Black Soul- George Weasley

The One With Peter Pettigrew

 "This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks's fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me. . . . Finally, I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me. . . ." 

 "What do you mean?" breathed Hermione. 

 "He tried to bring Peter to me, but couldn't . . . so he stole the passwords into Gryffindor Tower for me. . . . As I understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table. . . ." 

 "But Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it. . . ." croaked Black. "This cat — Crookshanks, did you call him? — told me Peter had left blood on the sheets. . . . I supposed he bit himself. . . . Well, faking his own death had worked once. . . ." 

 These words jolted Harry to his senses. "And why did he fake his death?" he said furiously. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!" 

 "No," said Lupin, "Harry —" 

 "And now you've come to finish him off!" 

 "Yes, I have," said Black, with an evil look at Scabbers. 

 "Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted. 

 "Harry," said Lupin hurriedly, "don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down — but it was the other way around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father — Sirius tracked Peter down —" 

 "THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!" 

 He was pointing at Black, who shook his head slowly; the sunken eyes were suddenly overbright. 

 "Harry . . . I as good as killed them," he croaked. "I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me. . . . I'm to blame, I know it. . . . The night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents' house straight away. And when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies . . . I realized what Peter must've done . . . what I'd done. . . ." His voice broke. He turned away. 

Astraea went to back to not knowing what to believe. Nothing is making sense anymore.

 "Enough of this," said Lupin, and there was a steely note in his voice Harry had never heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat." 

 "What are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" Ron asked Lupin tensely. 

 "Force him to show himself," said Lupin. "If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him." 

 Ron hesitated. Then at long last, he held out Scabbers and Lupin took him. Scabbers began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black eyes bulging in his head. 

"Ready, Sirius?" said Lupin. 

 Black had already retrieved Snape's wand from the bed. He approached Lupin and the struggling rat, and his wet eyes suddenly seemed to be burning in his face. "

Together?" he said quietly. 

 "I think so," said Lupin, holding Scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the other. "On the count of three. One — two — THREE!" 

 A flash of blue-white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, Scabbers was frozen in midair, his small gray form twisting madly — Ron yelled — the rat fell and hit the floor. There was another blinding flash of light and then — It was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands. 

Crookshanks was spitting and snarling on the bed; the hair on his back was standing up. He was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry and Hermione. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow. 

Well shit! Astraea thought

 "Well, hello, Peter," said Lupin pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old school friends around him. "Long time, no see." 

 "S — Sirius . . . R — Remus . . ." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. Again, his eyes darted toward the door. "My friends . . . my old friends . . ." 

 Black's wand arm rose, but Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning look, then turned again to Pettigrew, his voice light and casual. 

 "We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed —" 

 "Remus," gasped Pettigrew, and Harry could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you. . . ? He tried to kill me, Remus. . . ." 

 "So we've heard," said Lupin, more coldly. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so —" 

 "He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeaked suddenly, pointing at Black, and Harry saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was missing. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too. . . . You've got to help me, Remus. . . ." 

 Black's face looked more skull-like than ever as he stared at Pettigrew with his fathomless eyes. 

 "No one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out," said Lupin. 

 "Sorted things out?" squealed Pettigrew, looking wildly about him once more, eyes taking in the boarded windows and, again, the only door. "I knew he'd come after me! I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!" 

 "You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban?" said Lupin, his brow furrowed. "When nobody has ever done it before?"