they would." He laughed. "Severus was actually right about one thing, I do know Gaara. I met him when he first arrived in this… country."

"So he was working with you the entire time?" Harry was feeling very vindicated. Even though Sirius had turned out to be a good man, Gaara was still working/spying for him.

"Well, not intentionally. He just sort of ended up attending Hogwarts before I knew it, and he had occasionally told me about what was happening in the castle, but I wouldn't call him a spy."

"So, if he was with you, why does he hate me so much?" Harry asked.

"You'd have to ask him that. He does have a bit of a temper, but he's a nice boy. He was half dead when I found him, but when he was well enough, he insisted he help me find Peter and clear my name."

Harry thought this over. It was a strange thing that Gaara had been working with Sirius all along, but it was nothing to do with why he was so antagonistic towards them. It didn't occur to Harry that the largest source of their conflicts had been a misunderstanding in which Harry had misconstrued Gaara's actions and had then attacked him.

Instead he just settled on the opinion that while he might not be pure evil as once suspected, Gaara was still a bit of an arse.

"Harry, I wanted to ask you, once everything was sorted out of course, and I would understand if you wouldn't want to, since you've probably built yourself a life there and everything, and you don't really know me, and well…" Sirius was clearly struggling to ask something, so Harry waited patiently. Ron was barely conscious at this point from both the pain and the stress. And the blood loss wasn't helping.

"Well, I was wondering if you might like to come and live with me after all of this had been sorted out? I understand if you want to continue living with your aunt and uncle, but-"

"Are you crazy? Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?" Harry jumped right on the possibility. This man who was friends with his parents, who was a wizard, who was kind and generous and funny (and who hated Snape) was asking if Harry wanted to live with him!

Sirius actually snuck his hand into his pocket to pinch himself, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He'd had dreams like this one since he left Azkaban, but even they had never been this hopeful, the dementors having horribly damaged that part of his mind.

"Hold on, is Gaara going to be there?" Harry asked when he considered it.

Sirius laughed at that but confirmed that that was the plan, to which Harry laughed as well. Not so much at the prospect of living with Gaara as the infectiousness of his godfather's levity in this rather strained circumstance. They settled down when their shaking shoulders elicited another groan from Ron.

At the front of the procession, Snape heard the combined laughter and had a horrible flashback to the last time he had heard that synchronised guffawing. With James Potter reborn, it looked like the Marauders had reunited once more, albeit briefly. The horror at the initial thought was calmed when he looked ahead to what the dementors would do to Pettigrew.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

At the Ministry, nothing was amiss. The group had taken to squabbling about whose budget would bear the weight of a prolonged protection detail being based at the school. No one had been able to agree on what that detail would be comprised of since the Hogwarts staff resolutely refused to allow the dementors to stay, and Lucius agreed that they were more dangerous than Black. Fudge argued on the side of his original plan, but didn't seem to have any other arguments to back it up other than that it had been a good idea to begin with, breeding and deploying so many dementors.

Bones and Scrimgeour didn't like the dementor situation, but said that their budget couldn't afford to extend to full time protection of the massive school with Aurors. They might be able to spare two or three at most over a year, unless they received a massive injection of funds to pay for the additional Aurors to be trained and retained.

Whereas Sutherland and Barnett had stressed the dangers of this many dementors being away from Azkaban (their main food source) and their own struggling budgets.

As in almost all of the topics discussed before, Morbidus didn't speak up on either side. The most he had said so far was confirming his attendance, and the multitude of things he had whispered in Fudge's ear.

Beyond budgets there was also the question of responsibility. Since Azkaban had never had an escapee, it was something of a new issue. Was he the problem of the people who caught criminals, or the problem of the people who had let him escape. Barnett had even tried laying some of it on Hogwarts itself, saying that they were the ones that were being targeted and perhaps they needed to take some responsibility in protecting themselves.

Minerva had spent five very loud minutes explaining the flaw in that logic.

Albus had left her and Fillius to make most of their arguments for him as his mind was elsewhere. He was still terribly nervous about leaving the school. His old man's intuition was screaming at him to return immediately as the school was probably being burned to the ground.

The only reason he hadn't called a halt to the meeting was that he had this same feeling every time he left the castle for more than ten minutes, and it had yet to actually be destroyed (although there had been that nasty incident with Quirrel in '92 when he had been away, and again with the Chamber when he had been suspended in '93…)

Outside of the securely sealed meeting room stood the secretary, more for decoration than any sort of function. The grown man knew he was not actually being employed for any sort of useful purpose this evening, but he contented himself in knowing that he only had to stand and look professional so long as Mr Goyle was still skulking around. After the man got bored and left, he could settled down against the wall and start reading the latest best seller he had picked up from Flourish & Blotts over the weekend.

Gerald Goyle had been on the outside for too long. Not just tonight, but figuratively he had been pushed out months ago by Lucius who apparently had no more need for him and Crabbe. It had started when that poncey little Malfoy junior had kicked off about Vincent and Gregory for some reason. Then Lucius had ordered them to get their sons to act more servile to precious little Draco. Of course, both Crabbe and Goyle had heeded the order since it was a relatively small price to pay.

They had been insignificant in the Dark Lord's ranks during the First War, whereas the Malfoys had practically bankrolled Him. In other words, he had been above them for decades.

But after Vincent and Gregory had been scared off by that psychotic little upstart Gaara, Lucius hadn't said anything; he had just stopped asking for their help on projects. He had started including them in fewer meetings.

Both Gerald, and Anthony Crabbe were really quite low ranking Ministry grunts as well, but Lucius had always elevated their positions and lent them his power and title. Now, they were back down in the mud and it wasn't right.

After all of the dirty jobs they had done for the man, for all of the distasteful things Gerald had done personally at Lucius' command…

And here he was, having asked to be included in the important meeting between some of the most powerful people in the country, and Lucius had the nerve to tell him to go back to his desk! Because Gerald had a 'deadline coming up' and it wouldn't look good on his review!

Well, that was it.

Lucius might have been a somebody in the Ministry, but in the important circles, he was losing favour. He had spectacularly failed to find the Dark Lord even though those truly loyal to Him knew He was still living.

Well, if Lucius wasn't going to help their Lord, Gerald would, and he had a feeling the Crabbe's would feel the same way.

He left to go home and privately floo Anthony. Things were going to be changing, and Lucius would be on the outside for a change.

The Minister for Magic's Most Senior Secretary didn't know what Mr Goyle had been angrily muttering about, nor did he know for what purpose the large man had stomped off, he just knew he was now unobserved and he had the entire night to read in peace. Cornelius had ordered in food and drink for the entire day and night so that there would be no chance for interruption. He couldn't attest to how useful that would be in the meeting, but the secretary certainly enjoyed the chance to slack off.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Emerging out into the crisp, star lit night, all seven of the willing and unwilling travellers were struck by varying degrees of relief at the sight of the castle. For some, it was the return to their safe school and home, for others it was a sight they had longed to return to since their childhood, and for one it was the last memory of goodness in an otherwise wicked and shallow life.

"I'm terribly glad you were here tonight, Professor." Hermione said to Snape.

He considered reprimanding her for sucking up at a time like this, but instead settled for, "I, for one, am most certainly not glad I had the misfortune to get involved in this mess. If I hadn't spotted Professor Lupin sneaking off under the Willow this evening, I might have been spared. My fault for adhering to my duties, I suppose."

Hermione didn't try to engage her Potions teacher again.

"So, all of this time you were just trying to catch him." Harry nodded over to the miserable looking Pettigrew.

"Yes, do you remember when I broke in to the Gryffindor tower?"

"Of course! You caused a right mess!"

"Ah, well, I was a little excited to be back there, and as a dog I can be a little spirited."

"You said all of you had learned how to do it. One was a rat," He couldn't keep the twist out of his voice, "you were a dog, Professor Lupin was a werewolf anyway, so what was my father?"

"Your father was a stag. Great big horns on his head. That's why we called him Prongs."

"Wait, Prongs? As in Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?"

"How do you know about that?" Sirius asked, amazed, wondering if Lupin might have said it.

"I saw them on the Map, I had no idea it was the four of you. So, I can guess Professor Lupin is Moony, and my dad is Prongs. Which one were you?"

"I am Padfoot. I had all sorts of much more interesting names in mind, but your dad said my best feature were the soft pads on my feet. I called him an overgrown, hairy fork."

"So, Wormtail is…" Harry looked over to the last member, but Sirius interjected.

"Dead. Wormtail died twelve years ago, as far I'm concerned. Peter is all that's left, and pretty soon that will be gone too." Harry quietened down a little.

"So, did my mum have a nickname too?"

"Oh, well, Lily you see came a little later. When we came up with those names, she still quite disliked us all for one reason or another. Trouble-makers, she called us. Well, among other things… She certainly had a way with words. Then, later on, when James and her were going out, they were much to in love to bother with childish things like that." Sirius couldn't help the bitter note.

He also couldn't help but think of the other 'Lily', by dint of a nickname, he knew. Of course, it wouldn't be the time to mention that one right now.

"Lupin, while I am perfectly capable of keeping watch over a wizard of Pettigrew's calibre on my own, I would just as well you didn't stare off into…" Snape trailed off as he realised the real problem with his absent-minded fellow guard.

Lupin was looking straight up into the clearing skies as the clouds opening up to reveal the huge full moon shining down on them.

Snape pulled Peter back away from Lupin who still didn't move, while Sirius had just noticed the issue and jumped up to try and reason with his friend.

"Remus, did you take you potion tonight?!"

But Lupin wasn't home right now. All that was left was the wolf, waiting for his body to correct itself.

Sirius kept trying to bring Lupin back out of himself, just long enough to get him away to safety. Instead, the changes started to happen throughout the man's body, his limbs lengthening just moments before he swung his arm at the escaped convict and sent him flying.

Harry and Hermione cowered by Ron who was still unconscious, and watched, terrified as their most beloved professor became a nightmare in front of their eyes. The change didn't take too long, but it was graphic. It wasn't the organic transition of an animagus transformation, it was more akin to the bones under the skin rearranging themselves to be more wolf-like, and then the flesh on top melting and reforming to match.

By the time he/it had finished, the unfamiliar onlookers were stunned and afraid. They didn't dare breathe for fear of inciting the inevitable attack from a creature renowned for its universal aggression. Unfortunately, Ron, asleep, groaned and shifted, drawing the gaze of the wolf.

It howled loudly and then stepped towards them, eyes not straying. It wasn't some connection to the man within, the eyes it was making were of a predator who had caught sight of an easy supper.

Harry wasn't sure because he was so scared, but he thought he saw it like its lips.