O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

XV ; the mauraders

            "you're nutters, both of you," said elara soundly, looking round at harry, ron and hermione for support. "i've had enough of this. i'm off."

            ron made a movement to leave as well, but lupin raised his wand and moved it between ron and elara before letting it point at scabbers.

           "you both are going to hear me out," he said quietly. "just keep a tight hold on peter while you listen, ron."

            "HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but scabbers was fighting too hard; ron swayed and overbalanced, and harry caught him and pushed him back down to the bed. then, ignoring black, harry turned to lupin.

            "there were witnesses who saw pettigrew die," he said. "a whole street full of them..."

            "they didn't see what they thought they saw!" said black savagely, still watching scabbers struggling in ron's hands.

            "everyone thought sirius killed peter," said lupin, nodding. "i believed it myself — until i saw the map tonight. because the marauder's map never lies... peter's alive. ron's holding him, harry."

            harry and elara looked down at ron, and as they exchanged looks, they agreed, silently: black and lupin were both out of their minds. their story made no sense whatsoever. how could scabbers be peter pettigrew? azkaban must have unhinged black after all — but why was lupin playing along with him?

            then hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will professor lupin to talk sensibly.

            "but professor lupin... scabbers can't be pettigrew... it just can't be true, you know it can't..."

            "why can't it be true?" lupin said calmly, as though they were in class, and hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with grindylows.

            "because... because people would know if peter pettigrew had been an animagus. we did animagi in class with professor mcgonagall. and i looked them up when i did my homework— the ministry of magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things... and i went and looked professor mcgonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven animagi this century, and pettigrew's name wasn't on the list."

            elara had barely had time to marvel inwardly at the effort hermione put into her homework, when lupin started to laugh.

            "right again, hermione!" he said. "but the ministry never knew that here used to be three unregistered animagi running around hogwarts."

            "if you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, remus," said black, who was still watching scabbers's every desperate move. "i've waited twelve years, i'm not going to wait much longer."

           "i can't believe i'm saying this, but i agree with black." said elara, hands still placed on her hips.

            "all right... but you'll need to help me, sirius," said lupin, "i only know how it began..." lupin broke off. there had been a loud creak behind him. the bedroom door had opened of its own accord. all five of them stared at it. then lupin strode toward it and looked out into the landing.

            "no one there..."

            "this place is haunted!" said ron.

             "It's not," said lupin, still looking at the door in a puzzled way. "the shrieking shack was never haunted... the screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."