"Severus, please...." Sirius looked at the door. "After you."
Snape subtly looked over at Diana, who then gestured calmly and discreetly for Harry, Hermione, and Ron to exit the shack. But Harry, much to everyone's surprise, did not obey. He walked slowly forward, pointing his wand at Sirius, and then Professor Snape. "Expelliarmus!"
Snape was instantly disarmed, and shoved into the back wall, where a large old piece of wood collapsed on top of him. "Harry! What did you just do?!" Ron cried out. "You attacked a teacher!" Hermione added. "Tell me about Peter Pettigrew," Harry ordered Lupin, wand pointed at him. "On second thought, let's just sit back and enjoy the show," Diana murmured quietly into Luke's ear.
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He nodded with a hint of a satisfactory smile. "He was at school with us, we thought that he was our friend," Lupin shouted out. "No, Pettigrew's dead! You killed him!" Harry yelled impatiently, now aiming his wand at Sirius. "No he didn't, I thought so too, until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map," Lupin explained, stepping quickly between Harry and Sirius. "The map was lying, then!" Harry angrily attempted to rationalize. "The map never lies! Pettigrew is alive! And he's right there!" he announced, pointing at who everyone had assumed to be Ron. "Me?! He's mental!" Ron screamed defensively. "Not you! Your rat!" Sirius exclaimed impatiently. "Scabbers?! Scabbers has been in my family for—" "Twelve years?! Curiously long life for a common garden rat! He's missing a toe, isn't he?!" the man pointed out. "So what?!" Harry now only stared calmly and quietly, now realizing what was happening. "All they could find of Pettigrew was his—" "—Finger!" Sirius agreed. "The dirty coward cut it off so that everyone would think he was dead! And then he transformed into a rat!" "Show me," Harry ordered coolly. "Give it to him, Ron," he told Ron as Sirius grabbed the rat from him. "What are you trying to do to him?! Scabbers! Leave him alone!"
Sirius lifted the squirming rat by the tail, placing him into an old piano. "Get off him!" Ron yelled. "What are you doing?!"
Sirius fired multiple spells from his wand, trying to hit the running rat. Eventually, he did, and a short and stumpy balding old man was revealed, much to Sirius's delight and almost everyone else's horror. He and Lupin then pulled the man out of the wall, throwing him roughly onto the ground. "Remus? Sirius! My old friends!" he tried to play dumb.
He rushed forward, either to embrace the both of them or to make a run for it, Diana could hardly tell. Both men pushed him back into the room as if he were in a schoolyard fist fight. But it was likely going to be something much worse for him. "Harry! Look at you, you look so much like your father!" he cried, reaching out for Harry's face. "James. We were the best of friends—" "How dare you speak to Harry?! Sirius boomed, chasing the man away from him. "Aaaghhh!" "How dare you talk about James in front of him?!" he continued, chasing the small man around the room.
