RON WAS STARING OVER Harry's shoulder. Harry wheeled around.
There was Sirius Black. He looked towards Astra, who seemed abnormally calm. Luna and Hermione were standing behind her, looking a small bit fearful, but not much.
"Dad! You absolute idiot, you broke his leg!" exclaimed Astra as she turned to Ron. He flinched trying to get away, causing her to take a step away.
Harry and Ron both looked each other in complete confusion.
"I knew it! I knew you were working with him! If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" He looked towards Hermione for backing up, but she didn't seem nearly as scared as she was supposed to.
"Lie down," he said quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more."
"Did you hear me?" Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"
"There'll be only one murder here tonight," said Black, and his grin widened.
Astra groaned. "Now's not the time to be dramatic. Let's all just be civilized and we can get him later."
Harry's head snapped around to Astra in shock. Astra saw his luck and chuckled slightly. "Not you, we're talking about Peter. None of you guys should get any more injured tonight."
"You... you.. with him..." Harry said faintly looking back and forth between Sirius and Astra and then at Hermione and Luna and Ron.
"Well, this certainly isn't the way I envisioned we'd all meet, but let's get started. Everyone, meet my dad, Sirius Black -"
"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry lunged forward, forgetting about his wand but was held back by Hermione and another arm, which seemed to be Luna. He struggled, but eventually fell back still shaking in fury.
"No, he did not. Okay? We'll get to that explanation. Can we please introduce ourselves politely? That will be the best way to get this done," she said a bit sarcastically.
"Astra," Sirius chuckled.
"Ok, so. Now, you've met my father. Dad, meet Luna Lovegood, I told you about her -"
"Hello, Mr. Black!" Luna said cheerfully, offering an arm out to shake. "I'd like to apologize for what we had said. I've learned from Astra that you in no way stole any of the ministry's aquavirius maggots. I'll have to make sure Daddy get's that cleared up in any way he can if we can clear your name." Sirius was clearly confused, looking at Astra but she just nodded, giving a look that said, 'this happens all the time'. He shook their blonde girl's hand, and said, "Please, call me Sirius. Mr. Black will always seem like my father."
Luna nodded solemnly and then took a step back.
Harry and Ron were in too much shock. One, that Astra was actually completely calm around her father, acting like he wasn't a criminal. Two, that she was trying to get them all civilized around each other. Three, that there was some sort of explanation. Four, that Luna had just shaken the hand of a mass-murderer and apologized. And five, that Sirius Black actually seemed pretty sane.
"Great, now this is -" but they heard muffled footsteps were echoing up through the floor -- someone was moving downstairs.
Ron let out a strangled yell, trying to get the attention of whoever it was, while the girls looked at each other with fearful faces.
The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and Harry wheeled around as Professor Lupin came hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. His eyes flickered over everyone and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Astra was able to cast a quick 'protego' with her reflexes, but Hermione, Luna, Ron, and Harry's wands flew out of their hands.
Lupin caught them all deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Sirius. Astra wanted to make a move, but then only smiled broadly when Lupin asked, in a very tense voice, "Where is he, Sirius?"
"Hey, you figured it out! Well, Professor Lupin, we were just doing introductions, so if you don't mind it would make things a lot easier if we just continued... Moony," she added with a smirk.
Lupin turned around and looked at Astra as if she had just grown two heads. "H-how did you -?"
Astra waved him off, "I know a lot of things, don't worry about it. Do you know any healing spells, though, Dad accidentally," she shot a quick glare at her father, "broke Ron's leg."
Lupin nodded, taking a look at Ron, and moved, but not before he embraced Sirius like a lost brother.
This bewildered both Harry and Ron even more. Why were Hermione, Luna, and Astra acting so nicely around Sirius? Why was Lupin hugging the murderer? Who were they trying to kill?
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" yelled Ron. Harry couldn't move.
"As I was saying, introductions?" Astra said in a sweet tone.
"Ok, so now, Dad, this is Hermione Granger, who I also told you about." She nodded towards Hermione, who to Harry and Ron's greatest shock, stepped forward and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sirius. I-um am sorry about how you were falsely accused and -uh- hope that you'll be cleared soon."
"Hermione," Ron gasped.
Hermione turned to Ron and said, "Ron, Astra explained everything to me a while back, and Sirius is innocent. Their story makes sense, so you should listen to what they say."
Ron and Harry both gaped at her, clearly thinking she had gone insane. However, Astra continued on. "And then, of course, you have Harry and Ron, who you obviously know. Now, maybe we can start to explain what brought us all here and why we want to capture Ron's rat."
"Wait, this is all because of my-my rat?" Ron asked, glancing between everyone in the room.
"Yes," said both Sirius and Astra at the same time.
Harry, at first, was filled with anger at Sirius, but looking at Astra, backed up by Hermione and Luna, and Professor Lupin by Sirius's side, all going for Ron's rat instead of him, he could only think there must have been something he was missing.
"So, how about we begin. Dad has been staying here in the Shrieking Shack since Halloween, where I've been visiting him on Hogsmeade weekends, you know making sure he doesn't starve and so on -"
"The dog," Ron said breathlessly, shocked that he was that close to a so-called mass-murderer.
Astra chuckled. "Yeah, that was my dad. Anyway, he broke into Gryffindor tower twice while being very careless," she glared at her father once again, "trying to get to Peter."
"Who's Peter?" asked Ron sharply. Harry was thinking the same thing, but couldn't take his eyes off Astra, still wondering what in Merlin's name was going on.
"Scabbers, also known as Peter, also known as Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail."
At this, Harry seemed to return to reality, asking, "Wormtail? As in the Marauder's Map?"
"Yes, perhaps the Marauders would like to explain it," she held out her hand to where Lupin and Sirius were standing.
"The Marauders? You're the Marauders?"
"Yes, I was Padfoot. Remus was Moony and Pettigrew was Wormtail," he said shooting a glare at the rat. "Your father, James Potter, was Prongs."
"You knew?" Harry faced Astra.
"'Course I did. I know a lot of things. Why'd you think I let you borrow the map? Why'd you think I burst out laughing when I learned that Remus Lupin, Moony, one of the creators of the map, took it from you? I was highly disappointed Moony. I thought better of you," she told Lupin, who looked very confused at getting disciplined by a child. He looked at Sirius, who waved it off and said, "She does this all the time. It's like she's our mother or something."
"Now, Moony, I'm going to be calling you that if you like it or not because I've been waiting for ages to do so. How did you know we were here? Because as much as it was great to have this reunion, I don't think it would be so good if others found us."
"The map. I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"
He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet.
"You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry--"
"How d'you know about the cloak?"
"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it..." said Lupin, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."
"What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!"
"Haven't you been listening, idiot? We're talking about Peter!"
"B-bbu-"
"I couldn't believe my eyes,' said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring their interruptions. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you? And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black...I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow --"
"One of us!" Ron said angrily.
"No, Ron," said Lupin. "Two of you."
"Your rat!" Astra exclaimed.
"I don't get what Scabbers has to do with anything!" said Ron, standing his ground.
"Because he's not a rat," Astra looked quite scary advancing upon him, but Luna and Hermione held her back.
"He's a wizard," said Lupin.
"An Animagus," said Sirius, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."
It took a few seconds for the statement to sink in. Then Ron voiced what Harry was thinking.
"You're both mental."
"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!" He pointed at Sirius, whose face twitched convulsively.
"I meant to," he growled, his yellow teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me...not this time, though!"
Sirius lunged at Scabbers; Ron yelled with pain as Black's weight fell on his broken leg.
"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging Black away from Ron again, while Astra lunged on her own, fighting against Hermione and Luna. "WAIT! You can't do it just like that -- they need to understand -- we've got to explain --"
"We can explain afterwards!" snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. One hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape
"They've -- got -- a -- right -- to -- know -- everything!" Lupin panted, still trying to restrain Black. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand, and Harry -- you owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"
Sirius stopped struggling, though his hollowed eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, and bleeding hands.
"But we need to capture him or something! Put him in a cage! I've been searching the castle up and down for him the past few weeks and we finally got him!" Astra yelled.
"I agree with Astra," said Sirius, finally calming down.
"Alright then," said Lupin. "Ron, can you give us Peter? We won't do anything to him, yet. We'll just put him on a cage, and I'll place a charm on it to make sure he doesn't escape."
Ron looked around the room, but saw everyone except him and Harry nodding in agreement, so he reluctantly gave Scabbers to Lupin, where he started squirming crazily.
"All right, then," Sirius said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."
"No!" yelled Astra at her father. "You're not murdering him. Not yet. You need him alive to get your name cleared. I'm not going to let you get sent back to Azkaban or get the kiss," she said firmly, Hermione and Luna nodding their heads in agreement.
Sirius huffed, but Lupin began explaining already.
"Now, the ministry keeps tabs on the animagi. But, they 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."
"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 seven 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."
Ron and Harry gasped, looking at Luna, Hermione, and Astra, even though they simply had sad looks on their faces.
"You don't have to-" started Astra.
"No, otherwise they won't understand the story." He pushed his graying hair out of his eyes, thought for a moment then said, "That's where all of this starts -- when I was young, I was bitten by a werewolf."
Ron gasped once again and backed up from Lupin while Harry's eyes widened. It seemed that Luna, Hermione, and Astra had already known this, seeing as they didn't give any reactions. Lupin continued.
"Well, with my becoming a werewolf, None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitter...and if I hadn't been so foolhardy..."
He looked sober and tired. Ron started to interrupt, but Hermione andLuna said, "Shh!"
"I was a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week, preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform...I'm able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again. Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, 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 directly at Harry. "I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was planted because I came 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 tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous."
Harry couldn't see where this story was going, but he was listening raptly all the same. The only sound apart from Lupin's voice was Scabbers's frightened squeaking.
"My transformations in those days were -- were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor...Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it...."
"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black...Peter Pettigrew...and, of course, your father, Harry -- James Potter."
"Now, 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 they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, Luna, and Astra, even though I suppose Sirius told her," Astra snorted and muttered something that sounded like 'I would have figured it out myself,' "worked out the truth...."
"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, astounded.
"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 -- one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. 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."
"See, they couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals," said Lupin. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed...Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then 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 while I was with them."
Both Astra and Sirius seemed restless as the story went on, but Luna and Hermione were listening intently, even though it seemed like they knew this information already.
"Highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the 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 Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did... And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."
"What sort of animal --?" Harry began, but Hermione cut him off. "That was still really dangerous! 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 Dumbledore's trust, of course...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 had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed..."
Lupin's face had 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. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd 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 have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he 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."
"Right about what?" asked Sirius, hatred clear in his voice.
"He's teaching here, and I'm pretty sure that he thinks I've been helping you. Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons...you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me --"
Sirius made a derisive noise.
"It served him right," he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to...hoping he could get us expelled...."
"Severus was very interested in where I went every month." Lupin told the students. "We were in the same year, you know, and we -- er -- didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field...anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward 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 got as far as this house, he'd have 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 by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was...."
"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.