THE TRUTH UNTOLD | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [3]

𝘅𝘅𝘅𝘃 | 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱

'Wolfsbane,' Gwen said, and Lupin nodded.

'Before the Wolfsbane Potion was rediscovered, however, I became a fully fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts, other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me... but then Dumbledore became Headmaster and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school...' Lupin sighed and looked between Gwen and Harry. 'I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was panted because I had come to Hogwarts. This house--' Lupin looked miserably around the room, '-- the tunnel that leads to it-- they were built for my use. Once a month I was smuggled out of the castle into this place to transform. The tree was placed at the mouth of the tunnel to stop anyone crossing me while I was dangerous.'

Gwen didn't see how this connected to Pettigrew, but she continued to listen. The only sound, apart from Lupin's voice, was Scabbers' wild squealing.

'My transformations in those days were-- were terrible. It is painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumour... even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it...'

Black was still watching Scabbers. Gwen, Harry, Ron and Hermione were fixed on Lupin and his story.

'But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends. I had three great friends. Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew... and, of course, your father, Harry-- James Potter.' A soft look crossed Lupin's face. 'My three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill and that I had to go home to see her... I was terrified that they would desert me once they knew the truth. But of course, they worked it out, and they didn't desert me at all. Instead they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi.'

'My dad, too?' said Harry.

'Yes, indeed,' said Lupin. 'It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong. Peter needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius. Finally in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will.'

'But how did that help?' Gwen asked.

'They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals,' Lupin explained. 'A werewolf is only dangerous to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James' Invisibility Cloak. The transformed... Peter as the smallest could slop beneath the Willow and touch the knot that freezes it. Then they would slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish but my mind seemed to become less so when I was with them.'

'Hurry up, Remus,' snarled Black, whose face was now twisted in a horrible sort of hunger, eyes fixed on Scabbers.

'I'm getting there, Sirius... well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now we could all transform. Soon, we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming around the school grounds and village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the school grounds and Hogsmeade than we did... and that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map. I'm Moony, Sirius is Padfoot, Peter is Wormtail and James was Prongs.'

'What sort of--' Harry began, but Hermione interrupted him.

'That's still incredibly dangerous!' she said. 'Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip and bitten somebody?'

'A thought that still haunts me,' said Lupin heavily. 'And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless-- carried away with our own cleverness. I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbeldore's trust... he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings when we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed...'

Lupin's face hardened, and there was self disgust in his voice. 'All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it, because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I had betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me... and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I've been shunned my whole adult life, unable to find work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he'd learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it... so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along.'

'Snape?' said Black harshly, taking his eyes off Scabbers for the first time in minutes and looking up at Lupin. 'What's Snape got to do with it?'

'He's here, Sirius,' said Lupin heavily. 'He's teaching here as well.' He looked up at Gwen, Harry, Ron and Hermione. 'Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I'm not to be trusted. He has his reasons, you see... Sirius here played a little trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me--'

Black made a derisive noise.

'It served him right,' he sneered. 'Sneaking around, trying to find out what were up to... hoping he could get us expelled...'

'Severus was very interested in where I went every month,' Lupin went on. 'We were in the same year, you know, and we-- er-- we didn't like each other very much. He especially didn't like James. Jealous, I think, of James' talent on the Quidditch pitch... anyway, snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madame Pomfrey one evening as she led me towards the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be-- er-- amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it-- if he'd have got as far as this house, he'd've met a fully grown werewolf-- but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden to tell anyone by Dumbledore, but from that time on he knew what I was...'

A knowing look passed between Gwen and Hermione. Harry and Ron had put it together too.

'So that's why Snape doesn't like you,' said Harry slowly, 'because he thought you were in on the joke?'

'That's right,' sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin.

Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing directly at Lupin.