No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 38

"She was a deatheater?"

"Not officially, we planned to become animagi and fake our deaths, then it wouldn't matter if we were deatheaters or not, but she then found out she was pregnant with you, so she refused to take the mark,

"By the time you were born, I'd become an animagus, but since we couldn't disappear like we initially planned, we needed a different plan, I reached out to Sirius, and since then I became a double spy."

It was a lot to take in, she remembered the murder board she'd made thinking she was one step away from uncovering the truth, she now realized that she was barley scraping the surface.

Murder board.

"Mum, she." Arlene realized "she was making a defence plan- to defend you and Sirius, the murder board she had hidden-"

"She was responsible for the legal argument when Sirius escaped and showed up, she'd already lost the case when Sirius was first prosecuted, but that was a different time, we were just getting out of a war, and Peter would be his proof of innocence."

"What's the infiri? Who's Kreacher? Was Lupin in on this? Why were you in a pet store? And why did you fake your death after the war was over?" she continued to demand.

"The dark lord had hidden something very important of his in a cave protected by infiri, Kreacher was a house elf whom I took with me to uncover that thing.

"That thing is also why I stayed hidden, Voldemort is not dead –not completely anyway- it was his backup plan, I stayed hidden on direct orders from Dumbledore, it was made public knowledge that I'd been a spy, and since many of The Dark Lord's inner circle were acquitted, it would've been very dangerous to, not only me, but you and your mother as well.

"I was in the pet store hiding, I was supposed to meet your mother in Diagon Alley that day, it was safe to hide there –nobody wants an old unpleasant cat- but your friend turned out to have a big heart, so I thought, since she appeared to be friends with that Weasley boy and with you, I could be in a position to watch over you and keep Peter from hurting anyone. Hermione turned out to be very smart and kind by the way, good choice."

"I.. wait what? No! I don't- what?" Arlene stuttered.

"You kept dancing around each other so I'd sometimes run from her and go to you so you two could talk, did it work?" he explained.

"No! I mean- yes it worked – sort of- but no! I am not talking about this right now!" she continued to splutter, what's happening? She wanted to knock that knowing smile of his face.

"Anyway, Remus is a werewolf, which I know you already know –Bast told me about how you yelled at Snape by the way, good job- so James, Remus and Peter became animagi to help him on the full moon, that's where the names came from, Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail and Moony-"

"The marauders." Arlene concluded.

He nodded "Exactly, but no Remus didn't help, as far as I know he still thinks Sirius is guilty."

"Not anymore."

Arlene jumped out of her skin at the sudden arrival of another man.

"Professor Lupin- what..?"

"I was looking at the map. I saw Peter's name, then Sirius', then yours." he announced "Paloma was right, wasn't she?"

Regulus nodded sombrely, and Remus became even paler, he ran his hand through his hair and shook his head in disbelief.

"Merlin and Morgana, Sirius..all these years...."

He looked back up at her father "Wait a second, you left them alone? With Sirius?"