Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs
It took a moment or two for the absurdity of the statement to sink in.
"You're maniacs." Draco said simply.
"Completely mental," agreed Ron, and Lisa nodded hesitantly.
"Pettigrew's dead..." Harry said. "He was put out as dead to the public twelve years ago... and that... Sirius killed him. Unless..."
"I meant to kill him," Black growled, his teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me... not this time, though!"
He lunged at Scabbers; Ron yelled out in pain as Black fell on his broken leg.
"SIRIUS, NO!" yelled Lupin, launching himself forward and dragging Black away from Ron. "WAIT! YOU-- you can't just do it like that-- they-- they need to understand-- we have to explain first--"
"We can explain after!" Black snarled, trying to throw him off, one hand still clawing the air, struggling to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to flee. "I did my waiting, Remus! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban! I've done enough-- WAITING!"
"They've -- got a -- a - right -- to -- know!" Lupin panted, still trying to hold Black, "Ron's kept him as a pet-- and there's-- there's things even I don't understand! And Harry and Hermione! You owe them the truth, Sirius!"
Black paused, glancing at Harry, and then Hermione. His eyes went right back to Scabbers, clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, bloody hands.
"Fine. Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."
"What's Granger got to do with anything?" asked Draco, to no response.
Lisa glanced around, as they were all silent-- and then, she muttered, "Renervate,"
Padma stirred, slowly, before jumping up.
"The dog! Sirius Black! Ah, my leg-- Merlin's tit, that hurts!"
"Why didn't any of us try that earlier?" Hermione muttered, just as Ron stumbled to get up, hopping on his good leg; Lupin was quick to raise his wand, pointing it at Scabbers.
"You're going to want to hear me out, Ron," he said quietly. "Just, please, keep ahold of Peter while you listen."
"HE'S NOT PETER! HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, and it was good that Hermione caught him just in time, because he swayed, nearly falling to the ground.
"Peter? I-- I'm sorry, what the hell is going on? What happened?" Padma asked, rubbing her seemingly aching head.
"A lot." Lisa said, helping her to one of the chairs that wasn't falling apart.
"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter..." Lupin started, "I even believed it myself... that is, until I saw the Map tonight. Because the Marauder's Map never lies. Even if it was switching... the fact it switched in the first place means Peter's alive. And Ron's holding him."
"He's an illegal Animagus. He never registered... so he could be... and the Ministry would never know...." Harry mumbled, and things were starting to make sense.
"The Ministry never knew there used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts." Lupin nodded.
"And they still don't..." Lisa whispered, and seemingly, Lupin didn't hear.
"If you're telling them the story, get a move on, Remus," snarled Black, still glaring at Scabbers' every move. "I've waited twelve years, I refuse to wait much longer.."
"Alright. But you'll have to help me, Sirius... I only know how it began," Lupin said, pausing. There was a loud creak behind him; The door had opened on it's own. He strode towards it, sticking his head out the landing.
"No one's there..."
"The place is haunted," said Ron.
"It's not." denied Lupin, still looking at the door with puzzled eyes. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted... the screams and howls the villagers heard were all from me. That's where this all begins... with my becoming a werewolf. None of this would've happened had I not been bitten and been so foolhardy of it...."
“That can’t be helped,” said Padma at once. “You didn’t... try, to get bitten, did you, Professor? And it’s... like a disease, more than a choice.”
Lupin, who had a sober, tired look on his face, nodded.
"I was quite small when I received it... my parents tried everything, but in those days, there was no known cure. The potion I've been getting is a very, very recent discovery.... It keeps me, sane, so to say. As long as I take it within the week preceding the full moon, I keep my mentality while I transform.... I am able to simply curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wade again.
"Before Wolfsbane was discovered, however... I became a fully fledged monster once a month. I didn't ever imagine I'd get to come to Hogwarts. But then there was Dumbledore... he was sympathetic. He said, as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I couldn't come to school." he paused, looking between Harry and Hermione. "I told you both, months back, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts, did I not? I was not fully honest with you. It was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house..." he looked around miserably. "This house, the tunnel that leads to it... they were made for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out the castle, to here, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel's mouth to stop anyone from coming across me while I was... dangerous."
Harry couldn't hear a thing more than Lupin's words, and a feeling that he couldn't exactly place passed through him. Guilt, maybe? Pity? Dread? Whatever it was, it left him feeling worse for wear.
"My transformations back then were... were terrible. It's very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to attack, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard all the... screaming, and thought they were particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumour... any chance he had to make them less suspicious... but even now, while the house has been silent for years... the villagers don't dare approach it....
"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I'd ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I'd had friends... three, great best friends. Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew--" he spat Pettigrew's name like venom, "--and, of course... your father, James Potter.
"And all three of them hardly failed to notice how I disappeared once a month. I made up all kinds of stories.. my favourite to say, that my mother was ill and I'd gotten special permission to visit... all kinds of family emergencies... I was horrified to know what they'd do if they found out what I was. But, of course, like you two, Hermione, Harry, they'd worked out the truth.
"But they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something that would, not only, make my transformations bearable, but also the best times of my life. They became Animagi. Your father and Sirius were certainly among the cleverest of our year, and Peter needed all the help he could get from them.... It was in our fifth year that they managed it-- they could all turn into a different animal at will.
"It wasn't long until we wrote the Marauder's Map...we had to sneak around without getting caught, of course, and I doubt anyone got around as much as we did.. We signed it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is-- well, was-- Wormtail. James was Prongs."
"Prongs? What sort of--?" Harry started, but Lisa cut him off.
"Sir.... If I can interrupt..." She said, “Did Professor Snape know about the Map? When Harry... got caught, he seemed to... know.”
"Snape? Severus, Snape?" asked Black.
"Yeah, Professor Snape. He's the... Potions teacher... was he Professor when you were in school?"
"No... he was at school with us." Lupin said, and there was a collective gasp, though it went mostly unheard as he continued. "He fought very hard against my being appointed to Defence Against the Dark Arts.... He's been telling Dumbledore all year long that I am not to be trusted. He has his own reasons, of course.... You see, Sirius played a trick on him that nearly killed him. A trick that involved me--"
Black made a derisive noise, cutting him off.
"Serves him right," he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled... didn’t do anything to him-- he started it. Maybe he shouldn't've fallen for it and quit being nosy... but with a nose that large, I guess it can't be helped, huh--"
"It was all childishness,” said Lupin at once, looking at Sirius with something reminiscent and scolding, "It was that all of us were silly children. Severus was rather interested in where I disappeared to every month. We were all in the same year, and we-- er-- didn't like eachother very much. Quite a lot of disdain, we held for eachother. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I'd guess, of James's talent on the Quidditch pitch, and how easily he made friends, how liked he was, moreover... anyhow, Snape had caught sight of me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she took me to the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it'd be... er-- amusing to inform Snape that all he'd have to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick and he'd be able to follow me. And, of course, he tried it-- if he'd gotten all the way to this house, he'd turn up face-to-face with a fully grown werewolf. But your father-- James-- who'd heard of what Sirius had done, went after Snape and took him back, at great risk to his own life... Snape got a glimpse of me, however, at the end of the tunnel... Dumbledore forbade him to tell anybody, but from that day onwards, he knew what I was..."
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you..." Harry said slowly. "...he thought you were in on the joke."
"That's right," sneered a cold voice from the corner, just behind Lupin.
Severus Snape had appeared in an instant, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak with his wand pointed directly at Lupin.
“Shit.” Sirius muttered.