Astra

XXX - The Secret

Hermione's jaw dropped. But it got even worse.

"But Peter didn't stop there. He went into hiding in a wizarding family as an Animagus. He stayed with the Weasleys."

"Scabbers," said Hermione faintly.

"Exactly."

"H-how do you know that this is all true? I mean, if Scabbers was a real dark wizard, why would he never attack Harry? And why did your father escape then? And attack the Gryffindor tower?"

"I can't tell you how I know, not yet. But it's from a reliable source. Technically, the only proof that I can give you is to transform Peter, but it's a really advanced spell and it requires two people. I've been trying to catch him so that my father could do it and I could try, but now he faked his death. Again," she scowled. "But Pettigrew is a coward. He waits until Voldemort comes back. He's probably blamed by death eaters for Voldemort's fall so he hides out as a pet in a wizarding family. My father saw the picture of the Weasleys in Egypt in the newspaper. Before, he had no real reason to escape. He had no idea where Peter was. He also... he also blamed himself for the Potters' deaths. Because he decided to switch secret keepers. He attacked the Gryffindor tower because he was a stupid fool and thought that Peter would be hiding there. Don't you see? He attacked Ron's bed, not Harry. He didn't attack us when he was in dog form, only looked out for a rat. Scabbers was also missing a toe, he cut off his finger before transforming. Does it make sense?"

Hermione's brain was racing. All illegal animagi. Pettigrew the secret keeper. Pettigrew the Weasley's rat. Innocent Sirius. Sirius the dog. All in all, it did make sense. It was confusing, but sounded real. Crookshanks attacked Scabbers because he wasn't a real rat. And he was missing a toe. Scabbers faked his death. Sirius escaped, but never hurt anyone.

"Yes," she said breathlessly. "Yes, it makes sense."

Astra breathed a sigh of relief; she was quite worried that Hermione was going to run to a professor.

"But then, what can we do? You have both Luna and I now. We'll do everything we can," she confirmed, gaining her confidence and nodding her head. Astra couldn't help it, she smiled. She smiled widely and hugged Hermione. 

"Well, the only thing we can do is find Pettigrew. We've been searching all over the castle, but it's really hard to find him. Just, keep an eye open."

Hermione nodded. She was quite happy with the information. It all made sense. And Astra trusted her. There was only one question left.

"So, that Christmas present?"

Astra smiled sheepishly. "That and the firebolt. From my dad." Hermione chuckled, but still remembered that she had been right.

***

Throughout the day, everywhere they went they saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been fired. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on the condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

Harry and Ron stayed a bit suspicious of Astra, Hermione, and the Ravenclaw girl. As they spent quite a bit of spare time looking around in corners and drawers. They also spent even more time together. Ron realized that he was acting like a complete git and apologized, followed by Harry.