𝐀𝐈𝐌 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐘┊ᴴᵃʳʳʸ ᴾᵒᵗᵗᵉʳ

53 ✥ 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚊𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚝

"But I do-"

"Don't worry. I'll corrupt your mind later." Harry muttered just to her, nervously. He knew she was a curious being and wouldn't stop until she got answers. Crystal was not sure what he meant but left it for later.

"Anyways, I just saw Peter Pettigrew before coming here." she said, "Where is he?"

"Now, you're not going to ask for scabbers too!" Ron shouted but one glance from Crystal was enough for him to realize that it's good to keep quiet.

"Who wants your good-for-nothing, freeloader-on-planet rat? I most certainly don't and I'm looking for Peter Pettigrew if you didn't hear me clearly." Crystal scowled at him. "I'm sure that he is alive and I saw him here,"

"Oh my, who's gonna tell her? I'm gonna tell her!" Black said overexcitedly, "That rat! He's that rat!"

"Didn't ask you?" She said with slight condemnation.

"Well, I wanted to rat out the rat," He said looking at Scabbers with a sinister curl on his dry lips.

He was weird and crazy. Crystal gave him a long stare, it almost felt like she was reading his mind. Slowly, she tore her eyes away flicking her wand and summoned Scabbers. The rat flew towards her but she raised her other hand and trapped his tail under the foot of the bed. The rat started squeaking excruciatingly.

"The tail would come off!" Hermione gasped.

"Let it," Crystal said as unemotionally as always.

"CRYSTAL! JUST WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS AFTER SCABBERS? GIVE HIM BACK!" Ron bellowed.

Crystal ignored him completely and turned to Black and James.

"I had some investigation done and if my conclusion is not wrong you're all illegal Animagi and -" Sirius Black roared with laughter shaking his head, " - there's nothing to laugh about -" Black stifled the roar coming out of his mouth, " - if you mean to say that this thing here is Peter Pettigrew then I may believe it, because there was never a Scabbers on the map,"

Sirius Black clapped his hands bursting into laughter again. James looked at the rat grimly. Lupin had a mixed reaction while Harry, Hermione and Ron were looking at her as if she made a mistake.

It took a few seconds for the absurdity of this statement to sink in. Then Ron voiced what Harry was thinking.

"You're all mental. All four of you, sorry, Mr. Potter, but I didn't expect this from you."

"Ridiculous!" said Hermione faintly.

"Dad, why didn't you ever tell me anything about you being Prongs?" Harry asked mustering his courage.

"I- I'm sorry, son. You might have figured already but I was not ready to face my past again. I stopped transforming twelve years ago until I came to know that this guy escaped and I went after him." said James, smacking Bkack's shoulder. "But now, I regret not transforming and hiding it from you. After all, It took us the best part of three years to work out how to do it."

"Dad. . ." Harry couldn't say anything. Yes, he had observed that but it finally sank into him heavily when his father confessed that he was friends with a mass murderer.

"How long have you known this?" Black asked Crystal with a softer tone. Crystal's eyes narrowed, she didn't want to talk to him, a stranger but-

"Not long. I had all of your backgrounds checked, somehow I figured that Professor Lupin had symptoms of Lycanthropy so all my suspicions were concentrated on you and Pettigrew. Then, after your last break-in into the boy's dormitory- I did my investigation. You passed through the portrait hole as a man but left as an animagus. I lied that night saying that you escaped from the window because I had no proof. And you were so close to being exposed. My Butler, Zach, he figured it out but I shot him down saying it was ridiculous." Crystal revealed. Hermione audibly gasped. Harry was numb at that point. Crystal could not surprise him anymore.