Basil

Fred and George Weasly somehow find him, even under the invisibility cloak, and hand him a map that changes everything. With this, Harry can go anywhere in the castle, anywhere he wants, and never get caught.

He goes to Hogsmead, and has to stifle his laughter as he steals a lollipop from Neville, who looks around terrified. He finds Ron, walking in the joke shop with his brothers, laughing, and it’s so good to see. But he continues on, spotting Hermione and Draco walking ahead of him, and can’t control his laughter then, watching as they discuss the different rumours of the shrieking shack, and Draco makes a distasteful joke that makes her scoff and turn away.

“Hey.” He says, and they both jump about a foot in the air, he drops the cloak from his head and they all start laughing. He dons the cloak again to follow them, but get distracted when Cornelius Fudge and Professor McGonagall start talking with Madame Rosmerta about Sirius Black.

He sneaks into the bar behind them, listening raptly, until the word “godfather” hits his ears. Then the ringing starts, and the next thing he knows, he’s racing back towards the shrieking shack. He deosn’t realise he’s crying until Hermione pulls the cloak off him.

“Harry, what happened?” She asks, and he breaks.

“He was their friend, and he betrayed them.” He took in a deep breath.” And, he’s my godfather.”

“Shit.” Draco said, the bluntness of it startles a strangled laugh out of Harry.

~~~

Learning to cast a patronus is not easy. Even with just the bogart pretending to be one, Harry stutters through it, and passes out again. Basil comfortingly lies on his stomach, and Harry ignores the way Lupin eyes her.

The next time, now that he understands that the feeling of riding a broom isn’t enough, he thinks of his parents. He thinks of the one memory he has, of a woman with red hair, a man with askew glasses, all laughing above him, talking to someone he can just barely see, but not recognise. It’s melancholy, nostalgic, not necessarily happy, but full of joy. And it works, it takes all his energy, but it works, and Basil circles in his shirt pocket excitedly.

“I believe you would have given both your parents a run for their money.” Professor Lupin says, smiling at him, making pride swell in Harry.

~~~

The four of them walk down to Hagrid’s, and Harry’s barely listening to Ron and Hermione arguing with each other, until Ron says his name.

“What?” he says lamely, and they all roll their eyes at him.

“Ronald is trying to accuse Crookshanks of eating his rat, when really his rat has likely run away because he can’t take care of it!” Hermione huffs, crossing her arms angrily.

“No! Harry come on, you’ve seen that cat, the way it stalks him, it’s got to be his fault!”

“Ron,” Draco interrupts, “I have seen the way you take care of Scabbers, he definitely just ran away.”

Hermione laughed with him, slowing her pace so they could walk side by side, and Ron groaned, slowing to be by Harry, muttering under his breath.

“Good riddance.” Basil whispered to him, and Harry stifled a smile. He couldn’t argue, Scabbers was an amazingly lazy and somehow also annoying rat.

“Hagrid!” Hermione called, seeing him by the lakefront. “How did it go?”

“Well,” Hagrid huffed, throwing rocks angrily into the lake, “first the committee took turns explaining why we were there.” He threw another rock. “I told them about how Buckbeak is a good hippogriff, always cleans his feathers. And then Luscious Malfoy stood up.”

“Oh no.” Draco said, and Ron shushed him.

“He told them he was a dangerous, murderous beast, and couldn’t be allowed to live. And then-” He gave a great sob, “they sentenced him to die!”

“Fuck.” Draco and Harry said this time. Draco walked up to Hagrid and tried to wrap his arms around him as he cried, his whole body shaking. Eventually the three of them joined, trying to offer what little comfort they could.

~~~

Harry sat in bed that night, watching the Marauders Map, when Peter Pettigrew suddenly appeared. He sat upright, and Theo looked at him from the book he was reading in bed.

“What?” He asked, a single eyebrow raised.

“Peter Pettigrew.” He whispered, and Basil suddenly sat upright. She wound her way up to his shoulder from the bedpost she’d been curled around, and stared at the map as if she could read it. Harry scrambled up after a moment, parchment clutched in his hand, and walked out the door without a thought, he didn’t even notice Theo was following until he almost slammed the dormitory door on him. But he didn’t care because Peter Pettigrew was on the map, when he should have been dead.

“Potter, what are you doing?” Theo whispered, grabbing his shoulder and trying to pull him to a stop. He shrugged him off and kept walking. “Potter!” he said a little louder.

“He’s supposed to be dead.” He whispered, and Theo let go, following quietly, likely very confused. Harry followed the map until they were in the same hallway as the footsteps marked Peter Pettigrew. “There!”

He pointed and Theo followed, lighting his own wand and they walked down the hall together, Harry followed on the map, moving as Peter Pettigrew seemed to pass between him and Theo, and then continued down the hall. Harry followed but saw nothing, confused, and tried to keep going, when he saw Snape was about to turn the corner. He quickly closed the map, watched the ink fade quickly, right as Snape walked into them.

“Well, well, Potter and Knott. How… unexpected.” Harry didn’t think he meant that, but his eyes flickered between him and Theo quickly, obviously confused. “You’re out late, what are you doing.”

“Romantic walk, Professor.” Theo said, nose in the air. Snape scoffed but lowered the bliding light down a bit.

“I’m sure.” He drawled, then reached out to grab the map. “And what is this?”

“Spare parchment.” Harry lied, apparently unconvincingly.

“Reveal your secrets.” Snape frowned at it, as words appeared. “Potter what is this? Some sort of dark artifact. You should know better!”

“Professor Snape, what’s going on here?” Professor Lupin suddenly appeared from nowhere, and looked down at the parchment. Harry thought he saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes.

“Mr. Potter and Mr. Knott seem to be wandering the castle with a cursed parchment.” Harry knew Snape well enough by now to recognise the subtle tones of sarcasm, but evidently Professor Lupin did not.

“I’m sure that’s not the case, Severus.” He said, swiftly pulling the parchment from his hands. Severus rolled his eyes, but seemed to give up easily, grabbing Theo’s elbow and pulling him along.

“I’ll take this one back, I assume you can handle the responsibility of Potter?” Snape said, but didn’t wait for a response.

“Well, how did you come across this?” Lupin whispered, more to himself, and beckoned Harry to follow. He led the way to his classroom, and set the parchment down. “I hope you understand why I have to keep this?”

“Unfortunately, yes sir.” He said, and Lupin smiled at him. “I should tell you though, I think it’s broken.”

“Broken?” Lupin asked, surprised.

“Yes, sir, I saw someone who, well who couldn’t have been there.”

“And who might that be?”

“Peter Pettigrew.” Harry said, and watched as Lupin’s face slackened, looking at the map as his face drained of colour.

“Impossible.” He whispered.

“I’m just telling you what I saw sir.” Harry said, but Lupin didn’t seem to hear him, was staring blankly at the parchment now.

“Impossible.” He said again, and Harry left him to it, his own mind whirling.

~~~

“What in the world were you looking for?” Theo asked when he got back to their room, and Harry sighed.

“Long story short, people think Sirius Black turned my parents in to Voldemort, and then killed Peter Pettigrew. When he escaped Azkaban he was doing it so he could come kill me. Except Draco’s mother was his cousin and apparently he hated Voldemort and pure-bloods more than anything, and tonight I saw Peter Pettigrew on that map, which according to Professor Lupin is impossible, and now I’ve realised I don’t really know anything.”

“Blimey.” Ron said, and Harry jerked to him, realising he and Draco were also both awake and staring. Blaise let out a large snore, hard asleep and oblivious to them. Theo coughed uncomfortably and crawled into his bed.

“Well, I for one am exhausted. Can we finish in the morning?” Theo drawled, and Draco rolled his eyes at him.

“Yes.” Harry said simply, moving to his own bed. He put his head down and within minutes was asleep, luckily a dreamless one.

In the morning he made them wait until they all found Hermione, to explain the night before. It was sort of funny how easily Theo fit into their friendship, as if he’d been there all along. And it was even better when, after finally learning everything, he stopped them all in the corridor and said what no one else was able to think.

“What if Peter Pettigrew is alive, and what if Sirius Black isn’t the one who betrayed your parents.” He mused, almost casually, easily. He blinked when he noticed all of them staring at him. “Well think about it, if Professor Lupin is right and it’s impossible for the map to be wrong, and they only found a finger of Pettigrew’s, well then logically he could still be alive.”

“Bloody hell.” Ron whispered.

“But then how has no one seen him?” Hermione asked. “If he’s been alive all this time, has he just been hiding? How would he be sneaking around the castle.”

“It’s not exactly hard. We do it all the time.” Draco said, and they all had to concede the point.

Does that mean,” Hermione said slowly, “that Sirius Black might not be looking for Harry, but actually looking for Peter Pettigrew?”

“Shit.” Harry and Draco said at the same time.

~~~

“Professor Lupin!” Harry shouts, walking towards him down by the forest’s edge. The others following along quickly.

“Hello Harry, Hermione, Dra-”

“Yes, yes, all of us.” Theo interrupted and they all turned to him. “What? Just trying to move things along.”

“Fine.” Harry said, rolling his eyes. “Professor we need to talk to you about Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.”

“Oh?” Remus said, but Harry saw the twitch under his eye, and his hand shift into a fist.

“We think they got it wrong, Profesor, I don’t think Sirius is the one who betrayed my parents. And I think when I told you I saw Peter Pettigrew on the map, you knew I was right. Is that correct?” Professor Lupin blinked at him, and his fist relaxed.

“I believe, Mr. Potter, that you would be correct.” Everything in Harry seemed to deflate, and Basil shifted slowly around his wrist, trying to comfort him. He took a deep breath in.

“Sir, what do we do?”

~~~

In the end, Harry could only look back and see it all through a haze of fog. Somehow he and the others, Professor Lupin included, had ended up at Hagrid’s house, where the map said Peter Pettigrew was hiding. It was only once Hagrid handed Scabbers back to Ron that Lupin realised, and he lost it. He’d suddenly started flashing his wand at the rat, and then the rat wasn't a rat but Peter Pettigrew and he was begging, begging Harry to let him go, to have mercy on him, and Harry really truly wasn’t going to, until a large black dog, the large black dog, burst through the door, and seized Peter by the leg.

“Sirius!” Remus had shouted, and then the dog wasn’t a dog, but a man, and somehow in the rush Peter had a wand, and was pointing it at his forehead. But faster than anyone could see, Basil was there, her large body expanding, and then shrinking with him, keeping a tight hold around him. Quickly, Professor Lupin pointed his wand again, just as there was a knock on the door. Hagrid, who had been in a state of shock through it all, managed to open the door, to a very shocked Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore.

The story probably came out too quick, too jumbled, for the minister and headmaster to really follow, but they got the gist, and suddenly Peter Pettigrew was being handcuffed, brought to the highest tower in Hogwarts, and Sirius was being freed, exonerated, all charges dropped. It was around then that Harry realised this was really happening, that they had really just caught the person who betrayed his parents.

He collapsed into a chair, exhausted.

~~~

As it turned out, the ministry owed Sirius Black a serious amount of reparations, which included the rights to all of his homes, estates, and bank accounts. Draco reported that his father, who had become the defacto holder of all those accounts, was furious, which made them all smile. He told them that his mother however, had expressed her congratulations, privately, to them.

It also turned out that Sirius Black being Harry’s godfather meant he never had to go back to the Dursleys ever again. He never had to even see them ever again, because Sirius and Professor Lupin decided to go before he even got off the train, and get his last remaining things from there. In fact, he got off the train and the three of them went straight to #12 Grimmauld Place.

Which was a disaster, but Harry kind of loved it. Loved that for the first time in his life, he had a place to come home to.