Chapter 5
December 1993
When Harry showed Andromeda the Marauder’s Map that he had just gotten from Fred and George Weasley, he noticed something interesting. The map had been created by four men under the pseudonyms Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Harry asked Andromeda, “Do you know the man who co-created this map under the pseudonym ‘Padfoot’? Because that man shares a name with your dog.” Andromeda’s therapy dog Padfoot lay down at Harry’s feet at this exact moment; as Harry bent down and scratched Padfoot behind the ears, Andromeda replied, “Yes, I do know the man with the pseudonym Padfoot. I used to be very close with him. But he would really prefer for me not to tell anyone his real name.” “If he does give you permission to reveal his real name,” said Harry, “can you tell me?” “Of course,” said Andromeda.
May 1994
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , you saw the events leading to Buckbeak’s execution. After he had been executed, Harry looked at his watch and said, “Oh, gosh, I gotta get to Andi’s. She’ll understand what’s just happened better than anyone—she has a therapy dog that she really loves. She’d hate to lose him.”
Harry was talking to Andromeda about the injustice of Buckbeak’s execution—how the Malfoy family had pulled strings to make it happen. “If I hadn’t been disowned by my family already, I’d cut off contact with my sister Narcissa now. She’s Malfoy’s mother—and also my sister, although she’ll never admit it because I married a Muggle-born.” “That must’ve taken a lot of courage,” said Harry. “I can’t imagine anyone in this school going against their parents’ pure-blood supremacist beliefs—so Hermione probably won’t be the reason why anyone in this school gets disowned by their parents. If she does marry a pureblood, their family will be blood traitors, just like how your sisters see you.”
Right at that moment, Harry’s Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Remus Lupin, came bursting into Andromeda’s office, carrying Ron’s rat Scabbers, closely followed by Ron and Hermione. “Andi, why is Professor Lupin taking my rat?” demanded Ron. “I hate to break it to you, Ron—” said Professor Lupin, “he’s not really a rat. I need to show him to Padfoot.” “What use would a dog be here?” said Harry. Padfoot transformed into a human, something I regretted not being able to do myself—and it turned out he was Sirius Black in disguise, and an unregistered Animagus. He stated the obvious: “Padfoot isn’t really a dog. I’m Padfoot.” To Harry’s shock and disgust, Lupin embraced Black like a brother.
“How could you keep it a secret that you were friends with Black?” demanded Harry. “You’re the one who’s been helping him get into the castle!” “That’s right. He wants you dead, too,” said Hermione to Harry, “—HE’S A WEREWOLF!” “Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione,” said Lupin. “Only one out of three, I’m afraid. I haven’t been helping Black get into the castle and I certainly don’t want Harry dead…but I won’t deny that I am a werewolf. When I was in school, I was taken to the Shrieking Shack during my transformations. The howls and screams the villagers used to hear were made by me. They didn’t know what was really going on—thanks to Dumbledore, who even encouraged the rumours of particularly violent spirits.
“You’re an Animagus!” said Hermione. “Andi, how could you not tell Harry who Padfoot really was?” “He has a right to the truth now, at the very least” said Sirius. “The Wizarding world has been spreading all sorts of misinformation about me. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to finally corner that literal and figurative rat.”
“How is he a figurative rat?” asked Ron. “He’s an Animagus,” said Sirius. “He’s my old friend Peter Pettigrew—although, given what he did, we sincerely regret that we were ever friends with him. Why the bloody hell was this guy even sorted into Gryffindor?” “What makes you think he should’ve been sorted into a different House?” said Harry. “He valued his own life more than those of his friends, even under the most extreme circumstances possible,” said Sirius, who then pointed Andromeda’s wand at Pettigrew and forced him to transform back into a human. “Surely everyone thinks that way!” said Pettigrew. “Slytherins usually do,” said Sirius. “They only look out for themselves. Even though my whole family was sorted into Slytherin, you deserved to be sorted into that House much more than I would have deserved it.” “What harm did it do for Pettigrew to only look out for himself?” asked Harry. “Andromeda, I’ve been telling you all along that we need to tell Harry the truth,” said Sirius. “I’ve been telling you this ever since the day that Harry snuck into the Three Broomsticks and heard some teachers and the Minister for Magic discussing how, as far as they knew, I had betrayed Lily and James. Andromeda, I’ll take out one of my memories and put it in your Pensieve.” He proceeded to do exactly this; Andromeda pulled Harry over to the Pensieve, and they disappeared inside it—not knowing that I was closely following.
We saw a memory of a conversation between Sirius, Lily, and James, shortly before Lily and James died; Sirius explained what time the memory was from. “Especially if Dumbledore’s right that someone on our side has turned traitor,” said a younger Sirius to Lily and James, “Voldemort will know how close we are. He’ll guess immediately that James would have chosen me as your Secret-Keeper. You have to use Wormtail as your Secret-Keeper—Voldemort will never suspect him.” “You’re right, Sirius,” said James. “We’ll call Wormtail and Dumbledore here right now.”
We then went back to Andromeda’s office, where Sirius held Wormtail at wandpoint and said, “You sold Lily and James to Voldemort. Do you deny it?” Scared, Wormtail nodded. “You see, Harry,” said Sirius, “Wormtail did betray your parents. And now he will pay.” “Surely not with his life?” Harry pleaded with Sirius. “We’ll take him up to the castle.” Andromeda reminded Sirius, “We were all told that you killed Wormtail. Our only chance of clearing your name is to prove that you didn’t kill him. In fact, would you mind taking out the memory of the day you confronted Wormtail and he escaped?” “Of course I will, Andi,” said Sirius. “And we won’t kill Pettigrew unless we have no choice. You’re right, we have to bring him back alive.” Sirius took out another memory and put it in Andromeda’s Pensieve; he, Lupin, and Harry went into the Pensieve to view the memory, again with me following close behind.
We got behind Wormtail, who couldn’t hurt us inside a memory—when a memory is viewed in a Pensieve, the people in the memories can’t even see the viewer. We saw Sirius aim his wand at Wormtail, who blasted the street apart with the wand behind his back, dropped his wand, transformed into a rat, and ran away.
After we went back to Andromeda’s office, Sirius said, “Believe me, Harry. I would never have betrayed your parents. I would have died before I betrayed them.” At long last, Harry believed him and nodded.
“Right, we need to go and show you to Dumbledore,” said Sirius to Pettigrew. “And if you transform, we will kill you. You got that, Harry?” Harry agreed to what Sirius said. Sirius transformed back into Padfoot; Harry put him on a leash, the better to pass him off as a real dog if anyone saw him. Harry then led everybody down the stairs of the Hog’s Head and outside—Padfoot, Lupin, Pettigrew, Ron, and Hermione. Lupin conjured a chain to bind himself and Ron to Pettigrew.
Padfoot ran ahead of the group and led them to the Shrieking Shack. He started pawing at the boarded-up door; Lupin appeared to know what he was saying, as he pointed his wand at the door and shouted, “ Confringo! ” This caused the door to be blasted apart. Padfoot then led the group into the Shrieking Shack, and then down into a secret passageway—and then out of the other end of the passageway, right below the Whomping Willow (which had been frozen for the group by Hermione’s new cat Crookshanks).