✓ | Constellations; Fred Weasley [Book One]

Chapter 15

Innocence

"Are you innocent of the crimes you were imprisoned for?"

Sirius Black stood still, seemingly shocked after having heard Venus' question.

"I have never killed anyone," he said after a few seconds of silence and Venus lowered her wand, "but Rose's, James' and Lily's deaths are all my fault." That was enough for Venus to raise her wand again at him.

"So you really sold your best friends to Voldemort," Venus stated instead of asking. Sirius' face clearly showed that he was horrified she would assume such a thing.

"No, I would never-" He had started explaining but she cut him off.

"Prove it!" She said, "lift your sleeves. I want to see if you have a Dark Mark."

Sirius did as she asked and Venus was relieved, but she knew that it was not necessary to have a Dark Mark to support Voldemort, especially not if he was a spy. It was only when her father lowered his sleeves again, that she noticed his hands. She winced upon seeing that they were full of calluses and blisters.

"It was Peter, innit?" She asked, her voice a mere whisper. It was as if her life depended on Sirius' answers. It might as well be, since he was her father after all. Shock was plastered all over his face.

"Yes," he finally breathed out, "but how did you find out?"

"The Marauder's Map. I saw him on the map. Unless the map is lying, which it is not, then he has been living as a rat, Scabbers in the Weasley family for the past twelve years."

"How are you so sure the map was not lying?" He asked and his daughter cocked an eyebrow at him, "It is not since I made it with James, Remus, Rose and well Peter, but how do you know it's not lying?" It was as if he was challenging her. The younger girl crossed her arms and laughed before replying.

"I was not speaking of the map you made. You should know that there is a whole new era of the Marauders at Hogwarts now. We recreated the map," she said smugly.

"You truly are our daughter."

The girl had noticed that he had said 'our' instead of 'my' and it warmed her heart. Sirius was looking at her daughter, his eyes gleaming with pride and Venus smiled softly at her father, before running into his arms. She gripped onto his tattered coat and let herself cry.

"Why didn't you come earlier, papa? I missed you," she cried in her father's arms. Sirius rested his head over his daughter's as tears cascaded down his cheeks as well.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I'll make it up to you."

A few hours later, Venus found herself sitting beside her father as he told her stories of his time at Hogwarts; about the marauders and how they became animagis to be with Remus during his transformations, how James chased Lily until she went on a date with him, how James was absolutely livid when he found out that Sirius and Rose had been dating secretly, how Sirius had gone to the Potters' when he ran away from his house. It felt as if they were making up for the twelve years they had lost. She had also found out about Peter Pettigrew and that he had been the Potters' Secret Keeper.

It was only when Sirius asked about Venus' life that she remembered her best friends. With a promise to visit him later with food, she left in a hurry. She knew that she needed absolutely to tell them the truth. The longer she kept it from them, the more she would have to lie to cover it up and although they would probably forgive her for it, she did not like lying to her best friends like that.

As the map said, the twins and Lee were in the corridors on the second floor, trying to convince a first year Hufflepuff to try a Pimple Vanisher, that they had just created and needed people to test it on to see if it worked. When she saw that they had their backs to her, Venus tiptoed upto Lee and blew on the back of his neck. The boy shrieked loudly, jumping away from her and consequently onto George.

"Bloody hell Venus!" Lee exclaimed when he realised that it was just his best friend. Everyone but the said boy fell into a fit of laughter. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Remus entering his office and was suddenly reminded of what she was doing there. The Hufflepuff boy had since long gone and the best friends were alone together.

"Everyone, I need to tell you something. It's important. Let's meet after curfew."

"Your dorm or ours?" Fred asked.

"You do realise that there is no way I could sneak you in my dorm room? The staircases will turn into slides and automatically reject any boy who tries to enter the girls' dorm. That is why we always have the meetings in your dorm room! For bloody fifth years, you lot are quite daft sometimes."

The boys smiled sheepishly at Venus before they agreed. Although the twins' and Lee's room had four beds, there were only three people staying there, which were of course, her best friends. Soon the twins and Lee had headed off to find other beta testers for the products while Venus had said that she needed to see Professor Lupin. This time, she had not lied. She really needed to see him.

"Uncle Moony?" She asked as she stepped into his office. She had decided to call him Moony instead of Remus when her father had told her that her first word was actually 'Moony' and also that her dear uncle Prongs kept pouting because her first word had not been 'Prongs'.

"Venus, come in," Remus told her. She winced upon looking at him. He looked really bad. Remus looked sick, as if he would fall unconscious at any given moment. Then she realised that the full moon was just two days away and that he was experiencing the pre-transformation symptoms.

"Do I look that bad?" He chuckled lightly at the girl who was still staring at him. He then took a vial which was filled with a potion and drank it, grimacing as he did so.

"Snape has been making you Wolfsbane potion? I thought he hated you," she exclaimed at him, "Are you sure that it is not poisoned?"

"Don't worry, it's not," he said as he sat down, "I'm assuming you're here because you want to talk about Sirius again."

"Are you insinuating that I don't visit you unless it's about my father? How scandalous! I could have visited to ask you about your health, given that your time of the month is coming up soon," she said, but Venus knew she had been caught. She had indeed come to see him because she wished to ask him something about Sirius.

The potion seemed to worked fast since Remus looked better already and was laughing at the way the girl had addressed his lycanthropy.

"Judging by your reaction earlier, you had forgotten that the full moon is two days away. Just ask me already Venus," Remus was still chuckling at her while she took a seat as well.

"Fine. You're correct," she started, "I could not help but think what if he were innocent." Remus' facial expression had changed. He did not look angry but he did look disappointed, which hurt her. She was sure of the fact that her father was innocent and was only trying to see if Remus would even allow himself to think that maybe his best friend was innocent and would try to help him.

"I know it sounds absurd, but he never had a trial so there is no proof," she told Remus as she fidgeted with her hands. His gaze softened a bit before he replied.

"Vee, there is proof. There were muggles present when Sirius killed Peter," he said, his voice a mere whisper as if that would convince her otherwise. Venus knew she could not outright accuse Peter of such a thing. Remus had lost all of his friends on Halloween in 1981, which probably took years to move on from. Accusing Peter would bring back all the pain and she did not want that. However, just as she was about to apologise to him, a head appeared in Remus' fireplace. It was Snape.

"Lupin, I want a word!" He yelled and disappeared.