Nabbing the Rat
Thanks for all the feedback on who to have kill Umbridge. I have a general idea of what I’m going to do.
Hphphp
Remus went into the Leaky Cauldron and got himself a butterbeer and sat at a table in the back. He could see everyone who entered from there. He wanted to be able to confront Arthur when he showed up. He didn’t have long to wait, as the Weasleys came in mass through the floo.
Putting his bottle down he went to greet Arthur. “Arthur Weasley, it has been a long time,” he said, holding out his hand to shake.
“As I live and breathe, Remus Lupin,” the other man said, shaking the werewolf’s hand. “What brings you by?” he asked, stepping away from his family for a bit of quiet.
“I was actually looking for you,” Remus said, leading them further away from the noisy group of redheads. “I saw your picture in the paper and recognized the rat on your son’s shoulder. And it is not good news,” he said in a low voice. “I need you to capture the rat and put it in a cage, without raising any suspicion,” he added in a whisper.
“Why?” Arthur whispered back, fear in his voice. “Is it dangerous?” he asked, looking at his family warily.
“Not if you do it right,” Remus said, noting that the youngest son had the rat in hand, and that the rat was getting squirmy. He didn’t like the looks of that. He turned his back and took out a handkerchief and made a small cage and made it unbreakable. “Here,” he said, holding it out of sight, “put this behind your back and go and get the rat. I’ll follow behind in case it tries to get away,” he stated, giving the cage to the frightened man.
“Okay,” Arthur said, putting the cage behind his back and making his way to his youngest son. “Ron, weren’t you going to get some tonic for Scabbers?” he asked the boy, who was holding the now very twitchy rat.
“Yeah, why?” Ron asked, holding the rat tightly, trying to keep it in his hand.
“I wanted to have him looked at. He doesn’t look well,” his father said, reaching to grab the rat by the scruff of the neck and getting a firm grip on it. He then snatched it from his son’s hand and shoved it in the cage. “There,” he said, sighing in relief. “Remus, can you tell me now, why you wanted this rat?” he turned to the other man.
Instead of answering, Remus took the cage and placed it on the floor. Then he waved his wand and said the animagus revealing spell and an enlargement spell. A pink and a blue light flashed, and the cage grew, and a man grew within the cage. “Peter Pettigrew,” he snarled. “Someone call the Aurors,” he said, still holding his wand at the man in the cage.
Arthur and Molly doing the same, while the Weasley children all looked on. Percy and the twins joined their parents in drawing their wands, while Ron and Ginny went to stand by their mum and dad.
It was at that time that Harry Potter came down the stairs. “Ron,” he said, coming to stand next to his friend, “what’s going on?” he asked, seeing the rat-like man in the cage.
“That’s Scabbers,” the still shocked boy said, pointing to the man. “That bloke turned him into a man,” he said, pointing to Remus.
“Correction,” Remus said, not looking away from Peter. “That is a man, who has been living as your pet rat,” he stated, with disgust in his voice. “The traitor, and coward.”
“Remus, my friend, it is so good to see you,” Peter tried to talk to the man, but he was ignored. “Harry, you look so much like your father,” he said to the teen, only for Remus to silence him.
“Don’t listen to the traitor, Harry. While you do look like your father, that man is the reason your parents are dead,” the werewolf said, still pointing his wand at the ratman.
“How?” the boy asked, his voice quivering with rage as he stepped closer to the cage.
“He told You-Know-Who where they lived and blamed another man for it,” Remus said, not naming any names.
“Why?” Harry yelled at the silenced man.
“He can’t answer you Harry, and he would only lie to you if he could,” Remus said, taking the boy’s shoulder and moving him from the cage.
Harry moved back to where Ron was and glared at the man inside, his anger palatable in the air.
It was then that the floo flared and Amelia Bones with two Aurors stepped out. “What is this, that I hear that Peter Pettigrew is alive?” she asked, taking in the situation. She looked at the man in the cage and her wand was out and pointed at the supposed dead man. She recognized him from his Order of Merlin Award picture. Though he looked more rodent like now.
“As you can see Pettigrew is quite alive,” Lupin stated, lowering his wand.
“How did you find him?” she inquired, looking at the raggedy man.
“He was my friend at Hogwarts along with James Potter and Sirius Black,” Remus said, taking the newspaper article out and showing it to her. “That’s him there, on the boy’s shoulder,” he said, pointing to the rat. “They were all animagus,” he added, looking to Harry, who looked shocked that he knew his dad.
“What was Sirius Black’s?” she asked immediately.
“I can’t tell you,” he replied, holding up his hands to ward off the onslaught of reprimands. “I’m under oath,” he added quickly. Which was the truth.
“It can’t be helped,” she turned to Peter and asked, “What was Sirius Black’s form?” when the man moved his mouth, but no sound came out, she lifted the spell.
“A Grimm,” came the immediate answer. If he was going down, he was taking Black with him.
“Smart woman,” mumbled Remus. It was one of the reasons he wanted her on board. “I’d like to speak to you in private,” he said, looking at her with earnest. “It is important,” he added.
“I have a few minutes,” she said, leading the way to the back of the room.
When they got there, Remus indicated that he needed privacy and she put up some strong wards. “What if I told you that I have proof that Voldemort is not dead?” he said, looking her straight in the eyes.
She stared at him for a good two minutes, but he held firm. “I’d need to see this proof,” she answered, picking up her monocle and polishing it.
“I’d need a vow not to share it without all in the knows agreement,” he said, not wanting to push it, but it was essential that it not be spread.
“Why?” was the simple question.
“There is information that is vital never reaches certain people, but those in the know need to know. I can’t tell you more without that vow,” Remus said, crossing his fingers mentally.
“Very well, but if I find you are wasting my time, you will see the inside of Azkaban,” she said, quickly giving the vow of silence pending a vote of those in the know.
“Thanks, I’m going to hand you two books. They are from the middle of the series, but they pertain to you. I mean, you are mentioned in them. It is because of these books that I knew Peter would be here today, and that Voldemort is alive, and how he lives. I know this sounds crazy, but Sirius is innocent. He can’t be guilty because Peter is alive. If you question Peter, you will find that he did everything that Sirius was accused of. Please, Sirius didn’t even have a trial,” Remus said in a rush, taking the fifth and sixth books out of his extended inner pocket and handing them to her. “I will get back in touch with you in three days. That should give you enough time to at least skim these books.”
“I will do as you ask,” she said, skepticism in her voice. “I tell you again, this better not be a waste of my time.” with that she tucked the books in her robes and dropped the wards. She went to the cage and stunned the man inside. Opening the door, she then cuffed the man with magic inhibiting cuffs. He would not be able to turn into a rat while those were on him. Nodding to her Aurors, they came in and drug him away. “Alright everyone, show is over, go back to what you were doing,” she said, going to Arthur to question him and Molly about the time they had the rat.
Remus went to talk to Harry. “Hello, Harry, I’m Remus. I was a friend of your father’s,” he said as way of introduction. He wasn’t going to wait until the middle of the school year to talk to the boy. He had no idea why he had waited so long in the books. It never said, but he was going to be more proactive this time.
“Why have I never heard of you?” the teen asked, not sure what else to say.
“I never knew where you were,” was the answer. That was true. He never did know. He had asked but was only told that the child was safe.
“Oh,” Harry said, thinking that was a good enough reason.
“Do you want to hear some stories about his time in Hogwarts?” the werewolf asked, leading him and Ron to a table.
“Sure. This is my best friend Ron, by the way,” Harry said, sitting down and indicating the redhead.
“Ron, good to meet you. Sorry about your rat,” Remus stated, looking contrite. He had mixed feelings about this boy, from what he read about him. But he was young and can change his ways. That and if he was not faced with the challenges maybe he would not be such a fair-weather friend. Maybe. Or maybe he could point out to Harry that he needed to make more friends that didn’t leave him hanging when times got rough.
“I’m still in shock,” the boy stated, looking stunned.
“We can get you another pet when Hermione gets here,” Harry offered, knowing that his friend liked Scabbers, and hoped he would get a better animal than a rat.
“Maybe,” Ron said, hating to take charity.
“Let me tell you about the time that James tried to court your mum, Lily,” Remus started, and continued to tell them about the bumpy relationship of James and Lily. They talked for hours until Amelia came back to talk to Remus.
“Mr. Lupin, I need to speak to you,” she said, jerking her head to the side.
“I’ll tell you more when school starts. I’m going to be your DADA teacher,” Remus said, moving to stand. It had been a good few hours.
“Wicked,” both boys said, getting up from the table to go and do what teens did when they were unsupervised.
“What can I do for you? And how did you know I was still here?” Remus asked, after she raised some wards.
“I asked Tom,” she answered as if it were obvious. “I know you know where Black is. Can you take me there?” she asked, not in a harsh way.
“Why?” he asked, very wary of that.
“So I can drop the charges against him,” she said with a heavy sigh. It had been a long few hours for her. The questioning had taken a toll on her and the entire ministry. Fudge had not been happy, but there was little he could do in the end. The charges will be dropped, and Sirius Black will be exonerated.
“And Fudge?” he asked, even more cautious of that man.
“Has no say in the matter,” was her answer.
“He put a ‘kiss on sight’ order out on Sirius. I’d say that that man has a huge say on the matter,” Remus rebutted. “Fudge is a power-hungry man. He will do anything to show that he is seen doing something. Didn’t he arrest Hagrid last year for just that reason?” he pointed out.
“How did you know about that?” Amelia asked, not many people did. They kept it off the books.
“It was in the second book,” Remus said, pointing to the books in her pocket. He could see the bulge from where they sat in the inside of her robes.
“I was wondering. I did skim through the first few chapters. They are real then?” she asked, she had been hoping they were not. The Dark Lord alive. A student murdered. That was just the first few chapters and those from the dreams and memories of Harry Potter. Then there were dementors in Surrey. That was going to be a headache. She needed to stop that before it happened.
“Yes, which is why you need to read all of them. But the two I gave you are the ones you need to read first,” Remus reiterated, moving to the door. “I’ll take you to Sirius, but you have to promise to keep Fudge on a leash.”
“I can drop the charges, and I promise to make sure that Fudge does nothing to Black,” Amelia said, dropping the wards.
“What about Umbridge?” the werewolf asked, not sure how they were going to handle that problem.
“I will deal with Dolores,” Bones said, knowing that it would be an issue.
“As you continue to read that fifth book you will find that she is more of an issue than you think,” Remus stated, going to the alley near the Leaky. He took out a piece of parchment that stated, ‘Sirius Black lives at #12 Grimmuald Place’.
“Fidelius?” she questioned, nodding that she had read it.
“It was the only way we could read the books uninterrupted. It was worth it,” he said, then turned a bit and disapparated.
She followed. She appeared next to him and saw the house appear before her and walked up the walkway and followed him in the door. While it wasn’t as rundown as it had been it was still very well lived in.
“Sirius,” Remus yelled, “we have company.” He moved to the living room.
“Oh, who?” came the question from the kitchen.
“Amelia Bones,” Remus yelled back. “Come to the living room,” he added, showing Amelia to a chair.
“What!” Sirius said, not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
“It’s good news,” Remus said loudly. “Trust me.” He huffed. He would have thought the man trusted him enough not to have ratted him out to the Aurors.
Sirius came into the room carrying a tea service and set it on the coffee table. “I was just about to have tea. Join me?” he said, handing her a cup.
“Sure,” she said with a smile.
“Well, I kept my promise, Sirius, you’re a free man,” Remus said, leaning over and grabbing a cup for himself.
“Truly?” Sirius asked, sitting heavily in a chair.
“Truly,” Amelia stated, sipping her cup. “All charges are dropped. You are a free man.”
“Thank Merlin,” the now free man stated, feeling dizzy with relief.
“I gave her the fifth and sixth books,” Remus said, nodding to Bones. “I thought she should start with those.”
“I can give you an abridged rundown,” Sirius offered, pouring himself some tea.
“That would be lovely,” she said, thinking it would save some time.
So that’s how they spent a few hours. Sirius and Remus giving an overview of the series and her asking questions. In the end she was glad they brought her in, and she promised to finish the books and come back for the first four when she was done with the two she had.
Now all they had to do was get Bill Weasley here. Next, a trip to Gringotts.