Echo in the Night|| OC

Chapter Twenty: The Servant of Lord Voldemort

Ron clutched Scabbers closer to his chest.

"Come off it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean . . ." He looked up at Harry and Hermione for support. "Okay, say Pettigrew could turn into a rat — there are millions of rats — how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he was locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," said Lupin, turning to Black growing slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"

Black put one of his claw-like hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled piece of paper; which he smoothed flat and held out to show the others.

It was the photograph of Ron and his family that had appeared in the Daily Prohpet the previous summer, the same photo he showed Echo, and there, on Ron's shoulder, was Scabbers.

"How did you get this?" Lupin asked Black, thunderstruck.

"Fudge," said Black. "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me his paper. And there was Peter, on the front page . . . on this boy's shoulder. . . . I knew him at once . . . how many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts . . . to where Harry was . . ."

"My God," said Lupin softly, staring from Scabbers to the picture in the paper and back again. "His front paw . . ."

"What about it?" said Ron defiantly.

"He's got a toe missing," said Echo.

"Of course," Lupin breathed. "So simple . . . so brilliant . . . he cut it off himself?"

"Just before he transformed," said Black. "When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street either the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself — and sped down into the sewer with the other rats. . . ."

"Didn't you ever hear, Ron?" said Lupin. "The biggest hit of Peter they found in as his finger."

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right —"             

"Twelve years, in fact," said Echo. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"            

"We — we've been taking good care of him!" said Ron.            

"Common garden rats don't live that long, Ron," Echo pointed out.

"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said Lupin. "I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again..."             
"He's been scared of that mad cat!" said Ron, nodding toward Crookshanks, who was still purring on the bed.             

If Echo recalled correctly, Ron bought Scabbers' rat tonic before Hermione even wanted a cat.

"This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked crookshanks's fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me . . . finally, I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me . . . "