Remus was feeling very low. Not unusual, since it had been a full moon a few days ago, but he also felt bad that Sirius was still rotting away in Azkaban.
Nothing much had happened since he had been invited by Alastor Moody to witness his interview with the Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black. Remus was sure that Sirius would have gotten a kick out of that label, if his situation hadn’t been so dire.
There had been no sightings of Peter Pettigrew, but Remus had not expected him to show himself, after successfully framing Sirius for his death. He hoped that Peter had not left the country, but anything was possible. It would be quite easy for a rat to slip aboard a ship or even a cargo plane.
At least by now, he had informed all the old Order of the Phoenix gang of the outrageous miscarriage of justice and most had been very sympathetic. Molly Weasley in particular had been very supportive, though a bit scary.
‘I never believed that Sirius had betrayed James and Lily. He could be a bit of an ass at times, but he loved James like a brother. I didn’t follow the trial all that much’, she said, looking somewhat guilty, and waved her hand vaguely through the air, ‘pregnancy and all that. I somehow had a worse time with this little missy,’ she said pointing at the only girl in the Weasley household, who was napping on her lap, ‘than with all six boys, including the twin pregnancy, so I kind of lost track of all the news outside of The Burrow, but I couldn’t believe it, when I heard that Sirius had been sent to Azkaban. And now you tell me that you and the Ministry know that he is innocent, but they can’t or won’t let him out without proof? That is outrageous! I have a good mind to punch Mad-eye in the only eye he has left and to barge into the Minister’s Office in the morning.’
While Remus liked the idea of that, he knew that it would not be of any use. He himself had already spoken to every Auror and Minister in the place and that was OK for him, but Molly had a family to think about. She could not risk Arthur losing his job, or worse the kids losing their mother, by her being sent to Azkaban herself for assaulting an Auror or Minister. If there was one thing he had learned over the past number of months, it was that the Magical Justice System left a lot to be desired. The more he learned about the Muggle courts from watching crime series with his landlady, the more he realised that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was a joke. He would not be surprised if one of these days there would be a full hearing of the Wizengamot over a simple case of under-age magic performed in front of a muggle. The Wizengamot had become much too powerful over the past decade and there were too many cases where people were convicted without actual proof. The Muggle idea of Innocent until proven Guilty made a lot more sense to him than the Wizengamot modus operandi of Guilty until proven Innocent.
But there you had it, Remus was no nearer to proving Sirius’ innocence than he had been a few months ago, but he was slowly spreading the word around the wizarding world that the Wizengamot had sent an innocent man to Azkaban.
Unfortunately, that message was not coming as a surprise to anyone. It wasn’t the first time an innocent wizard had landed his ass in Wizard Jail, without proper council or evidence and it wouldn’t be the last time, was the general consensus.
Nobody was all that surprised to hear that Sirius was innocent, either.
He had a much harder time convincing people that Peter Pettigrew had been, and still was, an unregistered animagus.
‘That whining mousy (ratty, as it turned out) boy who always followed you guys around? You got to be kidding me? I always assumed you guys let him copy your homework. It would have surprised me, if he knew more than one spell. And he was an animagus, you say? That is very advanced magic, that is? How did he manage to pull that off?’
That was the general reaction of most people, when he tried to convince them how Peter had managed to escape capture.
Of course he could not tell anyone the full story about how Peter had become an animagus or that he wasn't the only unregistered animagus in his year.
Most people also had trouble believing the other part of that escape plan.
‘Sweet Wizard Jesus, he did what? He cut off his own finger and left it at the scene of the crime to fake his own death? That takes guts, that does. Are you sure we are talking about the same Peter Pettigrew?’
Remus sighed, he could not really blame people for having a hard time believing the series of events that led up to Sirius’ capture and sentencing. He had found it difficult enough to believe himself.
The one good thing that had come out of this, was that Molly Weasley had taken it upon her to feed Remus from time to time.
‘You are looking much too peaky for my liking. Is that landlady of yours feeding you at all?’
No matter what he did to reassure her that his landlady was lovely and was an excellent cook, Molly insisted that he join them for dinner at least once a month.
Dinner at the Weasley’s was always a mad affair. With six boys under the age of fifteen and a toddler girl who loved running after her six older brothers, the house was chaos personified. Most of the time Molly shooed them out into the garden to play quidditch or to do some de-gnoming.
However, Molly and Arthur somehow managed to make their haphazard house feel like home. Dinners were very noisy family affairs, but there was a warmth that he remembered from the days Sirius and himself had spent with the Potters, especially after Harry was born.
When Remus looked at Ronald, the second youngest Weasley, he imagined what Harry must look like now. If memory served, Harry must be about the same age as Ronald, or Ron as he preferred to be called.
The first time Remus had come over for dinner, the little lad had come up to him and had stuck out his hand and said ‘Hello, my name is Ronald Weasley, but I prefer to be called Ron. Ronald is what my mum calls me, when she is angry with me.’
This had sounded so precocious out of the mouth of a five year old, that Remus had found it difficult to keep a straight face, as he shook the young lads hand.
By now he knew all the names of the Weasley kids, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and little Ginevra, or Ginny.
He still had difficulty telling Fred and George apart, but luckily Molly told him that they did not really minded that and often deliberately tried to trick guests anyway, just so that he be forewarned. They certainly seemed to be a pair of tricksters and they reminded him of James and Sirius in many ways. They would have been a good fit for the Marauders, if they had been their age, Remus thought wistfully.
‘I know what you are thinking,’ Molly said as she caught his eye, ‘they would have given James and Sirius a run for their money.’
Remus laughed, he sometimes forgot that Molly and Arthur both had younger siblings that were in school with him in their Marauders days and were both fully aware of the things James, Sirius, Peter and himself had gotten up to in their school days.
‘Nothing much gets past you, does it, Molly,’ he said affectionately.
She just smiled and patted his arm, as she turned her attention back to her seven children.
It was at one of these family dinners, that the Weasley children came running into the house very excitedly.
‘MUM, Mum, mum,’ a line of children came running into the kitchen, their faces red with excitement, ‘Percy, has caught a rat!’
‘Can I keep him, Mum?’ Percy asked, holding out a large wriggling creature.
‘He looks a bit the worse for wear, Dear,’ Molly said, ‘He even seems to be missing a toe.’
As soon as she said this, something in her mind clicked and she said, ‘You know what, why don’t you put him in that old cage we have in the sitting room, the one we use as a side table, and I will get some milk and cheese for the poor little mite. Make sure you lock the cage, as he looks a bit scared and might run away from you, and that would be the end of your pet.’
Remus admired the calm demeanour of this beautiful specimen of motherhood.
Not wanting to reveal his presence to what they all thought might be the rat on the run, Remus stayed out of sight of the kids, while Arthur had already stepped into the fireplace to alert any Auror on duty at the Ministry.
As luck would have it, Alastor himself was on duty and it did not take the two men long to get back to The Burren.
When they entered the living room, they were very surprised to find seven children lying on their tummies on the floor around an old cage in which a well fed rat was sleeping soundly. Molly’s cheese, biscuits and milk had done the trick.
‘What do you think Remus? Does it look like Peter Pettigrew?’ Alastor asked?
Remus shrugged, ‘It has been a long time ago. It is missing a toe and it looks a bit like him, at least the tuft of hair on his head does. Animagi tend to keep some characteristics of their human form. McGonagall’s cat has markings around the eyes, like glasses, for instance, and …’ Remus nearly had mentioned Padfoot’s likeness to Sirius, but he managed to stop himself, just in time. ‘… I do remember that in rat form, Peter had a sort of messy tuft of hair on top, but other than that, your guess is as good as mine.’
‘Ok, I better take him to the Ministry then, best to check whether he is an animagus in a more secure setting, don’t you think?’
‘Absolutely, he managed to surprise and outfox Sirius, as you might remember,’ Remus said.
‘You coming, Arthur?’ Alastor asked.
‘Absolutely,’ echoed Arthur, much to Remus’ delight.
‘Children,’ Arthur said kindly to his offspring. ‘As your mother pointed out, that rat looks a bit worse for wear. I am going to take him to the animal healer in the Ministry, to make sure he is OK. I will be back later.’
Smooth, Remus thought, he never actually said that the rat would be back later.
The children trusted their father completely, and did not object when he picked up the cage and walked over to the fireplace. Seven wide-eyed kids stood around and waved goodbye to the rat, as the three men floo-ed back to the Ministry.
The irony did not escape Remus when they brought the rat, cage and all, into the same interrogation chamber, where they had interviewed Sirius a number of months ago.
Remus and Arthur looked on, while Alastor took the still sleeping rat from its cage.
‘Revelio,’ Alastor said, pointing his wand at the rat and low and behold, instead of the rat, there was now a sleeping human form.
Alastor poked the man with his foot.
The man jumped up and looked around him in fear.
‘Peter Pettigrew, I presume?’ Alastor said.
When the man did not answer, Remus said, ‘Yes, that is him.’
‘Peter Pettigrew, I arrest you for the death of twelve muggles on 1st November 1981 and for framing a wizard named Sirius Black, by cutting off one of your fingers.’
Peter, who had now spotted Remus, turned to him pleadingly, ‘Tell him I didn’t do it, Remus, I am your friend.’
‘You were supposed to be James’ friend and Sirius’ friend also, but you were happy enough to betray the first and let the latter rot in Azkaban for the rest of his life. Some friend you are,’ he could barely get the words out in the rage that was welling up inside him.
How dare this worthless piece of garbage address him as a friend.
‘Once a rat, always a rat, Peter.’
Then he turned to Alastor, ‘Now that you have Peter Pettigrew in custody and it is beyond a doubt that Sirius did not kill him, when will you release Sirius?’
‘I will send the release papers to Azkaban as soon as I put this man in chains,’ Alastor said.
‘Tell them to send him straight to The Burrow and we will look after him from there on in,’ Arthur said, ‘And Alastor, make sure they release all of his property and other assets straight away. And you better hope that Sirius is not suing the pants of the Ministry.’
This made Remus laugh out loud for the first time in a very long time.
‘Merlin, Arthur, do you also watch those Muggle cop shows?’
Arthur, shrugged, ‘Occupational hazard, I suppose.’
When they got back to The Burrow, Molly had managed to put the kids to bed.
‘And?’ She said, dying to know, what had happened.
While Arthur relayed their experiences at the Ministry to his wife, Remus sat in his chair, looking at the fire.
‘You are awfully quiet, mate,’ Arthur said.
‘I still can’t believe he is getting out and I guess I am nervous. It has been so long, since I have seen him and the last time he looked like a shadow of himself.
What if we can’t get back what we used to have? What if he can’t forgive me for not being able to do more for him? What if…’ and he let his voice trail off.
Molly gently put an arm around his shoulders.
‘No point in worrying about the What ifs, Remus. Just give it time. Give Sirius his space, if that’s what he wants or needs, or just be with him. Take your cue from him. He will probably need time to adjust. You both do, but you did what you could, you found Peter.’
‘Actually, Percy did,’ Remus remarked.
‘None of us would have known the significance of the missing toe, if you hadn’t spread the word around the entire wizarding community’, she said.
‘I think I better make a nice pot of tea. That will do you the world of good.’
As she made her way to the kitchen, she looked over her shoulder at her husband.
‘By the way, we better get Percy a rat, Arthur. I think he deserves it, don’t you think? Also, it might be easier to explain that the rat made a miraculous recovery, than that he caught an animagus in our back garden.’
True to his word, Alastor had issued the release papers, as soon as Arthur and Remus had left the Ministry and around eleven o’clock that night, a very tired and gaunt looking Sirius appeared in their midst. Whoever got him ready for transport had made sure that the inmate had been given a shower and clean clothes, before being sent to The Burrow.
Sirius took one look at Remus and threw himself into his arms, sobbing ‘You did it, Moons, you did it’ over and over again. All Remus could do was stroke his back, as tears of sorrow and relief rolled over his own face. Maybe things would work out for them, but they had a long road of healing ahead of them.
Arthur and Molly quietly slipped out of the room. There would be time for other reunions later.